Awake | Book 1 of the AWAKE Series | (BWWM)

Chapter Three

Dylan

            “Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!” I mumble pacing back and forth in front of my door.
What the fuck? A half-naked and profusely bleeding man is lying probably dead on my doorstep. He knocked and I ignored it talking on the phone about fucking Pretty Little Liars! I’ll never watch the shit again…okay I’m telling a lie but God this sucks!
I take a deep breath like I do when I have to work in the ER and put myself in that state of mind to get through this without freaking out further.
Okay step one, check his vitals. I kneel down and check for a pulse in his neck. The instant my fingers touch his skin something in me awakens and I feel like I have to save this man.
His pulse is slow and his skin is scalding, probably his body trying to fight off infection. I roll him over on his back to try and check if he is still conscious and I can’t see any signs that he is. I’m about to go get a pillow for his head when I hear him whisper.
“Inside.”
My breathing stops at the sound of his pained voice and the grimace on his face makes my heart weep. I bite my lip trying to figure out how in God’s name I’m going to get his big ass into the house. Don’t get me wrong he’s no slouch, his body is perfect but that’s the problem, the man is pure muscle, it was hard enough just to get him over on his back.
I look down and shake my head, “No, you’ve lost too much blood. I’m going to go inside and call you an ambulance but I’ll be right back.”
As I turn I feel his hand grip my ankle weakly but enough to turn me around.
“No…please…inside.”
My nurse brain is screaming at me to ignore him and call 911 but the part of me that sees the alarm and pleading in his pale green eyes wins out.
He groans slightly, a low throaty sound when I grab him under his arms and start to slowly move him inside. I sit him up with his back against my bed and quickly hop off the other side and run to close the door. The last thing I need is for nosey ass Miss Partridge across the street to see anything “suspicious.”

            I run to the kitchen and grab my heavy duty first aid kit from under the sink and a bottle of Everclear. Once I patch him up and stop the bleeding, I can call him a proper ambulance.
On the way back to the bed I grab towels and sheets and the shower curtain from my bathroom to lay him on for the impromptu surgery. I quickly spread out the shower curtain and then a sheet on top before struggling to pull him onto the makeshift surgery table.
Opening the bottle of Everclear I sit behind his head with my knees together. After sitting his head in a tilted position I take a long hot gulp of the liquor, it burns so badly going down and it tastes like crap but it does the trick and awakens my senses.
“You need to drink this,” I tell him softly, putting the bottle to his lips.
He blinks rapidly, sweat dripping down his face, and tilts his head forward. I start to serve the liquor to him and he tries to spit it up but I don’t let him.
“Swallow it, it’ll help with the pain.”
He does as he’s told, making a face that makes me think that the drink is worse than his bullet wounds.

            I lay him back down flat and open the first aid kit. I never thought I would have to use this damned thing.
Popping on a pair of gloves I start right away disinfecting the gunshot wound on his chest first. He sucks in air through his teeth and I flinch back.
“Sorry! Shit! I should’ve warned you. Everything I’m about to do next is going to hurt, very badly,” I inform him, looking straight into his perfect pale green eyes.
I feel like a total bitch for causing him pain but it’s a necessary evil. I reach over and grab one of my pillows and hand it to him.
“Bite this if the pain is too much.”
He nods slightly and bites the pillow immediately.
The thought of how much pain he’s in makes me cringe.
I try to be as quick as possible when disinfecting the wounds and getting the bullets out. One is in his chest a few mere centimeters away from his heart and one is wedged in his left clavicle bone. Either the shooter was a far distance away with a small caliber gun or this guy just has the toughest skin in town. The bullets are deep but definitely not deep enough to kill him, although had the one in his chest been just a little further down this would be a very different situation.