Page 23 of Gunpowder

Wren reached down and released the clip, and handed Blair the keys. “It doesn’t sound like you have any other options.”

“Wren...” Blair stared down at the keys, the blurry shapes finally coming into focus. “We’re at war with another gang. We have no idea where their eyes and ears are, we haven’t been able to pin them down. You could become a target if you help us.”

“I’ll manage. This could be a useful learning experience in working under pressure.”

He’s not a learning experience, he’s my friend, he’s family. Blair pushed those thoughts down as another, smaller voice rose up from the back of his mind. “Can Mr. Maxters do it?”

Tristan had been a learning experience, too, and he might only be alive now because of it.

“Let’s go.”

It was a miracle they didn’t need a hospital by the time Blair put the kickstand down, having done the drive in half the time it would usually take, but they reached the bar unscathed. He stood up and grimaced at the ache that had blossomed into sharp pain in his thigh. He ignored it; from what Spencer said, Adam had a lot more wrong than some leg pain. Blair could deal.

He wasn’t surprised to find the bar locked. He flipped to the right key on his ring and let himself in, holding the heavy wooden door for Wren to follow. Immediately, he found why the blinds were drawn and both the lock and deadbolt on the door were engaged.

Adam was laid out on two tables pushed together, heaving shallow, wet sounding breaths. Blair approached him shakily. The dim lighting did nothing to hide the sallow hue of his dark skin, the beads of sweat clinging to it.

Nolan was pacing at the window on the phone, probably talking to one of his suppliers, bits of the conversation reaching Blair’s ears over the hum of concerned voices around them. “I don’t have the equipment for an x-ray. I don’t know if he would make it long enough to get to you. I’ve sewn up my fair share of stab wounds and bullet holes but I don’t know about this and it’s fucking Adam.” Blair heard the choked sound of him trying to hold his emotions back. “I can’t cut on him, man. I can’t do it.”

Felix stood at the end of the table where Adam was spread out, arms folded and muscles taut. Blair could guess the conversation that had already taken place—Felix had probably told Nolan he was Adam’s best shot, and he could either man up and try to help him, or leave him to die on that table. That was the kind of boss Felix was. Strong, fearless, a little unhinged, and probably being a complete asshole about the situation. Blair had almost forgotten his company until the boss’ eyes flashed and a tic appeared in his jaw.

“Who the fuck did you bring here?”

Blair opened his mouth to answer, but Wren passed him and was standing in front of Felix with three long strides. It put his back to Blair, which Blair didn’t like. He needed to be able to get between them if things turned ugly.

“I’m training to be a doctor. I was with Blair when one of your lackeys called-”

Felix rose from his slouch to his full height. “You’ll show my second man some respect.”

“—when one of your upper lackeys called and thought I would come along.”

Blair could see Felix’s fuse burning down at rapid speed and cut in before either of them could say anything else. “Wren is going to be a trauma surgeon, he trained under Doc—you know, Dr. Garrett, the one you met outside the hospital. He can help.”

“You bring some kid in here who’s not even a doctor yet and think he’s going to cut on one of mine?”

Again, Wren spoke before Blair could offer what would have surely been a less antagonistic response. “I came for the experience.” He looked over at Adam, whose shirt had been cut open and pushed away from his chest. “Those bruises on his chest and the fact it’s rising unevenly tell me he’s suffering from hemothorax. Internal bleeding as the result of blunt force trauma since I don’t see any open wounds. Hit by a car, I would bet.” Blair could tell by the narrowing of Felix’s eyes that Wren was right. “But whether he lives or dies doesn’t matter to me. So, by all means, you all hold hands around this table and hope the excess fluid stops accumulating in his pleural cavity. Let me know how that goes for you.”

Felix entered the last bit of Wren’s space, his larger frame letting him tower over the student even without a great height difference between them, his eyes bright and livid. Blair still couldn’t see Wren’s face, but he had a feeling he knew what it looked like; calm, disinterested. Bordering on defiant. Like he wasn’t less than a foot from the most dangerous man in Flushing.

Julian’s hand closed on Felix’s shoulder. “Felix, I know the kid is arrogant, but we have to think about Adam. You can punch him later.”

I would rather you don’t punch him at all, Blair thought, but he wouldn’t dare voice it or Felix might punch them all just to make sure it was out of his system.

“You do anything to fuck with him, and I’ll bust your hands up so bad you never write again, to hell with being a surgeon. You got that?”

“Oh, don’t scare me like that, I might be trembling too much to work,” Wren said flatly, and turned away from him. He looked at Blair. “I need whatever surgical tools you have, and preferably a catheter tube. Also, please keep Clifford the Big Red Gangster there out of my way.”

Blair cringed when he heard the scuffling of feet as Julian held Felix back from pummeling Wren right then and there. “Yeah, I’ll try to find what you need, but you can’t talk about the boss like that.”

Wren carried on like he hadn’t said anything. He glanced at Nolan, who had ended his conversation and approached the table carefully, like just looking at his lover’s condition would make it worse. “You’re his partner?”

“Partners in crime both literally and figuratively,” Nolan said with a rueful smile.

Wren pressed his fingers to the side of Adam’s neck while he looked at his watch. “Tell me what happened.”

“There’s a member of a rival gang, Jinx. We found out where their apartment was. Jinx is out of the country, but we’ve been keeping an eye on the place to see if we could catch any other members coming and going. Maybe follow them back to whatever they use as a base.” His eyes fell to Adam’s bruised form. “I had to make a delivery last minute, and he went alone. He called me when it happened and talked to me for as long as he could while I was on my way to him. A team from Phantom caught on to us. Whether they were waiting for a single target or it was coincidence that they showed up while he was alone, I don’t know, but one went upstairs and as soon as Adam went into the alley to follow them, a car came around the corner and hit him.”

Blair brought over the first aid kit from behind the bar, and Wren took out a pair of gloves as he said, “Good. Having to round a corner slowed them down, lessened the impact. They probably weren’t counting on that. I’m sure this was intended to be fatal, and it still might be.”

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