Page 44 of Titan

They don’t protect against bullets to the rest of the body.

Ethan’s thigh pumps blood, and soon it’s spreading out on the floor behind him.

“We need a doctor!” Uncle Ryan calls out.

To my surprise, Natalia runs over and pushes me out of the way.

“I’m a doctor,” she says and holds out her hospital ID. “Let me help.”

She places her hands over the wound in Ethan’s thigh, but it’s no use. The blood seeps out between her fingers.

“Call 9-1-1. He needs an ambulance! Get something to make a tourniquet.”

Ryan turns to me, his voice muffled behind his mask. “We gotta hurry. We’ll take him with us.”

“He needs to go to an ER,” Natalia says angrily. “Now.”

“We have to leave,” Ethan says. “Let’s get this over with. I’m fine.”

While I tie a rope from one of the burlap sacks around Ethan’s upper thigh, Uncle Ryan goes into the safety deposit boxes and forces the bank manager to open the safety deposit box, just like I suggested. The manager does and inside, is a special box containing a couple of million dollars of the rarest of diamonds. He leaves the vault while the men are busy filling duffle bags with wads of cash. Two of the thugs carry Ethan out the entrance, to the waiting vehicle. I turned back and glance atNatalia, who is standing watching us, her hands covered in my brother’s blood.

When the bags are loaded, I climb into the back seat of the SUV. I glance back to see that Natalia is still standing by the pillar.

I wish I had met herafter.

After all of this, but there’s no use in wishing.

I turn to leave, a feeling of immense regret filling me as I enter the SUV and check my watch.

We drive off, my brother’s life hanging in the balance.

Things are now totally fucked up.

Yes, we have the diamonds and cash. But Ethan is bleeding out, and we can’t take him to an ER — not after we just robbed a bank.

I call my father’s bodyguard Clarence and tell him to get my father’s doctor to the house. If we can keep Ethan alive long enough, the doctor may be able to save him.

“Tell the doctor that he’s lost a lot of blood and we need something to replace it, or he’ll die.”

I know that much about wounds, after having spent six years in Afghanistan. I’ve seen similar wounds, and you need a medic right away to staunch the bleeding and you need Ringer’s lactate solution to replace the lost blood volume.

Otherwise, the patient will die. If the bullet enters too close to an artery, the wounded man can die in minutes.

We drive through the streets towards my father’s residence, and I hope and pray that the doctor will be there when we arrive, and that Ethan will live long enough for him to be saved.

The paleness of Ethan’s face and the amount of blood on the floor of the van where he lies makes me doubt that he will.

CHAPTER 14

Natalia

The Present…

A few dayspass since my afternoon with Harrison and I drop by the bank before my evening shift to drop off the bank deposit for my grandfather. I work for him on a part-time basis, helping out with the daily cash – a skill I developed while putting myself through college.

I have Gramp’s bank deposit bag in my backpack and have been filling out the deposit slip while I wait in line.

“Everybody down!” I hear a deep voice shout. Then, a spray of what is clearly automatic gunfire follows.

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