A brother’s love

Helping Mr. Gang Leader

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Chapter 2: a brother's love

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“Do you need an ambulance?” Giovanni demanded, and it certainly sounded like her brother.

“Hurt?” Gianna managed to get out, but thankfully she was starting to feel a little better. Her chest wasn’t so tight and she didn’t feel as if she were seconds away from a heart attack. “You …hurt?” She could only see the blood on her baby brother’s face.

“No,” Giovanni was quick to tell her, tugging her into a much more confident hug. “Gia, I’m so sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t think this would happen. I didn’t think about your heart at all.”

“Is she a doctor or not?” the man with a gun demanded.

As Gianna steadied further, she saw Giovanni give a confident nod and say, “My sister is the best doctor I know. Get Cypher to one of the examination rooms and I’ll have Gia there in thirty seconds.”

“He better be good,” The man with the gun said, but then he was darting away to follow orders.

Gianna grabbed hard to Giovanni’s sleeve and demanded, “What’s going on?”

“Is the code to the alarm still mom’s birthday?”

Before Gianna could respond, Giovanni was on his feet and headed from the room. He shouted over his shoulder, “You just keep breathing. I’ll be back in a second and I’ll explain everything!”

The moment Giovanni was gone, Gianna bowed over more fully, hands braced on the ground as she sucked in the last of her uneven breaths.

She didn’t know what was going on. She didn’t know why there were unfamiliar men, some wounded, who’d broken into her clinic at one in the morning to threaten her with a gun. And she didn’t know why her brother seemed to know not only what was going on, but know the men as well.

But Gianna was going to find out. Because nothing happened to her clinic as long as she was around, and that included people dying on her watch.

She was a little panicked, and a lot confused, but she could feel her nerves evening out, and her main priority was now the bleeding man who was being moved to one of the examination rooms.

A man who was likely a thug of some kind.

As Gianna lifted herself squarely to her feet, she wondered if that meant somehow Giovanni was a thug. He was associated with these men, and only criminals had guns outside of the military.

But that was a connection that Gianna didn’t want to believe, especially since her brother was so young and had so much potential. Gianna couldn’t bear to see him burdened by a life of crime, and to see him become a degenerate was a heart wrenching thought.

But she had to focus. Even if the man who’d been shot was a criminal or a thug, or whatever, he was still an injured party.

And to a doctor, the only thing that mattered was the injury, and not the person it belonged to.

Gianna didn’t go after her brother. Instead she careened down the hallway towards the sounds of men arguing, and shouldered her way into an examination room that her new patient was currently bleeding all over.

“I can’t treat him here,” Gianna said firmly, eyeing the man Giovanni had given orders to.

The gun was out of view now, but probably not far from reach.

“What?” the gruff man demanded, sharing a quick look with the man with the impressive bruise on his face. “I thought you were a doctor--”

“Your friend,” Gianna cut in sharply, “he’s been shot, correct?” She didn’t wait for a response to say, “I take it none of you have any medical training? Can you tell me if the bullet is still lodged in him? If the wound is being complicated by any excess bleeding, damaged organs, or--”

The man who’d been shot groaned terribly.

Quickly, Gianna pushed up the sleeves on her pajamas and said, “I need you to bring him with me to the operating room at the back. It’s sterile and will have all the equipment I need to save his life. Unless you’d like him to bleed out here in a room that mainly has cotton swabs and tongue depressors?”

“Where?” the man with the bruised jaw asked, already reaching for the gunshot victim. “Where is that room?”

“Follow me,” Gianna snapped out, and then she was running ahead to get the single operating room ready to go.

She could handle a gunshot wound, especially if the victim had made it this far.

“You,” Gianna said, rallying her courage, looking to the man who’d pulled a gun on her. “Street thug, don’t bump your friend into anything. Think of him like a delicate vase that’s already cracked. Too much jostling could do more damage than the bullet.”

The man glared at her. “Rio. I have a name.”

Frankly, Gianna didn’t care what the man’s name was. Just that he did as he was told.

“Move,” Gianna urged.

“What do you need us to do?” Rio asked as he and the others came through the door behind Gianna , flipping on lights and helping their friend onto the operating table.

The alarm finally cut out and Gianna breathed some relief.

“Get his clothes off,” She commanded, washing her hands carefully and thoroughly at the nearby sink. “All of them except for his underwear. I need to be able to see the wound clearly, but don’t touch it.”

“He’s bleeding,” The unnamed man stated, laying the nearly unconscious one down on the table. “I don’t want to take my hand off the wound. You have to keep pressure on it, right?”

“It’s an abdomen wound,” Gianna told him. “He hasn’t bled to death yet, despite you moving him all around, so that is a very good thing. You can let off the pressure now and take a step back.”

“Gia!”

Gianna was getting her first look at the wound when Giovanni came skidding into the room, sweaty and breathing hard.

“Not now,” She said, placing a tentative amount of pressure on the wound. The hole looked clean, the placement was as good as it got, and a few seconds more Gianna was able to determine the bullet had gone completely through.

The fact that it wasn’t still lodged inside was likely the reason the man was still alive. “I’m busy.”

The wounded man groaned again, eyes opening wider than before, but with a delirious haze.

“Sir,” Gianna said, feeling blood gush out warmly over her gloved fingers, “My name is Doctor Gianna. You’re at my clinic and you’ve been shot. I am going to help you. I will take care of you. But I need you to listen carefully to me, and do as I say.”

A furry of movement caught Gianna’s attention, and when she next looked up at her brother she could see another, suspiciously dangerous looking man standing next to him, leaning up to whisper in his ear something.

“Do any of you have basic medic training?” Gianna asked, looking from face to face.

There were only headshakes in response, and Gianna knew there was no way she could wait to call in any kind of assistance. Let alone, how could she explain it?

“Giovanni,” Gianna said sharply, wiping the bullet entrance clean to get one more look at it before she assessed any possible internal injuries, “take your new friends and leave. I need to concentrate.”

“Gia--”

“You,” Gianna said, narrowing his eyes at Rio. “You get out too. You especially get out.”

“Doctor,” the man on the table moaned out, one of his bloodied hands reaching up for Gianna’s pajama sleeve.

“You’re going to be okay,” Gianna told him again, giving him a soft smile. “I promise you. I’m a very good doctor, this isn’t the first bullet wound I’ve treated, and you’re going to be okay. I’ll take care of you.”

The man’s hand felt back limp as Rio demanded, “Why should I leave?”

Ignoring him completely, Gianna turned to the man with the bruised jaw and asked. “What’s your name?”

The man hesitated, something that was awkward and unsettling to Gianna, before he said, “Zeke.”

Gianna balked, “Your name is Zeke?”

“Stop making chitchat and save his life,” Rio cut in.

“Zeke,” Gianna said, nodding across the room. “You’re now my nurse. See that surgical tray over there with the blue tarp? Bring it over, but be careful not to touch anything but the side handles. It has sterilized surgical tools for an operation that’s supposed to take place in about nine hours. I need to inspect the wound and clean it up before I can pack it and seal it. I need those tools.”

Zeke, who looked young like Giovanni, and out of place with the others, moved quickly to get the items requested.

Rio shouted, “I’m talking to you!”

“Don’t snap at my sister like that!” Giovanni’s own voice rose.