CHAPTER 5: ALEX HAS BEEN SHOT

***Amelia***

The whole room seemed to divert their gaze in my direction as my knife clattered on the floor, but for a minute, it lasted just for a minute. As Simone walked up to Vinny, I picked up the knife and poor onion from the floor.

"Evelyn, Amelia, come along" Vinny barked the orders out of his throat.

I placed the duo that had fallen back on the counter, and exchanged a questioning look as to why we were being called with Evelyn, she shrugged.

"Have you ever been up there?" I asked Evelyn as we started walking right behind Simone who was now holding one of the first aid boxes from earlier.

"No" she replied curtly.

We walked to the elevator where Vinny stood impatiently waiting for us, as we stepped inside, he immediately pushed the button to the top floor, I had never been there, only heard rumors of the place and stood in the elevator waiting for it to stop, I pondered on what awaits us up there.

The elevator stopped, and the door slowly opened revealing a grand hallway I never would have imagined existed in this part of the house, I felt taken by the grandeur and majestic decorations of the top floor, and this was only the hallway, I reminded myself, I glanced at Evelyn's direction but she didn't seem to be so surprised, in my mind, I had to fight off the thought of her lying about ever being here.

We walked following closely behind Vinny, then stopped in front of a large door, Vinny turned the door nob, and opened the door, revealing quite a number of men, surrounding a bed that stood in the middle of the room, as we made our way into the room, the men stood up and I saw what was on the bed, or rather who, IT WAS ALEX. Alex lay there unconscious.

Simone rushed to his side and started taking off his clothes.

"I need some water" she declared, Evelyn swiftly went into motion to go fetch the water as though they were experienced military nurses at war trying to salvage a crisis. I stood there not sure of what to do, then slowly walked to Simone where she was by the bedside taking a look at Alex.

"Do you know what to do?" I asked, confused as to why a kitchen chef was called to tend to a gunshot wound.

"I do" she replied, not taking her eyes off Alex. "I was a nurse before coming here" she added, stood up, and went to the other side of the bed to check on the wound, "and now, I treat wounds that can't be explained in a hospital" she concluded.

At that moment, Evelyn came rushing in with a bowl of water and some towels.

"Thanks, Eve," Simone said, "pass me the box beside you, will you child?" She added, looking at me with her hands stretched out.

I passed her the box and she swung it open, bringing out a metallic sharp object, "Eve, over here," she called for Eve to come join her on the other side of the bed as the gunshot wound was located at the left down part of his stomach, Eve wasted no. time joining Simone.

"We need to take out the bullet," Simone said as she put on a pair of gloves, "you might need to hold onto him Amelia" It's an order, not a request, and I did just that, I held unto his hands, and as I grabbed his fingers, I could feel he's conscious cause he squeezed my hand.

As Simone tried removing the bullet, Alex kept groaning in pain, and immediately she removed it, he stopped, and laid still, and then Evelyn started cleaning his body of the excess blood from the mini surgical operation that had just occurred, after the cleaning, Simone stitched him up, bandage his wounds, injected some pain killers and sleeping pills to sedate him and he's gone, Alex laid there still and all I could do was pity him.

"He will be fine now, and hopefully the wound heals quickly, but he needs total rest, alone but someone has to stay to keep checking on him" Simone stated, talking to Vinny who'd been silent all through since we entered the room, he looked yet weary and tired himself, the other men in the room begin to file out and in less than a minute, I, Evelyn, Simone and Vinny were left with Alex's unconscious body.

"I'll do it" Vinny declared.

"No, I need to take a look at that head of yours," Simone said to him, looking at him now, he had a head injury with dried blood on his blonde hair, I had thought it was from carrying a wounded friend but looking closely, it was from a wound, he'd probably hit his head hard on something.

"I can't leave Alex to be on his own Simone" Vinny declared in a gruff tone, his loyalty to Alex was out of this world, as though they'd sworn an oath or something.

"You don't have to, Amelia could stay with him till he wakes up," Evelyn said, winking at me, whatever that meant.

I was not so pleased with staying alone in the room with Alex, but I was not so displeased either, so, I didn't argue the case, Vinny looked at me, wanted to say something to disagree with the arrangement, but stopped.

"Take care of him, Amelia," he said as he started walking out the door and Evelyn and Simone followed behind. They exited the room, and as they did, my eyes followed them to the door from the door, I began to take a look at the room, lot of things I hadn't noticed when we entered cause of the emergency the situation required, I could now see a grand pianoforte covered with white coverings at the top sitting silently in the far hedge of the room, paintings still ok the walls, different paintings I had never seen before but was sure were expensive.

I walked around the round room taking in every little detail, when I was done, I sat back beside the bed, studying the features of the man that lay there, I had never seen him up close this long, I had never even seen him up close more than once frankly speaking, the more instated at him, the more handsome he appeared, from his full lips to his eyelids and brows, down to his lips, then to his chin, down to his neck and well-built muscles, his chest was hairy, but the good kind of hairy. I stared at him taking in his features for a long time and before I knew it, in my boredom, I slept off sitting on a chair with my head placed on the bed right beside him.