Javier (Alpha Heroes #12)

Chapter Thirty-eight

Missy

The van screeched to a stop at the entrance of the emergency room, where a group of armed guards flanked the doors. Several doctors and nurses poured out, ready to receive Javier. Dash and Micah carried him out of the van and sat him up on the stretcher. His head lolled listlessly as they rushed him down a long hallway and into a private exam room at the far end of the ER. I chased after him.

“Sorry, miss,” a nurse said in English, trying to close a door on me. “You can’t come in.”

“The hell I can’t.” I pushed the door and made my way inside.

Behind me, Thena tried to make amends with the nurse and Dash and Micah trailed on my heels as if they were my bodyguards. The room was slightly larger than the standard ER setup, but not by much. It was equipped with everything that was necessary for an acute intervention. A floor-to-ceiling glass panel in the corner allowed the sunlight in. Javier’s bed stood in the middle, surrounded by state-of-the-art medical equipment.

Several doctors and nurses were already working on him. They hooked him up to the monitor, stripped off his vest, shirt, and boots, and then covered the lower half of his body with a light blanket. After a couple of attempts, a skilled nurse located a vein and inserted a canula in his forearm. The amount of blood that streamed from the puncture terrified me.

A stout, gray-haired doctor led a thorough assessment. He unwrapped Javier’s bandage and examined the wound while barking instructions to his team. Javier’s vital signs weren’t stellar. His pulse was fast and his blood pressure was low, but he was breathing on his own.

The team took a blood sample and set it up for a twenty-minute whole blood clotting test. I didn’t need a test to know that his blood wasn’t clotting right. The bite site continued to bleed and so did the vein puncture from where the lab technician drew his samples.

“He’s tough.” Thena hugged me against her side. “He’s going to get through this.”

“We’re going to assume full envenomation,” the doctor announced in Spanish.

So much for Javier’s “it’s just a scratch” theory.

“Prepare the antivenom solution to maximum dose,” the doctor instructed. “Get the epinephrine ready as well.”

Dash leaned over my shoulder, “Epinephrine?”

“In case Javier has an allergic reaction to the antivenom.” I clasped my hands and prayed.

“Who the hell are you people?” the doctor asked in English, looking over his glasses and narrowing his eyes on me. “Why are you in my room, Miss…?”

“Missy Astor,” I took a step forward. “I’m a nurse.”

“I’m Doctor Alvarez,” the man said as he inspected some new results on his tablet. “Snake bites are my specialty. I know what I’m doing.”

“My apologies,” I said. “I’m not questioning your treatment. I just… I need to be here.”

“Fine,” the doctor allowed. “You and your friends can stay, but don’t get in the way of my team. I’m making an exception because I don’t think you’ll go quietly.”

He was an excellent judge of character. I was not leaving Javier’s side.

As soon as the solution was ready, the nurse hooked the bag to the pole and connected it to the IV in place.

“Slow and easy,” the doctor instructed. “Start the IV.”

I held my breath and watched as the first drops of the transparent liquid slid down the tube. When his vitals didn’t tank, I let out an exhale, but still, it was touch and go.

The antivenom Javier was receiving was the best choice to fight the viper’s venom and its severe local necrotizing effects . If we got lucky, it would help neutralize the threat of thrombosis and other complications.

The next twenty minutes grated on my nerves. If he was going to suffer anaphylactic shock, it was going to happen now. Thena held my hand while I chewed on my lips until they were raw. When Javier didn’t show any signs of an allergic reaction, the doctor increased the rate of the infusion. Slowly, painfully, I began to breathe again.

“What about Negative Pressure Wound Therapy for his hand?” I asked.

“Oh, so you know about that, too.” The doctor showed me the order on his tablet. “NPWT is on its way.”

“What’s that?” Dash asked.

“It’s a special porous foam dressing,” I explained as the doctor ordered a full dose of prophylaxis antibiotics and a tetanus shot for Javier. “It delivers electronically powered suction when hooked up to a special device to achieve sub-atmospheric pressure on the wound.”

“We’ve had success avoiding amputations and controlling the expansion of necrotic tissue with it,” the doctor added before he switched to Spanish. “Nurse, please check that the NPWT cart is on its way.”

“Come, Missy.” Thena put her arm around my shoulder and led me toward the door. “He’s in good hands. You need to drink and eat something.”

“I’m not leaving.” I shook out of her hold.

“Okay, then.” Thena gestured toward a chair. “How about you sit and take off your helmet and vest?”

I looked down at myself. I was still wearing the stuff. No wonder I looked weird to the doctor. I unclipped the helmet and Thena helped me take off the tactical vest. I immediately felt lighter. The cooler air coming out of the AC vents blew over my sweaty head. An involuntary shiver pebbled my skin.

“You need to drink something,” Thena said. “I’m going to go find you some water.”

My knees failed, so I took the chair in the corner. “I’ll be here.”

Thena went out the door but came right back. “Dash, Micah. Allen’s here and so are the police.”

“Hey, kiddo.” Dash squeezed my shoulder. “We’ll be on the other side of that door if you need us.”

“Thanks.” I slumped in my chair and prayed that Javier was going to get out of this one whole and hale.

A nurse came in and notified Dr. Alvarez that another snake bite had come into the ER.

“Busy day at work,” the doctor grumbled.

Since Javier was stable, he ordered the staff to the next room. He ripped off his gloves and threw them in the trashcan, assuring me with a grandfatherly smile that Javier was improving steadily and that the central monitoring station would alert him to any changes. He left behind a younger doctor to monitor Javier’s progress and cautioned him to apply the NPWT device as soon as it arrived.

The moment he left, I scurried up to the bed.

Several specialists stopped by to consult on a range of issues. The lab tech returned and collected new samples. This time, the blood didn’t stream from the puncture as much as before. Thena came back with a bottle of water and stayed with me while doctors came and went.

“You need more than water,” she said, after a while. “You look pale. I worry you’re going to faint.”

“I don’t faint anymore,” I said, holding on to Javier’s good hand.

She arched her eyebrows. “Really?”

“Really.” I’d felt the syncope coming on several times today, but I’d beat it every time.

“I’ll get you something to eat anyway,” Thena insisted. “What’s the Spanish word for ‘cafeteria?’”

“ Cafetería .”

“I should’ve guessed that one.” She rallied me with a funny face and left the room.

The NPWT device hadn’t arrived yet. I reminded the monitoring doctor that Dr. Alvarez had wanted it here stat. Muttering something about the old doctor being a tyrant, the other doctor directed me to press the red button if anything changed and went out to hunt for the machine. With the doctor gone, it was only Javier and me in the room.

“Come on,” I whispered and held his good hand. “Wake up. Talk to me.”

The full weight of everything we’d been through in the last twenty-four hours punched me in the chest. It was a miracle Javier was still breathing. He looked so pale, so inanimate, so unlike himself. The bruise on his face stood out darker against his ashen skin. I wiped the tears from my eyes and sniffled. Without the range of his expressions, he looked close to dead.

He blinked and opened his eyes. “Hey, Angel.” His voice made my heart leap. “Why so sad?”

“I’m not sad,” I lied, gently squeezing his fingers. “Especially not now that you’re awake. You’re at the hospital. We made it. The antivenom is working. You’re going to be all right.”

“Yeah.” He looked a little sleepy from the pain cocktail they’d given him, and yet he flashed his cocky grin. “Don’t you worry, Angel. This cat’s got nine lives.”

“I don’t even want to know how many of your nine lives you’ve got left, but I can’t imagine they’re many.” I managed a wry smile. “Are you in pain?”

“Some throbbing.” He looked at his bandaged hand. “My arm feels like it weighs a ton.”

“You need to give yourself time to heal.”

“If you’re with me, I’m healed.”

I planted a kiss on his forehead. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“Lucky me.” He managed a smile. “How about another kiss, please? Surely, we can do better than that.”

“No way,” I said. “We don’t need your blood rushing anywhere right now. Slow and easy wins the day.”

He was about to argue the point, but the NPWT device showed up then. A tall technician, dressed in scrubs and wearing a surgical cap and a mask entered the room, pushing the cart. He closed the door, rolled the cart to the bed, and parked it beside me.

Focused as I was on Javier, I didn’t pay him much heed, but Javier narrowed his eyes on the newcomer. The groove between his eyebrows grew deeper. Defying his weakness and the meds, he started to get up.

“Ah, ah, ah.” The familiar voice iced my veins and froze Javier in place.

I turned to find a gun pointed straight at my face.

The man lowered his surgical mask and flashed his disfigured nose and fanged smile.

My heart galloped and my knees turned to goo.

“Hello, Missy.” The coral snakes tattooed on the man’s face wiggled when he grimaced his terrible smile. “You made me wait a while, but at last, I have you.”