Chapter 9

Chapter 9: A Shot Too Close

Anaya’s P.O.V:

I took my appointment letter and my file with me and placed it on my desk. Since this was Lancelot Eustis, I was pretty sure that he would be back before sundown and barking orders till midnight. I was already looking for an apartment around town where I could stay so I didn’t have to spend hours on travel every day. So far I’ve had no luck and the offers I’ve got so far are far too expensive. I’m hoping there will be some place I can stay that won’t suck me dry.

“Let’s go, Ms. Johnson. We’re getting late.” Lancelot said from in front of the elevator.

I picked up my bag and dashed after him, reaching just in time for the elevator door to ding open. We entered together and as soon as the doors shut, I felt engulfed in Lancelot’s aura. I’d generally avoided staying near Lancelot for too long since it feels suffocating after a while. He’s one of those people who emit power from every pore of their being and know perfectly well the effect they have on others. Lancelot uses it all the time to intimidate others, especially the staff. Fortunately for them, ever since I’ve arrived, no one has to have direct contact with Lancelot anymore. Benny, the cute guy in glasses from Legal, he said he used to have a mini heart attack every time he was called up to collect a file.

The elevator dinged open at the 6th floor and two men, I recognized them as Lyric and Daniel from the management department went to step into the elevator…looked up at Lancelot…retraced their steps. The elevator door shut. I let out a breath I’d been holding since we stepped in. It felt difficult to breathe with him so close to me; his presence was like a physical caress. I sneaked a peek up at his face and found him deep in thought, his face set in hard angles. I have a feeling he isn’t too happy that Antony asked me to join a family lunch.

Finally, the elevator doors opened and we arrived at the ground floor. I finally took my first deep breath of air after staying inside the elevator for five minutes. The receptionist at the front desk, Mina, informed Lancelot that Martin was at the front door with his car, while I took the opportunity to cancel the two appointments we had this afternoon. Lancelot turned to motion for me to follow him as I hung up the phone.

It was as soon as we stepped out the front door that all Hell broke loose. In front of me, Lancelot froze suddenly, causing me to almost bump into me and then two shots were fired next to us, causing the glass doors behind us to shatter and screams fill the air as everyone tried to run for cover.

“Get inside, now!” Lancelot roared out, shielding me with his body. I realized too late that I’d frozen on the spot, unable to move or scream; my body was shivering badly.

“Anaya!” Lancelot yelled again, closer to me and shoved me inside the door just as a third shot rang out.

I fell back inside the door, the automatic glass now in a million pieces around me. I felt them glass prick at my leg but before I could concentrate on my cuts, my eyes fell on Lancelot and everything else around me just vanished.

Lancelot stood by the entrance in a protective stance, but his shoulders were hunched and one of his arms was around his middle. It took me a while to realize that there was blood dripping from his fingers and the white jacket he was wearing was slowly turning red.

“Anaya! Are you alright?” At first I didn’t recognize the voice that was calling me, until I looked up at Lyric and Mina standing beside me and pulling me up from the glass shattered floor. But as soon as they pulled me up, I was running towards Lancelot, just in time to catch him as he collapsed on the floor.

“Lancelot! Lancelot, stay with me!” I called out to him but he didn’t seem to hear me. He clutched his middle with his left arm as tried to use his right to shift his weight and stand up again.

“Get…in the…car.” Lancelot managed through gritted teeth.

It was only then that I noticed Martin was hunched down by the passenger’s door of the car, waving us over as he unlocked the back door. I put Lancelot’s right arm over my shoulders and held on tightly to his waist, then shifting my weight on my feet, I rose up with Lancelot, using all my strength to give him the lift he needed. Once we were on our feet, we ran the rest of the few meters to his car and Martin opened the door for us. I went inside first, shifting back to let Lancelot sit comfortably without having to move too much.

“Martin, get him to the nearest hospital ASAP!” I told Martin as I took off the dark grey coat I was wearing and pressed it to his chest. Now that I had a closer look, the bullet had hit a few inches below his heart and a little more on the left side. This couldn’t be a chance shooting; Lancelot had to be the target.

Pulling out my phone from my pant pocket with one hand while applying pressure on Lance’s wounds with the other, I searched my contacts for Ace’s number and hit the call button.

“Anaya? Is everything alright? I heard Lancelot was hurt! Is he okay?” Antony sounded just as panicked as I felt.

“He’s bleeding very badly, Antony. We’re on our way to the nearest hospital right now. I’ll call as soon as he’s been admitted.” I said, looking up at Lancelot’s face. “Shit! Ace, I’ll call you later; I think he’s losing consciousness!” I threw my cell phone on the seat and wrapped my arms around him to keep him from falling forward.

“Lancelot!” I called out as his eyelids drooped and then he blinked open again. “Don’t close your eyes, we’re almost there! Just hang in there, please!”

The car came to a sharp halt and Martin turned to say “we’re here”, before he got out of the car and rushed into the hospital. He’d parked right outside the Emergency unit. Two male nurses came rushing with a stretcher with Martin leading the way. The stopped right outside the car just as another car stopped right behind ours.

“Lance!” Ace came around to Lancelot’s door while Martin pulled the door open. “Martin, hold his legs, I’ll hold him from the front. Anaya, it’s better if you push him towards us slow and steady.” Ace told us.

“Alright!” Martin immediately shifted Lancelot’s legs and I used all my strength to turn lance around so that Ace could get him on the stretcher. It proved to be an extremely difficult task to push the entire upper body weight of a muscular, six feet something man for a person like me who was half his size, but after a couple minutes of trying I managed to push him out enough that Ace could pick him up and carry him to the stretcher.

*****

“Here.”

I removed my hands from my face to find Antony holding a coffee cup in front of my face. “Thanks, but I-“

“Don’t feel like having any.” Ace raised his eyebrows at me; the front of his blue shirt now stained a deep brick red. “That’s what you’ve said for the last four hours, Anaya. Please, you need some if you want to stay awake any longer.”

I sighed. Ace was a very persistent man and I didn’t have any energy left to keep up this debate. So I took the coffee cup from him and took a sip and then took one more when my stomach didn’t try to throw it back up the way it went in. “He’s lost a lot of blood.”

“He has,” Ace agreed. “But they’ve been operating on him for the past six hours now. He’ll be fine. And besides, the bullet got stuck in his intestine, barely missing the spleen, so the doctors will need some time patching him up.”

“He’s been in there six hours, I’m worried.” I placed my cup on the empty seat beside me and looked back up at Ace. “You’re holding up well.”

“No, I’m not.” Antony gave me a small smile and took a seat beside me. “I’m just good at hiding it. My men have been looking around for any possible shooters, working with NYPD, but they haven’t found anything yet. It’s gonna take some time.”

“There are fifteen skyscrapers in that area and even more shorter buildings that have a clear shot of Reefwood’s entrance,” I said. “The shot could have been from anywhere.”

“Yes, but that’s for the NYPD to find,” Antony stood up as the doctor emerged from the operation theater. I followed behind Antony.

“We’ve extracted the bullet; fortunately it didn’t do much damage. We’ll transfer him to the ICU right away.” The doctor told us. “We’ll keep him here for a couple of days for examination and then he can go home.”

“Thank you Dr. Jackson.” Antony shook hands with the doctor before he turned and went in the opposite direction.

“I’ll stay at Mary’s place today; I don’t need my mom freaking out from all the blood.” I told Antony.

“That’s probably a good idea. Martin will drop you off.”

“Antony there’s really-“

“You can hardly walk Anaya; you’ve never seen a shooting before. And with all that blood on your shirt, it’s better not to spread panic. I’ll stay here with my brother and it’ll be better if you get some rest, you’ll have to manage Reefwood for a few days.” Antony told me.

“I know. Thanks, Antony.” I told him. He was right; I was shaken up pretty badly. I’ve never seen so much blood before and everyone at HQ would be in a state of panic. I’ll have to be there to take care of things.

Leaving Antony to take care of Lancelot, I let Martin drop me off at Mary’s place to spend the rest of the night at her house, unaware that a pair of blue eyes were following my move.