Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Awakening Aubrey (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Jack 'Em Up Book 7) by Shauna Allen Page B

out there . . .” He grimaced and I glanced down, shock making my stomach curl.
    “Oh, my God, you’re shot!” I crawled closer and gingerly put a hand to his bloody thigh. I met his eyes again. “What can I do?”
    He opened his mouth to reply, but one of the other guys spotted us and footsteps pounded over. “Creed! What the fuck, man?” Another guy I recognized, Truck maybe, knelt down and made quick work of fastening a tourniquet around his friend’s leg while the radio on his shoulder crackled with military code. I heard Ghost’s voice announce the Tango had been neutralized.
    “The guy?” I asked, fear making my voice shaky.
    Truck shot me a quick glance. “Dead.”
    “The old woman?” I needed to know.
    He shook his head once as if he couldn’t bear to say it out loud.
    “She . . . he killed her?”
    He didn’t look up from his work on his friend. “Yes.”
    I sagged down in grief and shock. Then I noticed the growing puddle of dark red blood oozing from Creed’s leg as his face grew pale and his breathing labored. I wanted to crawl into a hole and nurse my horror, but there was no way I was going to do that. I was alive while two people were dead and this soldier was bleeding out because he’d come in here to save us.
    I sucked in a breath and pushed closer, clasping his clammy hand. “I want to help.”
    Truck peered at me from the corner of his eye. “Hold pressure here, as hard as you can.” He pressed my hand into the warm, bloody mess of his friend’s thigh. “The tourniquet should hold, but he’s still losing a lot of blood.” I pushed as hard as I dared. “Can you do that while I find out where the hell our help is?”
    I nodded.
    He rose and static sounded from a radio. “We need medics now. Soldier down.”
    Creed closed his eyes and I found myself watching the rise and fall of his chest as I pressed hard on his leg, blood oozing hot and thick between my fingers.
    I watched in a sort of suspended animation as soldiers and paramedics poured in, tending to the hostages and covering dead bodies with tarps. One with kind green eyes made his way over to me when Truck waved him our way.
    He knelt down and gently pried my hands away to assess the bleeding. “You okay?” he asked, shooting me a brief glance.
    I sunk to my butt on the cold floor. “I think so.”
    He added more pressure and an additional tourniquet to staunch the bleeding then opened his pack and started an IV. Eventually, a gurney was wheeled in and another paramedic helped load Creed up. I realized our hands were still linked and when I tried to pull away so they could take him, he squeezed, giving me a warm jolt of reassurance.
    “You’ll be okay,” I murmured, though I had no idea if that was a lie. That was a lot of blood.
    Truck helped me to my feet. “You sure you’re all right?”
    I nodded mutely as I began to shake.
    He grabbed a blanket from a nearby shelf and wrapped it around my shoulders, drawing me close. “It’s the shock. It’ll wear off.”
    I nodded and stared up into the face that many people must find scary with his crooked nose and jagged scar that caused a perpetual scowl, but all I saw were kind eyes. I sunk into his strength and let him half-walk, half-carry me outside. The sunshine burst on my skin in a rush, immediately warming me, and I breathed in a deep breath of freedom.
    He deposited me under a thatch of trees, where more medics were lined up to double-check everyone.
    “Aubrey!” I whipped around at Jude’s frantic voice and stilled at the pure, unadulterated fear I found in his eyes.
    He rushed over and forced his way through the crowd, not stopping until I was in his arms. “Are you okay, baby?”
    I melted into his chest and inhaled his familiar scent, letting it soothe my heart. “I’m fine.”
    He pressed a kiss to my head and led me to the next available medic, where he watched anxiously while I was checked over and deemed uninjured. I settled back into his embrace and