Jack (Eidolon Black Ops #8) - Maddie Wade Page 0,58

flanked her left side as she’d seen them do many times with the Queen on this tour.

Stopping at the door they listened and with a nod from her, Jack breached the door. Her eyes searched frantically around the small room before landing on a crumpled body in the corner.

“No!” The pain in her chest squeezed tight as she ran, falling to her knees beside her sister.

Astrid felt horror fill her as she took in Adeline’s injuries. Her face was barely recognisable she was so beaten and she had a bullet wound in her side which was bleeding sluggishly. Reaching for her neck, she felt for a pulse and almost fainted with relief when she found a shallow, thready one beating beneath her fingertips.

Her eyes caught Jack’s. “I have a pulse.”

Her hands moved to cover the wound but were brushed out of the way by Waggs. “Let me see to her.”

The urgency in his voice clued her in to just how bad this was. She sat back on her knees and her hand trembled as she stroked her sister’s dark hair, not knowing where else to touch in case she caused her more pain.

Waggs poured a clotting agent into the bullet wound while he began to assess Adeline’s other injuries. He looked up at Jack. “We need a chopper if she’s going to have any chance at all.”

“On it.”

Astrid prayed harder than she ever had in her life as she watched the men who’d come to mean so much to her work to save her sister. They’d come too close to getting her back to lose her now.

“Come on, Bee, you can fight this. I know you can. I won’t let you die on me a second time.”

Astrid carried on talking while Waggs stabilised her, talking nonsense and begging her to fight. The sound of a helicopter overhead made her look up and into the worried eyes of the man she loved. A man who was doing everything in his power to make sure she didn’t lose her sister again. Neither one of them had said the words, but she knew she loved him and had a feeling—or maybe a hope—that he felt the same.

A gurney appeared along with two paramedics who moved Adeline as they fitted a line to get fluids and medications inside her. Waggs gave the two men everything he knew. As he cited the injuries he’d picked up on, Astrid felt the weight of the fight her sister had suffered almost take her legs from under her.

Jack was at her back, a strong arm banded around her waist holding her up. “We’re coming with her.”

The paramedic nodded. “But only two and you need to move.”

As they rushed to the chopper, Jack gave Zack and his team orders on what he needed from them and issued a request they inform Fitz what had happened.

Astrid climbed in beside her sister, who was pale with her oxygen saturations dropping. The aircraft lifted off, and she held tight as a headset was placed on her head by Jack, who was still bolstering her, his arm around her as she watched, helpless to help.

They were nearly at the hospital when her sister coded.

“She’s hypoxic, and her blood pressure is dropping. We’re losing her.”

The paramedic placed paddles on Adeline’s chest, and Astrid began to cry, the thought of her sister dying more than she could bear. “Don’t die, Addie. I need you.”

Jack held her tighter, and she let him take the weight of her pain, knowing he could take it.

Hours after her sister had been rushed through to surgery, Astrid was still waiting for the doctor to come and find her. The waiting room was full of people who cared about her. Bebe had shown up the second she’d heard, her arms going around her friend and holding tight, along with all the available men from Eidolon and Fortis.

“She’ll be okay, Astrid. I know it.”

Bebe hadn’t left her side except to get coffee for them all. Jack had been a constant presence, not leaving her alone for a moment. Waggs had shown up with Lopez, who’d immediately sat down, taken out his laptop, and got to work.

Kanan had come too, and she knew it was because of Roz. His big arms wrapped around her as he kissed her head. “Whatever happens, Astrid, we’ve got you, okay? You’re family, and we’re here for you.”

“Thanks, K.”

She curled back up next to Jack, her head on his chest, not sleeping, just waiting and remembering all the