Veiled by Choice (Radical Book 3)

by Anne Garboczi Evans

  “He’s not your freaking husband. And I sure as #### hope so.” Kaleb swung Ava to the ground before she fell and yanked at the vest straps. He tore the suicide vest off his sister and threw the explosives on top of Raja.

  “We must say the last prayers over Raja for his martyrdom.” Ava wrestled away from him, reaching for the pedophile.

  “He’s not a martyr, he’s a murderer.” Kaleb grabbed Ava’s arm.

  His sister slumped back against him. A fog spread over her eyes as her neck went limp. Her head struck his arm. Wet blood trickled from her legs onto his shirt as Kaleb carried her underneath the overhang of the parking garage.

  Lowering Ava between a concrete pillar and a parked Jeep, Kaleb tore open her robe. Fear flashed through him.

  Blood soaked the black fabric, every layer of her clothes drenched in blood. He shoved up her jean skirt. The hem scraped across the cellulite on her legs.

  Under normal circumstances, doing a pelvic exam on one’s own sister would be beyond-traumatizing, but he feared Jessica hadn’t exaggerated when she said Ava was dying. Where was Jessica?

  More blood gushed down Ava’s legs. “Kal-Kal.” Ava grabbed his arm and clung to it, using the name she’d called him when she was a toddler. “I’m dying.” She moaned, eyes rolled up in her head as if she hovered close to unconsciousness even now.

  “You’re not going to die.” Kaleb kicked debris out of the way. He threw his jacket on the flat spot he’d made to the left of a blue Jeep and pulled her legs onto his jacket, making the cleanest medical examining table he was going to be able to get in this place. He tore open the zipper to his medical bag and upended an antiseptic bottle on his hands.

  “Do you think Allah will let me into paradise? I’ve tried to be good, so good. I made my husband angry though. Please Kal-Kal, I’m scared.” Ava strangled his fingers in her grip as she struggled to her elbow. Letting go of him, she collapsed against the ground.

  Ripping off her gloves, Kaleb felt for Ava’s pulse.

  It fluttered and weakened beneath his fingers. A moan came from behind him. Kaleb sprang to his feet.

  One hand on the Jeep, Jessica stood upright, clenching Raja’s AK-47. Her black robes lay in a pile at her feet. Blood trickled down her jeans, but the thigh wound didn’t look like a gushing arterial bleed. She limped toward him.

  “How long has Ava been like this?” Kaleb asked. He yanked up Ava’s T-shirt and felt her abdomen.

  His heart thudded to a halt as his worst fears stared back at him.

  Ava’s distended abdomen showed the increased pressure of internal bleeding. A person could lose their entire blood supply into their abdomen. Apprehension chilled Kaleb’s fingers as he searched for the source of the bleed.

  Taking another halting step, Jessica collapsed to a kneeling position by Ava. “The last hour, I guess. I thought she was miscarrying, but why is there so much blood?

  Dread pulsed through Kaleb’s hands as he felt his sister’s stomach again.

  Ava screamed.

  “When did you get pregnant, Ava?” Again, a beyond traumatizing question under ordinary circumstances. If he had an operating room, he could cut her open and seal up the cause of the bleeding, give her a blood transfusion. Now though, he’d just have to hope she pulled through until they made it to medical care.

  “Seven weeks ago.” Ava spoke without opening her eyes. Her voice was weak. “I counted since my last period.” Sweat poured off her clammy skin. Her voice tapered off.

  More blood poured from Ava’s pelvis. Upward of half a liter of blood already spread out on the ground and the rate of flow was increasing.

  Terror descended over Kaleb. The signs were all there. Ava was having a fallopian tube rupture as part of an ectopic pregnancy and the only solution was surgery.

  At this rate of blood flow, assuming it didn’t increase, she had maybe five minutes before she descended into shock and a quarter of an hour before she died.

  Light flashed in the sky as another airstrike hit to the north. The noise of bullets thudding into concrete walls sounded from every direction. He’d never get Ava to any kind of hospital in time.

  “Hand me the saline solution,” Kaleb said as he ripped open a case of IV tubing. Increasing the volume of fluid in Ava’s veins would help a little, even without blood to transfuse. If only he had blood to give her.

  Jessica touched his hand. She dropped the sealed saline solution pack into his hand, then collapsed against the concrete. More blood streamed down her jeans. All color drained from her face and she shivered even in the feverishly hot air. That wound must be deeper than he’d thought.

  Kaleb stuck the IV needle into Ava’s arm, success on the first try. He connected the tubing and let the fluid start seeping into her veins, but her pulse grew weaker instead of stronger. More blood flowed between her legs, red, new blood from a currently bleeding internal injury.

  Operating would make her lose more blood, a lot more blood. He had to make a decision now when she still had a prayer of surviving surgery. He could wait, like he had with that pregnant Iraqi woman only days ago.

  Women didn’t survive a ruptured fallopian tube without surgery, not with this kind of bleeding already happening. Kaleb’s mouth went dry. He had to at least try to save her.

  Dumping antiseptic over Ava’s stomach, he yanked on gloves. He didn’t have anesthesia or morphine. A drone exploded in the air. Debris kicked up outside the parking garage.

  Ripping Ava’s abaya, he made a partial tent to block foreign particles. As the IV fluid emptied in Ava’s veins, he seized a scalpel, forceps, a cauterizing pen, suturing thread, and a lot of gauze.

  With another moan, Ava half peeled open one eye. “Is it going to hurt, Kal-Kal?”

  “Yes, Ava, it’s gonna hurt like hell.”

  Crawling forward, Jessica dragged herself next to Ava and clenched the girl’s hand. “Hold on to me, Ava. It’ll only take a minute.”

  “Okay.” With a tiny nod, Ava turned her gaze up to him, trust radiating from those eyes that were just as blue today as when she’d been five years old and he’d left plastic snakes in her room to scare her.

  Lots of misguided faith in him going around here in this makeshift parking lot. He shoved antiseptic and gloves at Jessica. “You need to move her internal organs when I say so and keep the area clear of blood with the gauze. Can you do that?” He needed a real nurse and an operating table and suction to have any chance of this working!

  Face pale, Jessica brought her chin down, then up.

  Kaleb cut his scalpel into Ava’s flesh. Blood gushed everywhere and the race began. Could he get her sewed up before she lost so much blood that she died?

  With frantic speed, he cut through fat, past the dermal level, into the organ cavity. At his instruction, Jessica pushed aside organs and sopped up blood, revealing the tubes. Sure enough, a fallopian tube was ruptured. He cut out the tube and ovary.

  The cauterizing pen lit red hot as he staunched blood and sewed off arteries. The rush of blood stopped, the internal bleeding ended, and he sewed the incision shut.

  Sweat poured from Kaleb’s forehead as he sank to a seat and dropped the scalpel. The metal clattered against the concrete pavement. The time on his watch showed a personal operating record, but had he been fast enough? He pressed his fingers to Ava’s pulse as he looked at the hastily sewed up incision. Ava would have quite the scar.

  Ava’s pulse fluttered beneath his fingers, beating at an insane rate of speed. Her skin felt clammy.

  No! He cried out and checked again. Ava was in shock. She needed blood. Now!

  Outside the parking garage, the blasts of mortars and impact of airstrikes shook the ground.

  Kaleb’s gaze fixed on the tubing and needles he had in his bag. He looked at his own wrists, veins blue and full of blood popped out of his skin, shoved out by muscle. He’d give Ava all the blood he had, but he was AB positive, the universal recipient, and Ava was O negative, the universal donor.
/>   His pulse increased as a surreal feeling spread through him. His sister was going to die today.

  “Is she going to be okay?” Jessica clenched his arm, her green eyes big with fear.

  “She needs blood, but she’s O negative. We used to joke about it when I was in med school.” His voice felt not his own as he stared down at his baby sister who was dying on the ground in front of him. “We laughed about how if we were in a car crash, Ava could give me every drop of her blood, but one drop of mine would kill her.” Tears choked him.

  The last drop of saline solution emptied into Ava’s veins and he had no more. She took one weak breath. With a sigh, the oxygen passed through her lungs. He’d come halfway around the world to watch his sister die.

  “Give her my blood.” Jessica’s voice broke through the stillness. “I’m O negative.”

  Kaleb whipped toward her as hope lighted inside him. “Are you sure?” Transfusing the wrong type of blood would only kill Ava faster.

  “I had it tested when I was pregnant three years ago.”

  There had to be a God, because Jessica had just answered all his prayers. Kaleb grabbed the tubing and rolled up Jessica’s sleeve. He felt for her pulse.

  Her pulse beat too fast. He jerked his gaze to the scratch she’d gotten on her leg.

  That wasn’t a scratch! Grabbing his scalpel, he cut through her jeans, revealing a bullet wound. A significant amount of blood ran down Jessica’s leg beneath her jeans. He pressed his hand to her forehead. Her skin felt cool and her pupils were enlarged.

  Grabbing gauze, he shoved it against the bullet wound, staunching the blood flow. “Press on the gauze,” he ordered. He couldn’t do much more than that for Jessica here in a field environment. The bullet should stay lodged without causing any side effects except excruciating pain until Jessica could get to a hospital.

  Uneasiness roiled in his stomach. He cut down the leg of her jeans. The fabric fell open, confirming his fears. Even more blood had run down her leg, and she was in no condition to lose any more.

  “Hurry. Ava needs the blood now,” Jessica said through parched lips. Sweat dribbled down her face and she likely hadn’t drunk anything in hours.

  From the look of her, Jessica weighed a hundred pounds, a hundred and ten max, which meant that volume of blood staining her jeans was a significant portion of her overall blood volume. She wasn’t in shock yet, but taking more of her blood could definitely send her there.

  Despair fell over Kaleb as he watched his sister’s chest rise and fall with too rapid breaths. A few minutes more and Ava’s brain tissue would start dying. “I can’t take your blood, Jessica. You lost too much already.”

  “Take it.” Jessica thrust her wrist at him, exposing dehydration-shriveled veins.

  “You’re not in stable condition. If you give away more blood, you may die. Do you understand that?” The stifling air burned Kaleb’s lungs with each breath he took as he watched Ava’s breathing grow more shallow.

  How many more breaths did she have before she died? He felt for her pulse. He could hardly feel it anymore. More gunshots sounded from a street or two away.

  Jessica grabbed the tubing out of his bag and stuck out her arm. “Transfuse her now.” She looked full into Kaleb’s eyes.

  Hope and fear sliced through him. Jessica was really willing to give her life for his sister? Kaleb’s chest constricted. “I’m not sure you can survive losing more blood.” What if Jessica died?

  “Your sister will certainly die without a transfusion.” Jessica held out her arm.

  Even if Jessica survived the first hour fine, they were in a war zone. If mortars started coming in, she’d never have the strength to run after this transfusion. “As your doctor, I can’t recommend you do this.” Kaleb looked to his sister.

  Ava’s lips turned blue. Her skin felt cold to the touch. She struggled for breath.

  “I want to.” Jessica spoke through parched lips.

  “Why?” Ethically, he should question her for a good hour before letting her do anything this life-threatening. Let alone how he shouldn’t be doing such a high risk transfusion at all when he had a dual relationship with the patient. He felt for his sister’s pulse again. Ava had mere minutes left.

  “Because I love you.” Jessica held up the IV tubing.

  That was crazy and stupid! Jessica hardly knew him. It’s like whatever man gave her attention, she was willing to lay down her life for him, travel to a war zone, and beg to have his babies. Kaleb pulled a water bottle out of his medical bag and shoved it into Jessica’s hands. “Then start guzzling.” Fluid would help, but electrolytes would be better.

  He shifted Ava left and inserted the IV into Ava’s veins. He connected the other needle to Jessica’s arm and the life-giving flow of blood started trickling out from Jessica to Ava.

  Ava’s pulse began to improve. No signs of shock, so Jessica’s blood was compatible. Her breathing grew a little stronger. Color started to come back to Ava’s face. She groaned and twisted. He felt for Jessica’s pulse.

  An icy cold penetrated his fingers as Jessica’s pulse weakened beneath his hand. With a tug, he yanked out the needle, stopping Jessica’s blood loss. He shoved gauze against her arm and wrapped the bandage tight.

  Holding the tubing high, he got the last bit of blood into Ava and bandaged her arm. Ava sucked in a breath and her eyelids fluttered open. The corner of her lips and her fingertips still looked blue, but he didn’t dare take another drop from Jessica.

  “Everything hurts.” Ava moaned and shifted.

  “I just did surgery on you. Jessica saved your life with her own blood.”

  Eyes half shut, Jessica reached out across the dust and slid her fingers around Ava’s. “I was your recruiter. It’s my fault you almost died.”

  Kaleb watched the two of them. Jessica was as close to his baby sister’s age as his. Jessica had a naiveté on her features, so different than no-name bar lawyer. She needed to grow up and find some way thicker armor.

  Idolizing a loving husband and a houseful of kids, that was so 1950s, not to mention a great way to end up destitute at forty-five with a paltry alimony check and no marketable skills when her hubby ran off with a trophy wife.

  “It’s not your fault, Jessica.” Ava’s voice faltered. “I would have come here to marry Raja even if you had warned me. I’m so in love with him. Where is Raja?” Ava tried to sit up.

  Kaleb pressed her back onto the ground and passed a water bottle to Ava. “Drink.” Idiot teenage girls and their romantic notions. Was this coming from too much YA Vampire Romance novels?

  Couldn’t teen girl novels focus on math homework, career, self-esteem, or anything except committing ritual suicide on the altar of love?

  More mortar fire exploded overhead. ISIS soldiers ran out of the mosque. AK-47s caught the sunlight.

  Kaleb grabbed Jessica’s hand and pulled her down behind the Jeep. Too late. The soldiers’ gaze swung to Raja’s dead body.

  Raising a cry, the mujahideen rushed toward the parking garage.

  Jessica clapped her hand over her mouth, stifling a scream.

  Grabbing her burka-thing off the ground, Kaleb wrapped it around his hand and punched his fist through the Jeep’s driver window. With a yank, he ripped off the plastic cover beneath the steering wheel. He grabbed for the revealed wires as muscle memory from age fifteen sprang back into his hands.

  Shouting praises to Allah, the ISIS soldiers pounded closer, waving AK-47s high.

  “Don’t ever do this, Ava,” Kaleb said and he hot-wired the car same as he’d done with his high school friends while stoned out of his mind on weed before the Army had scared him straight.

  The Jeep roared into life. He grabbed Ava and lifted her onto the back seat. Jessica limped toward the Jeep. He half-lifted, half-catapulted her into the passenger seat and yanked the vehicle into gear. Ramming his foot onto the gas, he swerved right. ISIS soldiers raised AK-47s and pressed down on the triggers.

  CHAP
TER 24

  The Jeep careened out of the parking garage as Kaleb shoved the gas pedal to the floor. ISIS soldiers shot at the Jeep. He swerved across the road. A bullet hit the tire. The Jeep lurched left.

  From the next street over, the sound of coalition forces firing into the ISIS frontline sounded. Kaleb yanked the Jeep right, around a mound of rubble. A chunk of apartment fell from the sky and slammed into the ground a yard in front of his bumper. ISIS soldiers ran closer. Kaleb whipped the steering wheel and screamed into his cell’s receiver. “Joe, we’re headed toward coalition lines. Tell them not to fire!”

  “Which coalition lines?” Joe’s voice was barely audible.

  “I don’t know. Tell them not to fire,” Kaleb shouted into the phone. He swerved right. The left side wheels lost contact with the ground as the tires screeched.

  “Turn back, Kaleb. It’s going to take an hour to get in touch with anyone. There have been so many car bombs, coalition forces are trained to fire at anyone who approaches the line.”

  “I can’t turn back. I’ve got three dozen mujahideen on my tail!” Kaleb screeched left around a flaming building. The phone flung from Kaleb’s hand out the open window. The plastic shattered against the pavement.

  More gunshots flew around their heads. The windshield broke.

  “Drive south toward the lower line, its sparser there,” Jessica yelled.

  “Which way’s south?” Kaleb screamed. He whipped the Jeep right, around a fallen wall as ISIS soldiers pounded behind them and bullets flew through the air. The Jeep skidded over a boulder. Jessica clenched her bloody thigh, teeth set as agony radiated across her face.

  Ava’s moan rose from the backseat. His sister twisted against the seatbelt on the narrow seat.

  A ripping noise sounded beneath the Jeep. The vehicle jolted to a halt. Kaleb rammed his foot against the accelerator. Nothing!

  Jessica cried out, voice hoarse as she clasped her thigh. Blood seeped through the gauze on her exposed leg.

  More bullets everywhere. One slit through his jacket sleeve, leaving a seared hole. Kaleb twisted the steering wheel and hit Reverse.