Seducing The Ice Queen

When Adam noticed that Alice had taken a fall, his heart started to beat in a loud staccato as he raced around the car to check on her. An unknown fear in his heart, he saw that Alice was lying on the ground with a pale face. There was no injury in the front but there was blood oozing out on the ground under her.

With trembling hands, he called the emergency and shouted into the phone once the dispatcher asked," My wife has been shot. Please send an ambulance!"

They were in a different country with a language barrier while Adam who usually did not have an accent almost forgot to speak in English as he begged for help. He tried to think of the first aid measures he had learnt in the earlier years and if they had been taught how to care for gun shot wounds. 

Carefully he turned her over and winced when he saw the wound where the bullet had entered. He tried to think of something to use to press down on the wound but his reaction speed was slow and he almost screamed himself hoarse until a security guard finally heard him and came rushing. Seeing that the woman was bleeding profusely, he immediately stood frozen trying to think if he needed to call the police. At this moment, Adam growled," Bring a few sets of towels quickly.."

The security guard rushed back to his senses and looked around for a few minutes before racing towards the VIP lounge. They would have spare towels there!

Adam tried to rouse Alice but the girl had already lost consciousness. He wanted to move her but dared not. The wailing of the ambulance's siren in the distance was a sound that for the first time brought a hope to Adam. His wife could be saved now. As he waited for the ambulance to arrive, Adam pressed down the towels that the guard brought and pressed down quickly to minimize the blood. 

By now, a few more people had gathered and were already trying to judge the situation. While a few guessed that Alice was already dead, a few who recognized Adam were already making a video of the rescue to sell to the highest bidder. Adam cast a disgusted glance at such people but then ignored them all as he barked for people to clear the way for the ambulance. The time between the ambulance's arrival and Alice's fall was actually less than seven minutes but for Adam, it was more than seven decades!

Within sixty seconds the ambulance had loaded Alice and Adam had jumped into the ambulance with them.. The next few minutes would remain a blank in the future when Adam thought back to this time as the paramedics discussed debridement of the damaged tissues as they questioned him about where the gun had been shot from and what distance. But their words only scared Adam more and more as he heard them talk about the bullet not escaping the other side and worrying if the bullet had been lodged in some bone, tissue or worst still heart or lungs. 

It was only as the stretcher was pushed into the emergency room that Adam felt himself collapse against the wall. A few minutes later a doctor rushed out with a file full of forms asking him to fill it as she told him about the procedure in a cold detached voice "With the help of this minimally invasive method, the debriding of the injured joint and removal of bullet fragments or foreign bodies is possible and we are going to do this by surgical exploration it urgently. Since the bullet has hit the long bone it has sustained a fracture which will take time to heal. Thankfully the lungs or the heart have not been affected but we need to check for arterial nerve injury. Additionally we are giving antibiotics to stabilize the joint and regularize the blood flow. Does the patient have any allergy to any drugs?" Adam shook his head in a negative answer and the doctor continued," You need to understand that a bullet to this joint is specially challenging due to the presence of brachial plexus in the area." As the doctor would have droned on, Adam interrupted her, "Doctor, Just tell me when my wife can come back to me.." The doctor sighed at this and said," She will be shifted to the ICU in a few hours but you need to understand something young man! She may have sustained nerve injury because it is close to the structures that supply blood to the upper body, arms and hands. It other words, even if she recovers there may be terrible side effects. You need to be mentally prepared! I will ask the nurse to give you the information booklet once you have signed the forms!"

Adam had heard only fragments of what the doctor had said, but when she said that his Alice may not recover totally, his mind was occupied with only one thought- 'If something happened to his Alice, he would kill Adken Parry..'

Adam had no doubt that Adken Parry would be the man behind this. Until now, he had continued to treat Adken Parry as a housefly that was a nuisance but basically harmless. But now, nothing made a difference. He would definitely kill that man even if he had to rot in a prison cell for the rest of his life.

As the news of Alice Faye having suffered a bullet wound spread on the internet like wildfire, different people had different reactions. Lady Ye tried to get in touch with Adam as her blood pressure increased from stress while, the boys rushed to the hospital. 

As Adam stared listlessly, the moments of the past crowded his head. He recalled sitting similarly in another emergency room as his brothers were being operated on. He remembered Alice coming to his support and helping him navigate the formalities. But what tortured him the most were the lines that Alice had said just as they had walked out of the airport, "The day I leave you will be the day I breathe my last.."

How did she something like this so casually! What if... What if today was that day? Adam shook his head forcefully as he tried to make himself believe that something like this would not happen. Just then a man dressed in a blue uniform walked towards him and soon started questioning Adam. They had already viewed the surveillance cameras and knew that the shoot out had been pre planned with the intent to kill. The car that the people who had attacked in had been stolen an hour ago and immediately abandoned after the shoot out. 

Since the victim was a famous businesswoman while her husband was also a celebrity who received death threats on a regular basis, the police was already facing pressure to immediately catch the culprits. This was being done by Zirui who had used all her connections to connect with her people when she heard of Alice being in danger and the girl was now already on the way to get to the hospital along with Kieran. 

As the police continued to question him, Apollo, Gyeom, I.M and Felix had reached Adam's side and stood by him in silence. The heard the inspector explain how they believed that Alice was their target and not Adam since the people in the car had been identified as sharp shooters and if they wanted to hurt him, they would not have missed. So the bullets fired in Adam's direction were only to fool him.. As such they planned to focus their search on catching the perpetrators by finding out enemies of Alice Faye. Finally when the police asked if Adam suspected anyone, they all wanted to burst out with the man's name but Adam simply shook his head and said ,"No.. He did not know who would want to harm them."

The inspector narrowed his eyes and had already guessed that Adam was lying when he noticed the others around him looking strangely at him. Suspecting something, he left the hospital and asked his subordinates to look around into Adam Parry's background and enemies. 

They did not have to look too deep as the headlines itself came to their rescue with, "Attempt of Adam Parry's life.." "Son Returns From Meeting Estranged Father And Is Attacked.."

The inspector widened his eyes as he read through the news articles. He was not someone who would be generally easily fooled. Scanning the articles, he could already guess that Adam Parry was being forced to somehow establish a relationship with his father.. And the said father was the enemy..

As the inspector received the whereabouts of the people who had been shot, he ordered," Prepare to handover the case to the international department. The person behind these people is not local. Tell them to strongly investigate Adken Parry.."

As he was giving these orders, a knock on the door sounded and a trouble junior officer entered, "Sir, Adken Parry is dead..."