“I’m okay,” Jackie said excitedly as she drove down Southern Boulevard and merged onto Bruckner Boulevard. She looked in her rear view mirror at Travis. His eyes were closed and he was holding his right side with both hands.

“Where’s he hit?”

“In the stomach and the leg,” she said quickly. “He’s losing a lot of blood.”

“Where are you?”

“On the-um, on Bruckner Boulevard headed west,” Jackie stuttered. Her heart was pounding and tears were steaming down her cheeks.

“Get on the Major Deegan and head uptown. But you gotta do something first.”

“Okay-okay.” She squeezed and twisted the steering wheel until her knuckles were pale; Jackie sped up.

“Jackie, listen to me now. I need you to calm down.”

Jackie tried to slow her breathing. She had driven them out of worst situations, but it was never like this. Parker was dead and Travis was dying in the backseat. Jackie looked back at Travis. “How you doin’ back there? You all right, Tee?”

Travis moved and grimaced from the pain. “It burns, Jackie!”

“Jackie!” Freeze, who was still on the phone, shouted.

“What!” Jackie exclaimed.

“Stay with me, now. I need you to calm down. I need you to be cool and save his life.”

“Okay, Freeze. I’m cool, I’m cool,” Jackie said and tried to pull it together. “Just tell me what to do,” she said nervously.

“I need you to do what you can to stop the bleeding,” Freeze told her.

“What?” Jackie said. “I don’t know how!”

“You can do this, Jackie. You don’t want him to bleed to death before you get where you’re going. You hear me, Jackie?”

“Yeah, yeah, okay. What should I do?”

“Find a secluded spot, get something to put over his wound and make him put pressure on it. Then use his belt or something to wrap around his leg above the wound. I’ll call you back and tell you where to go. Got me?”