Sinjin also knew that nothing was going to keep him from getting to Isla.
Hang in there, Isla, he silently willed.I’m coming.
Chapter Fourteen
Isla walked out of the hospital with Sally, the head ICU nurse who’d asked her to come to pick up a handwritten commendation letter for her to attach to her assessment due at the college tomorrow. Touched and in need of that bright spot to her weekend, she’d agreed to get it at the end of the woman’s shift.
They had just stepped outside the hospital when several loud pops filled the already humid morning air, followed by a few pings echoing behind her.
Two other staff members had exited through the doors too, while several more were entering. It was the changing of the guard, so to speak.
One person fell to the ground, bleeding, and another was pulling that person behind one of four concrete pillars that lined the entrance. The people walking toward the hospital scattered, screaming as they ran for cover.
“Shooter!” one of them yelled.
Ducking like the others, Isla and Sally rushed to the first row of parked cars, covering their heads as more pops rang out and shattered glass rained down on them.
“That was from a different direction,” she muttered, crouched near the rear tire of an Escalade.
Sally nodded next to her. “There are at least two.”
Oh, God, were there any behind them as well? She hoped not, because they were pinned down.
And bleeding.
Her heart was hammering in her throat, and terror squeezed her chest tightly. Fear shook through her. She glanced at herstinging arms. Blood trickled from a peppering of slices and cuts, thanks to the shattered glass. Sally was bleeding too, but it was flowing more than trickling down her right arm.
“Sally, were you shot?” she whispered.
“I-I don’t know. I guess. Maybe.” The woman lifted her shoulder and winced.
Fear momentarily forgotten, Isla moved to get a better look when another shot rang out and air hissed from the tire of the car across from them.
Sally screamed and Isla jumped back, slamming the Escalade with the back of her head.
The sound of footfalls clapping off a sidewalk echoed in the distance before they heard male voices shouting for someone to drop his weapon.
“Oh, thank God. I think that’s security,” Sally said, shaking next to her.
Several shots rang out in what she could only assume was a firefight. It was hard to tell, since they couldn’t see the hospital entrance which was where the noise was centered.
Sirens sounded in the distance, the police definitely en route.
“I hope they get here before more people are hit,” Sally said, blood dripping from the hand she used to squeeze her shoulder.
They needed to stop the bleeding.
Isla glanced around, noting a young couple hunkering like them in the next row. From what she could see, they were unharmed.
She glanced in the other direction. Someone wearing scrubs lay motionless on the ground. Isla ground her teeth.
Who were these shooters?
Why were they doing this?
The white-hot fear trembling through Isla swiftly turned to rage.
Screw this.
