Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 135382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 677(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 451(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 677(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 451(@300wpm)
“What do you remember about the patient?” Charlotte asked.
She closed her eyes and tried to remember. She tried to envision him alive, but all she could see was that shell of a body on the table, the one she hadn’t been good enough to save. “He was male, mid- to late-forties. Dark hair. I estimate his weight at one hundred seventy pounds and his height as a little shy of six feet. His skin was a sallow, yellow color indicating jaundice and probably liver damage. I believe that was from the wound. I estimate he’d been shot over eight hours before he was brought to me.”
Charlotte held up a hand. “No. No medical terms. Remember everything you can. What was he wearing?”
Frustration swelled, a wave threatening to crest over and drown her. “Clothes. Bloody, torn up clothes.”
She hadn’t been sure of what color his shirt had been. It had been soaked in blood.
“Hey, I think she needs a break.” Brody leaned forward. “She’s had a hell of a day. Can we take this up tomorrow?”
“Will she be able to remember tomorrow?” Taggart asked, his eyes narrowed on Steph. “I think we’re dealing with a serious case of PTSD. Or she’s potentially blocking the information because it’s too painful. I’d like you to let Kai put you under hypnosis and walk you through the day.”
Walk her through? Walk her through what had been one of the most horrifying days of her life? She shook her head. “I’ll try to remember on my own.”
“Stephanie, we need to know everything we can,” Li said, his voice soft. “I’m worried something’s happened at the clinic.”
At her clinic? “He came after me. Why would he do something to the clinic?”
“Not the clinic, exactly,” Ian said. “It’s still standing, but drone footage shows something that concerned me. Our London office had a drone do a couple of flybys, and I found the pictures it took a bit disturbing.”
“What?” She had to see them. Tension twisted her spine, her hands curling into fists. What had happened? What had her cowardice cost someone else? “Do you have the pictures?”
“That’s not for you to worry about,” Li said.
Ian passed her his tablet. “Scroll through the footage. The photo that’s worrisome is at the end. The London office isolated the problem areas. Thanks for the heads up, Carter, but until the moment she fires us, this is an American op. I’ve already talked to Damon and he’s forwarding everything to me. As far as I’m concerned, you’re nothing more than a friend lending my client support.”
Brody had stiffened beside her. “I’m bloody well not a friend and you know it.”
Taggart said something else, but she was looking at the pictures on the tablet in front of her.
“You don’t have to look at those.” Li sat down beside her. “I can take care of this for you.”
She barely heard his words. She knew them though. Those words were filled with sympathy and took her back to that moment when she’d woken up in the hospital after the accident. Her mother had been there, promising her it wasn’t her fault. Not really. She’d killed two people and the third might not live, but it hadn’t been her fault. She’d been tired and distracted. That’s what her mother had told her over and over again, as though saying the words would somehow make her magically believe.
She’d heard the same tone in the police officer who’d arrested her. He’d explained that by law, since she had a small but discernable amount of alcohol in her system, he had to arrest her for DUI. In the state of New York, any alcohol level in a person under twenty-one years of age was considered a DUI. She’d barely registered, but the accident had gone from tragic mistake to something that could end her life then and there.
She’d heard it when Avery Charles had stared at her and then quietly come to some place deep inside that Steph had never understood. Some place that made Avery who she was.
So much sympathy when she hadn’t deserved any of it. It didn’t matter the whys or hows. It only mattered that she’d been driving that car.
She flipped through the pictures until she got to one that showed an aerial view of the cabin her nurses shared. She recognized it because of the flowerpots on the side of the cabin. Anya had loved gardening and said she couldn’t live without flowers to brighten her day.
The whole place was eerily empty. No one walked down the dirt paths. No kids skipping in, looking for the candy Steph always kept for them in the pockets of her scrubs. No patients milling about or staff briskly walking to their next task.
It was empty.
Had they all fled? She wouldn’t be able to breathe until she got to talk to Anya, make sure she was all right.