Healing Her Heart (Crystal Lake Series Book 1) (6 page)

For the next three hours, Larissa dealt with a steady stream of patients, and thankfully, only two trauma patients had come in. She’d taken the first one, and Julie had taken the second.

“Tag, you’re it,” Julie had joked as they passed in the hallway like ships in the night.

“I know, I know,” Larissa muttered. They were to take turns with the traumas unless there were two at the same time, and then Debra would come and assist.

Gabe walked into the ER at quarter to eleven, and she realized he was also assigned the night shift. The doctors worked eight-hour shifts instead of twelve, and she hadn’t really thought about Gabe at all until now.

Memories of their heated kiss made her blush, and she kept her gaze focused on the computer screen as he went over to the main census board.

“Okay, Mr. Harris, you’re all set for discharge,” she said, walking into her patient’s room. “Remember you have to follow up with your doctor first thing tomorrow morning, okay?”

“I’ll remember,” the elderly patient said as he stood. Mr. Clarence Harris had congestive heart failure and often forgot to take his medications, which then caused him to become short of breath. In reading his chart, it sounded like his son wanted him to go to a nursing home, but the older man kept refusing.

“All right, take care, then.” She helped him out to a wheelchair. Rick, one of their techs, came over to escort the patient outside.

“Hi, Larissa, I’m surprised to see you here.” Gabe’s voice broke into her thoughts. “How’s your ankle?”

She took a deep breath before turning to face him. “It’s a lot better, thanks. I have the crutches in my car if you want them back.”

“No rush,” he said with a shrug. The way he stood there with his hands stuffed into the pockets of his lab coat, she sensed there was more he wanted to say, but just then, their trauma pagers went off.

“Car versus pedestrian just off Highway Z,” Gabe said out loud as he read his pager. “Victim is a fifty-year-old woman, and her vitals are bad. It doesn’t sound good.”

Her stomach clenched with dread as she read the same message. Annie was fifty years old and lived near Highway Z. Granted, that didn’t mean she was the victim. Still, she sent up a quick prayer for Annie’s safekeeping.

“We should call a chopper, in case she needs to get to Madison,” she suggested as she followed Gabe into the trauma bay. They were only a level-two trauma center, and if this patient was really bad, they’d need to stabilize her and get her transferred as soon as possible.

“Good idea.”

She’d barely made the call when the ambulance bay burst open revealing a bevy of paramedics surrounding a gurney. The moment she saw the victim, she knew it was Annie despite the massive amount of blood.

“Fifty-year-old woman with serious head injury, unconscious at the scene. Vitals reflect hypovolemic shock. We have fluids running wide open.”

“Is there another victim?” Gabe asked.

“No, apparently this was a hit and run.”

Larissa concentrated on taking care of Annie, but deep down, she felt certain Kurt was the one behind the wheel of the car that had hit his wife.

And she suspected he’d intended to kill Annie.

____________

Larissa and Gabe worked on Annie for a solid hour before they deemed her stable enough to transfer. Larissa watched the flight team wheel Annie away and silently prayed.

Dear Lord, please keep Annie safe in Your care.

“Larissa?” Gabe’s low voice broke into her prayer. “Are you all right?”

Suddenly, she wasn’t. She had to get away, just for a few minutes. “Excuse me,” she murmured, slipping away.

She stepped outside, staying beneath the overhang so that she didn’t get drenched by the rain. What had happened to Annie? Had she tried to escape Kurt on foot? Had she been on the road, helpless as he drove directly at her?

Squeezing her eyes shut didn’t help erase the image she could see so clearly in her mind. Maybe it wasn’t Kurt, she tried to tell herself. Maybe Annie had been running from her husband and dashed onto the road, directly in the path of an on-coming car.

She took several deep breaths, trying to calm her ragged nerves. There wasn’t anything she could do to help Annie right now. She and Gabe had done their best, placing a breathing tube and a central venous catheter before pumping several units of blood into her system.

The rest was up to the trauma team in Madison and God.

Feeling calmer, she turned to go back inside, shivering when a blast of cold rain hit her back, soaking through the thin fabric of her scrubs. The trauma bay was empty now and had already been cleaned up, which made her feel guilty. It was almost four in the morning, the most difficult part of the night shift, and she realized she must have stayed outside longer than she intended.

Time to stop worrying about Annie and to focus her attention on the handful of patients who still needed care on her team.

She was about to head through the trauma bay when suddenly the ambulance bay doors opened behind her, letting in a blast of cool air. She jumped around in surprise and nearly tripped over her feet when she saw a disheveled man standing there holding a gun.

“This is all your fault,” he said in a harsh tone, waving the gun in her general direction. “Annie’s gone, and it’s all your fault!”

Kurt Hinkle. Was he intoxicated? He certainly acted like it; his eyes were bloodshot and his gait unsteady. She swallowed hard and tried to edge behind one of the metal bedside tables, not much protection against a bullet. When Kurt came farther in the room, she fought a rising panic.

Where was everyone? Couldn’t they hear Kurt?

“Don’t move!” he threatened. He took a step toward her, and she couldn’t help shrinking backward, dragging the metal bedside table with her.

And this time when he raised the gun and pointed it directly at her, his hand was far too steady.

Chapter Six

Gabe glanced impatiently at the clock on the wall. Where was Larissa? It wasn’t like her to take such a long break in the middle of her shift like this. He’d always been impressed by what a hard worker she was.

But he also knew just how upset she was at seeing the extent of Annie’s injuries. The burn from two nights ago had been weeping and was covered in dirt and grime from the highway. Annie had also sustained several broken bones, a head injury, and a potential ruptured spleen. It had been a long time since he’d seen anyone so badly hurt. And knowing Larissa, she was likely blaming herself even though there was absolutely nothing she could have done to prevent what had happened.

Still, he couldn’t help sending up a quick prayer for Annie’s recovery. And then shook his head in mild disbelief when he realized he’d prayed more since attending church with Larissa than he had in the year his sister had hounded him to go.

Not that he planned on telling Kimberly that.

Julie came abruptly around the corner and barreled right into him. He steadied her with his hands on her shoulders. “Whoa, take it easy.”

“Sorry,” she said with a sigh, taking a step back. “It’s been so crazy busy.” She frowned. “Have you seen Larissa? One of her patients needs something for pain.”

“I’ll find her,” he promised. “Just get her patient the pain meds for now, okay?”

“Okay.” Julie disappeared, and he swung around to head back to the trauma bay.

He slowed to a stop when he heard a familiar voice.

“Annie’s not here, Kurt. Why don’t you put the gun down and have a seat so I can arrange for you to go and see her?”

Kurt? Gun? Ice crawled down his spine, and he sprinted toward the nearest phone and punched in 911. “Kurt Hinkle is armed with a gun and is in the trauma bay with Larissa,” he said in a low, terse tone to Grace, the sheriff’s department dispatcher. “Hurry.”

He hung up the phone, swung around, and quickly flagged down Debra, the charge nurse. “Keep everyone out of the trauma bay, do you understand?” he said as quietly as possible.

“What’s going on?”

“Kurt Hinkle is in there with a gun, but the police are on their way. Keep everyone out and far away from this area,” he repeated, moving toward the door.

“You can’t go in there,” Debra protested, grabbing his arm.

“Yes, I can. Just keep everyone out here, okay?” He shook off her hand and edged toward the door leading to the trauma bay. He didn’t want to barge in there in case he startled Kurt into shooting.

But he couldn’t bear the thought of Larissa facing someone as unstable as Kurt alone, either.

Dear Lord, please give me strength.

He cracked the door open and peered inside. The ice on his spine turned glacier when he saw how close Kurt was to Larissa, just six feet away, with his gun leveled directly at the center of her chest. Larissa stared up at Kurt with wide, frightened eyes with nothing but a small metal bedside table between them.

There was no way he was waiting for the sheriff’s deputies. He shoved open the door and stepped into the room. “Put down the gun, Kurt.”

The older man swung around to face him, the gun bobbing up and down in his hand. “Stay out of this, doc. This is between her and me.”

“Put the gun away,” he repeated, projecting a calmness he didn’t feel. “Don’t make this worse than it already is.”

“Get outta here!” Kurt shouted, his face turning red.

From the corner of his eye, he noticed Larissa was edging farther away from Kurt, exactly the way he’d hoped. The trauma bay was big and open; there weren’t any places to hide or much to use as a barrier against a gun.

“Why are you threatening Larissa?” he asked, striving for a conversational tone. “She hasn’t done anything to you.”

Mentioning Larissa was a mistake as Kurt immediately swung back toward her. “You should have stayed away from Annie,” he accused. “You shouldn’t have filled her head with ideas of leaving me. It’s your fault she got hurt. If she wouldn’t have left, she’d be fine right now.”

Gabe couldn’t believe Kurt’s twisted logic, but then again, he didn’t understand why any man would physically abuse his wife, either. Kurt was so far beyond rational that Gabe didn’t have a clue how to get through to him.

“I was trying to help Annie,” Larissa said with a note of defiance. “You’re the one who keeps hurting her, not me.”

Gabe silently urged Larissa to be quiet. There was no sense in making the guy mad.

“What do you want, Kurt?” Gabe asked, desperate to get the man’s attention focused back on him instead of on Larissa. “I can’t help you if I don’t know what you want.”

“I want you to get out of here,” Kurt shouted. “If you don’t, I’ll start shooting!”

Gabe glanced helplessly at Larissa, trying to think of a way to stall. Kurt might be drunk, but considering his hunting background he didn’t dare bank on the fact that Kurt might not hit his target. Especially considering Larissa was in close range.

Where were the sheriff’s deputies? Shouldn’t they have been here by now? What was taking them so long?

“Now!” Kurt said, firing the gun for emphasis, the sound echoing through the trauma bay.

“Get down,” Gabe shouted to Larissa as he dropped to the floor. He rolled and then came up in a small crouch, ready for the next gunshot.

Larissa must have sensed what was about to happen, because when he glanced over, she was hunkered down in the corner of the room holding the small metal bedside table turned sideways so that the tray protected her chest. He didn’t see any blood, so he hoped and prayed that meant she wasn’t hit. Thankfully, she had some cover.

“Kurtis Hinkle! Drop your gun and come out with your hands up!”

Kurt spun around toward the doors leading in from the ambulance bay, where the sheriff’s deputies were located. Gabe took advantage of Kurt’s momentary distraction to dive toward Larissa. She clutched at him, and he held her tight for a fraction of a second before he shoved her behind him.

“Stay down,” he whispered. A bullet could still go through him to get to her, so he used the metal bedside table as a shield while hoping for the best. He took heart in the fact that he could see a deputy standing just outside the door he’d come through earlier.

The cops had Kurt and the trauma bay surrounded. But the danger was far from over.

“Go away or I’ll kill them both!” Kurt shouted.

“What do you want, Kurt?” one of the deputies shouted. “Do you want to see Annie?”

“Annie’s dead!” Kurt screamed, his face mottled with anger.

“Annie’s not dead,” Gabe said and hoped he wasn’t lying. “She’s at a hospital in Madison. The deputies can arrange for you to see her.”

“You’re lying!”

Gabe probably was lying since he doubted the deputies would take him anywhere near Annie. It was clear they believed Kurt was the one who’d run Annie down. But they needed to get Kurt to surrender his gun before anyone got hurt.

“Do you want to see your son, Tommy?” the deputy asked from outside the ambulance bay doors.

“Leave my son out of this!” Kurt grew even more agitated, pacing back and forth in front of the ambulance bay doors. “Stay away from him, do you hear me?”