The shunt from the lorry had pushed him so violently forward that he’d been flung head first over the top of the bike. Looking at the state of his machine, it was hard to decide which had been the lesser of two evils—him being thrown, or ending up amongst what was left of the motorcycle.
His helmet had protected his head from serious injury, but as for the rest of him Hannah had grave concerns. There was a trickle of blood coming from his mouth and nose, and when she eased his helmet off the flesh around the eyes and ears was beginning to swell.
‘This man needs to be lifted to hospital with all possible speed, or we’re going to lose him,’ she told those assisting her. ‘So let’s get him out of here and airborne.’
At the hospital, Hannah phoned Kyle to report back the situation and told him, ‘We’re at King’s, having just brought in a motorcyclist with multiple injuries. There’s also a lorry driver in severe shock. He’s being transported by ambulance. I was hanging on for a while to see what the A and E here have to say about the biker. Do you need me for anything?’ she asked with a wry smile at the irony of the question.
The day he needed her in any way other than as a substitute mother, or as a doctor working alongside him, she would put the flag up!
Almost as if he’d read her thoughts he said, ‘Would it matter if I did? Considering that we work together and live in the same apartment block, we communicate very little these days. Who is to blame for that, do you think?’
‘I don’t know. Both of us perhaps,’ she said with sudden weariness.
‘So why don’t we spend some quality time together for once?’ he suggested casually.
‘Meaning?’
‘An evening at the theatre. Or a day out. Though that could create problems with the working rotas. So maybe an evening would be best. What do you think?’
‘Er…yes…I suppose so,’ Hannah said slowly, taken aback at the sudden invitation.
‘So when?’
He actually sounded keen, she thought in continuing surprise. Was he going to slot her in when the leggy brunette wasn’t available?
She’d only seen him with the woman once, yet she was jealous. It was the way the woman had hooked her arm in his that had sparked it off. As if she had a claim on him. But, then, what was wrong if she had? It was Kyle’s own business who he spent his leisure hours with, and surprisingly, at the moment, she was in the frame.
‘I don’t mind when. I’ll leave it to you to choose,’ she told him, and thought at the same time that he could be using the phone call to invite her out, rather than asking her face to face. But since when had Kyle Templeton ever been nervous in her presence? The boot was on the other foot.
At that moment the sister in charge of the trauma unit came out into the corridor and Hannah said quickly, ‘I’m about to get some news on the injured biker. Do you want to hold on?’
‘No. We have some Ministry of Health officials due to visit the unit any time. I’ll speak to you when you get back.’
‘The patient has head and spinal injuries and is in a serious condition,’ the sister told Hannah. ‘He’s gone for X-rays and will almost certainly go right into Theatre as soon as we get the results. We’ve been resuscitating him ever since he was brought in and he’s only just hanging on.’
Hannah nodded gravely. The news was no better than she’d expected. It was just so sad that a lorry driver should have taken his eyes off the road for a second and ended up being responsible for such a terrible tragedy.
So much for vowing to leave Hannah alone, Kyle thought as he put the phone down. She’d asked him if he needed her and he hadn’t been able to resist taking her up on it. Even though he’d been well aware that she was referring to the job, he’d used it as an excuse to ask her out. Surprisingly, it had worked.
He was sick of seeing her all the time and never getting near her. There wasn’t a night that passed when he didn’t have to restrain himself from going down to her apartment and knocking on her door.
When they’d first met up again it had seemed as if there was a lifetime to put things right between them, but she was already making plans for when the six months were up, checking out vacancies for accident and emergency consultants in the various hospitals.
So far as he knew her enquiries hadn’t included anything London-based, which meant that once she’d finished this last part of her training he wouldn’t see her any more.
Was she staying clear of work in the capital because of him? he wondered. Because she wanted a clean break? Permanent this time.
Could he cope with that? Letting her out of his sight again? Why hadn’t he taken advantage when she’d said she would marry him on any terms, because she’d been so concerned about what Ben’s situation would be if anything happened to his father?
If he didn’t make the most of this night at the theatre with a special meal afterwards, he was a fool.
At that moment the VIPs he’d been expecting arrived, and if the efficient head of the helicopter medical service seemed preoccupied as he showed them round, it was thought to be due to the budgeting economies that they were contemplating.
‘Which show would you like to see?’ he asked Hannah when she arrived back at base.
‘Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,’ she said immediately. ‘I believe it’s on somewhere in the city. I saw it once long ago and loved it.’
He’d smiled and for a moment Hannah felt that all their differences were forgotten. They were just two people who wanted to be with each other. At least that was how she felt. Kyle was his usual enigmatic self, but she consoled herself with the thought that he wouldn’t have asked her out if it wasn’t what he wanted.
‘So you’re sure that any night I can get tickets for is all right with you?’ he was asking.
She nodded, realising that he would deduce from that just how full her social calendar was.
As she turned away he called her back. ‘Ben is coming to stay with me over the weekend. Mum and Dad have been invited to stay with friends in Henley for a couple of days. It’s the couple’s silver wedding. So they’re going to drop Ben off here on the way.’
Hannah’s face lit up.
‘Am I likely to see anything of him?’
Kyle smiled.
‘Yes, if that’s what you want. How would you like to come house-hunting with us?’
‘I’d love to,’ she said with unconscious wistfulness.
‘Is Saturday afternoon all right? I’ll make some appointments with house agents.’
‘Yes, fine,’ she agreed.
At least it would be if she was in on it, instead of being cast in the role of interested onlooker.
Some of the regular staff on the unit had been asking Hannah where she intended moving to when she’d finished her training, but she’d had to tell them that as yet she didn’t know.
Pete and Graham were two of them, along with Jack, whose affair with a receptionist from Harley Street was over.
He was back on her case, asking her out all the time and accepting her refusals with his usual good nature.
‘I thought that you and the chief had something going a while back,’ he said one day when they shared a table in the staff dining room, ‘but I get the feeling that it has sunk without trace.’
He couldn’t have put it more aptly, Hannah thought as she declined to answer, but thankfully there might be a relaunch in the offing, in the form of an afternoon spent with Kyle and Ben and a night out at the theatre.
‘I’ve booked the theatre tickets for a week on Friday,’ Kyle informed Hannah the following day. ‘Is that all right with you?’
She smiled across at him. ‘Yes. That will be fine. I’m looking forward to it.’
‘Me, too,’ he said, his voice softening.
They were outside in the passage and at that moment were alone. Suddenly it was there, the force that had lain dormant ever since the night in his parents’ garden. Oblivious to their surroundings, uncaring that any second they might
be interrupted, they moved towards each other. As Kyle took her in his arms and claimed her mouth with his, Hannah gave herself up to the moment.
It was doomed from the start. It had to be, because of where they were. Within seconds they could hear voices and footsteps approaching and he had to release her. But their glances still held, unable to let go.
‘We’ve got a call-out, Hannah,’ Jack said suddenly from behind her. Bringing herself back from some far-away place, she nodded.
‘Ambulance services say there’s been a shotgun wounding in the East End and we’re needed pronto,’ he informed her.
‘I’ll see you folks later, then,’ Kyle said briskly, and as if they had been doing nothing more than passing the time of day he strolled into the operations room.
‘You look a trifle flustered, Dr Morgan,’ the pilot said as they took off. ‘Am I to take it that you were involved in a “fast response” of your own when I interrupted just then?’
‘You could say that.’
‘Ah! So you and the boss are back on again! It’s easy to see that he has his sights on you, but I wasn’t sure if you felt the same.’
‘What do you mean—Kyle having his sights on me?’
‘I mean that he never takes his eyes off you.’
‘Rubbish. That’s because he doesn’t trust me.’
She’d said it jokingly, but it brought her down to earth. The fact that they could melt towards each other as they just had didn’t mean that Kyle really had put the past behind him. She hadn’t forgotten the look on his face when he’d seen Paul sitting opposite her in the hospital restaurant.
But there wasn’t time for speculating. Jack was about to bring the Eurocopter down onto waste ground beside an East End pub that was surrounded by police. If that and the flashing lights of an ambulance were anything to go by, there was big trouble down below.
‘Looks like a shoot out,’ the paramedic who was with her said apprehensively.
They were touching down at that moment and Hannah stared at him. ‘I was under the impression that the shooting had already taken place and we’ve been called out to treat the victim.’
‘Yes, but there wouldn’t be so many police about if it was all over.’
The man who’d been shot was lying in the pub car park with ambulance staff bending over him. As they hurried towards them a senior police officer blocked their way.
‘We have a dangerous situation here, Doctor,’ he said. ‘The gunman is holed up inside the public house and he’s got the landlord and his wife as hostages, so we daren’t rush the place.’
‘I see,’ she said slowly, ‘but that shouldn’t affect us, should it? Once I’ve treated the man we’ll airlift him out with all speed. So if you’ll excuse me…’
There was no time to be standing, talking. The victim could be dying at this very minute, she thought as she ran to where he lay.
He’d been running away and the blast had almost missed him. As it was, there was some damage to his shoulder, but the rest of him seemed to be intact. Which was a minor miracle, knowing the injuries such a weapon could inflict.
Conscious, and obviously in a state of terror, he moaned, ‘Don’t let him come near me. He tried to kill me! We were getting ready for opening and the landlord was about to go to the bank. He’d just taken yesterday’s takings out of the safe when this guy appeared from nowhere, waving a gun. He told us all to lie on the floor, but I was nearest to the door and I panicked and ran outside. That was when he shot me.’
The ambulance man with him nodded. ‘Luckily some guy was going past with a mobile and he phoned us and the police.’
‘You don’t need to worry about being attacked again,’ Hannah told her patient. ‘The gunman won’t be going anywhere for a while. He’s inside the pub with the landlord and his wife and the place is surrounded.
‘You’re lucky. Part of your shoulder caught the blast, but it could have been a lot worse if he’d got you full on.’
As she opened her kit to treat him a voice from inside the public house bellowed, ‘There’s a woman in here, chokin’. If blondie’s a doctor you’d better send her in.’
Hannah got to her feet and picked up her bag. ‘You carry on here,’ she told the paramedic. ‘It looks as if I’m needed elsewhere.’
Suddenly a burly, bald-headed man opened the door. His face was as white as a sheet and he cried, ‘She’s having an asthma attack. You’ve got to send the doc in to my missus. She’s going to die if you don’t!’
Hannah didn’t wait for permission. She’d seen fatalities from severe asthma attacks in the past and couldn’t stand by to let it happen again when there was something she could do.
She was quaking inside but her step didn’t falter as she went through the front door. It was dark inside and it took a few seconds for her to focus. When she did the first thing she saw was a slim youth holding a shotgun.
His hands were trembling and Hannah thought, The crazy young fool. He’s more nervous than I am.
The landlord was at her elbow, pulling her towards a room at the back of the bar, and as she followed him she could hear the harsh, rasping breaths of the asthmatic woman.
There was cyanosis present. Her face and lips were blue, her skin pale and clammy. Those symptoms alone were sufficient for Hannah to assess the seriousness of the attack.
‘Has she used her bronchodilator?’ she asked of the frantic husband.
‘Yes!’ he cried. ‘But it’s done no good.’
‘We’ll repeat the dose,’ she said quickly, ‘and if that doesn’t work a fast trip to hospital is going to be needed.’
The lad had come to stand behind them, cradling the gun in the crook of his arm. When he heard that he cried, ‘You ain’t taking ’er out of here.’
‘Do you want two deaths on your conscience?’ Hannah asked levelly as she prepared to give the patient a straight injection instead of trusting the slower relief of the inhaler.
He blanched. ‘Why, is the cellar man dead?’
It seemed the right moment to exaggerate and so she said, ‘Not yet, but shotgun injuries often end up fatal and none of these people have done you any harm. I’m going to tell my assistant to send the man you shot to hospital by ambulance, and the lady will be going by helicopter.’
The youth’s face lightened. ‘Now, that’s different. The chopper—of course. You can give me a lift at the same time.’
‘What?’
‘I’m coming with you, Doc.’
Suddenly he was macho man, his panic forgotten. ‘I’ll tell you where I want dropping off. So let’s get moving, shall we?’
The landlord’s wife was beginning to breath more easily but she was still in great distress and every time her eyes fixed on the shotgun she started to choke all over again.
‘Walk her to the chopper,’ the youth commanded, adding with a glance at the sweating landlord, ‘He can stay here. There won’t be room for him.’
‘First of all I have to tell my assistant that we’re going to need the helicopter and that he has to send the injured man by road,’ she insisted.
‘And while you’re doing it you can tell the coppers to keep back as we make our way towards it…or I might get trigger-happy.’
‘I’m all right’ she told the fraught paramedic when he answered his mobile, ‘but you’ll have to send your patient by road. We need to get the lady to hospital as quickly as possible…And will you tell the police that our young gunman is travelling with us and demands that they stay well back, or—’
‘He’ll shoot you!’ he croaked. ‘The boss is on his way and is he mad…’
Mad? Hannah thought absently. Why was Kyle mad? She was doing what she was paid for—treating the sick.
The rest of what he had to say was lost as the phone was snatched out of her hand. ‘Come on, then, Doc,’ the lad said. ‘Get her movin’.’
With the woman leaning heavily on Hannah and wheezing noisily with every step, they made their way to where the helicopter wa
s waiting. The police were hovering like beasts ready to pounce on their prey, but having heard the message from the gunman they made no move.
As the door of the helicopter slid open Hannah’s eyes widened. It wasn’t Jack or his copilot looking down on them. Someone else had arrived at the scene while she’d been inside the public house and she immediately felt less afraid.
There was grim purpose in the glance meeting hers and a tightness of jaw that told her Kyle wasn’t about to let their helicopter be taken over by a gunman.
‘This lady needs urgent hospital treatment,’ she said quickly. ‘And the young man with the gun wants a lift.’
Kyle smiled. ‘Sure thing, Dr Morgan. But let’s get the patient on board first, shall we?’
The lad had his back to them, menacing the police with the shotgun while they were helping the patient on board. But as soon as Hannah had followed her he swivelled round, ready to join them. It was then that he met the toe of Kyle’s boot right on the chin.
With a howl of pain he dropped the gun and then it was all over. Before he could retrieve his weapon Kyle was on him, with the police close behind. Within minutes he was handcuffed and being pushed into the back seat of one of the police cars.
‘Anchors away, then,’ Kyle said smoothly, as if disarming a gunman was part of a day’s work. As they began lifting off from the car park the reality of what she had just been part of hit Hannah.
To find Kyle there at a time when they’d all been in such danger was something she would never forget. All right, it was all part and parcel of the job, but if the way he was looking at her was anything to go by, he was someone who had just been to hell and back.
He might be putting on a calm front for the sick woman and the other members of his staff, but it was there in his eyes, the knowledge that she could have been killed at any moment since entering the public house.
CHAPTER NINE
WHEN the paramedic had phoned to say that Hannah had gone into the public house where the armed robber was holding a publican and his wife hostage, Kyle’s face whitened.
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