She looked up.
Into Jennifer Henedy’s brown eyes.
Izzie jumped to her feet. This was not what she wanted at all. Not now. Then she looked beyond the councilwoman. Into the face that still haunted her nightmares.
Izzie screamed.
He raised his hand and fired. Just like he had before.
106
The surgery had gone well. Nikkie Jean had to admit the man who’d taken the other side of the table from her seemed to know what he was doing.
He’d taught both Rafe and Allen, after all. Allen had told her personally that he had no question about the man’s skill, or brilliance, it was his personal choices that made him such an asshole.
Nikkie Jean had to agree, even though Jeoffrey Stockton appeared reasonably pleasant to her. Izzie had one hundred percent of her loyalty.
Baby Alien Alvaro—as the kids had named the baby—kicked her hard. She strongly suspected it was a boy, who would be as big as his six and a half-foot father someday.
And probably huge at birth.
Nikkie Jean was starting to get nervous. She had another ultrasound scheduled in the morning. They’d find out more then.
Jillian, her friend and future sister-in-law was one week further along. The fathers were identical twins. Yet Jillian was only half the size of Nikkie Jean.
People in the hospital were taking bets that Nikkie Jean’s baby would be a ten-pounder.
That was so going to hurt.
Dr. Stockton called her name.
Nikkie Jean turned.
Just as someone screamed outside the door. As something loud cracked on the other side of the walls.
Nikkie Jean would never forget that sound.
Dr. Stockton grabbed her shoulder. From behind. Nikkie Jean flinched. She’d always hated that.
There were others in the room. Stockton nudged Nikkie Jean back toward Sarina and the four others in the surgical suite. “Stay here, Dr. Netorre. None of you are to leave this room until security tells you differently. Lock the doors. Barricade them if you have to.”
She looked straight at him. “Izzie’s out there.”
“I know. I’m going to go find her.”
He didn’t hesitate for even a moment. He was out of the suite in almost an instant.
Nikkie Jean hit the panel to lock them all in.
They weren’t going anywhere.
107
Izzie flinched. Her hands rose in front of her, and she screamed again. Wallace cursed. “Sit down, Lizzie. I’m not here to hurt you, honey.”
The girl was shaking, terrified. No wonder.
Wallace looked at Jennifer. “Well, you’re a mother. Help her calm down. I need to think.”
“She’s not our daughter, Wallace. She’s definitely not a child if she’s been screwing around with Allen Jacobson,” Jennifer said in a calm, even tone. She had always managed to handle herself in times of turmoil. Much better than Wallace ever could. “We buried Elizabeth twenty-six years ago, remember?”
“Of course, I know that.” He did. It was just…too hard now to keep it straight. “I killed her.”
Jennifer’s expression softened. “No, you didn’t. It was just bad luck. What do you call it? A genetic anomaly. Nothing we could have done would have changed it.”
“But I…should have been able to fix it. Did you know…it’s curable now? Dr. Lanning found a procedure that works now. Not like it was twenty-six years ago. I helped him. I helped him. I wouldn’t have, if it hadn’t been for Elizabeth.”
It was Wallace’s greatest accomplishment. He liked to think he’d helped save thousands of children’s lives. Maybe his life wasn’t going to be completely wasted.
“I know. What are we doing here, Wallace? I really don’t want to talk to one of your whores.”
He pulled in a breath. “Don’t call her that. She’s just an innocent kid I hurt. When I was angry at you.”
Wallace had his hand on the trigger. He lifted it. Toward the two women he never wanted to hurt again. But…
He had a mess to clean up. This was it. “Tell her, Jennifer. Everything that you did to hurt her. Everything.”
Izzie was still frozen. He had her trapped, and he knew it.
Wallace stepped toward. She screamed again. Izzie tried to run. He could almost feel his little girl’s terror now.
He raised the gun one more time. “No! Don’t move. Sit down.”
108
Allen knew something was happening the instant he started out of the ER after Virat had arrived to take his place.
People were moving. Far too quickly for a normal day at FCGH. He grabbed Gwyn when she passed him. “What’s going on?”
“Hostage situation.” Her eyes were wild and panicked. “I saw him. I saw him myself. He had his wife with him. And a gun.”
“Who?” His first thoughts would always be with Izzie and Shelby. “Where?”
“Fifth floor. I…it was Dr. Henedy! We’re following standard operating procedure now.”
Allen cursed and ran. He knew. There were only two people in the world that Wallace Henedy could be looking for with a gun.
Izzie. And Nikkie Jean.
The doors to each floor could be locked from the security department now.
He had to get there before that happened.
His world was on the fifth floor.
Izzie wasn’t going to lose her cool now. She couldn’t. There were people in this hospital who would come for her. Unless he killed her first. That was a real possibility.
“Dr. Henedy, what are you doing?” She didn’t know how she did it, but the question came out without two much wobbling. Calm. She had to stay calm.
She was close to the surgical department’s door. The instant someone reported the gunshot to security, every floor would be locked down until the TSP arrived and cleared each floor.
They were on the fifth.
There were only six floors at FCGH.
It was going to be a while.
Izzie sat down gently in the chair.
He kept staring at her. He had his hand wrapped around his wife’s elbow.
There was blood all over her. Other fluids she didn’t want to think about. Smeared over her purple silk robe.
“Is she hurt, Dr. Henedy? Your wife?” She didn’t think so, but Izzie had to keep him talking. Talking was better than shooting.
“No. She’s not hurt. It’s not her blood. It was his.”
“Who?”
The woman sobbed. Izzie looked at her. There was a wild look of grief in the woman’s eyes that hadn’t been there before. “It was Kyle’s. He didn’t deserve this, Wallace.”
“None of our kids do. We made it happen.” Henedy started pacing in front of the door.
Like he’d done before. Izzie watched. Waited. Last time she’d been in his direct line of fire. This time…she wasn’t.
His own wife was.
There had to be a way to get away from him. There was a back exit out of the surgical wing. She had to get there. The patients in surgery right now were too close to what was happening, too. If she ran that way and he followed—he’d know every inch of that wing, too—she risked putting vulnerable patients and people she knew at risk.
Including Shelby. And Nikkie Jean.
Nikkie Jean was back there; he had to stay away from Nikkie Jean.
Izzie stood. She put herself between him and the door to the operating rooms. “What did the two of you do? You tell me. Then…you tell me why me. Why did you do it to me?”
109
Wallace noticed the way she was rasping almost immediately. Of course; stress could and often did cause an asthma flare. That was the last thing she needed. “Do you have an inhaler, Lizzie?”
“My name is Izzie.”
“I know that,” he said quietly. “It’s hard to remember sometimes. Especially when I’m under so much stress. I think about my daughter then. She…would have been your age. I’ve always imagined her looking like her
mother. I’m sorry. Don’t be afraid of me, Izzie. I’m not here to hurt you. Do you have a rescue inhaler?”
She should. He knew she carried a bag with her everywhere. Even to take the puppy out. She nodded. “By the chair.”
Near Jennifer. He looked at his wife. “Get her medicine. Hurry; she needs her medicine.”
Jennifer did as he ordered, grabbing the small bag, but he could see the irritation in his wife’s eyes.
Side by side like this, he could see the differences. The similarities.
Izzie was an inch or so taller. Her hair several shades darker. Her eyes were big and soft. Scared.
Jennifer’s were cold and angry. Bitter and hard.
She slapped the bag into Izzie’s hand. Jennifer shot Izzie a glare filled of such hate Wallace winced. “Now, both of you, sit down. We need to straighten this out. Before—”
“Before what, Wallace? Before you ruin everything else? Who are you going to kill next? Was Kyle only the second? Or are there more?” Jennifer’s voice got quieter as she spoke. A sure sign she was angry.
Wallace raised the gun and pointed it at the other half of his heart. “Sit down. You are going to tell Izzie what you did. How you are responsible for the bastards breaking her arm and almost killing her in Brownsville. How you hired someone to shoot her tonight at the charity. Tell her. Tell her now.”
“What does it matter? What are you going to do to me?” his wife asked. Taunting him. Why was she taunting him?
“I’m going to clean up our mess, Jenny. The way I should have a long time ago.”
110
Jennifer was almost certain he’d never slept with that girl. There had to be a reason why he’d done this to begin with.
Kyle.
She’d held him in her arms as he’d died. It had taken him less than five minutes. Five minutes to end such a beautiful life. His eyes had stared into hers while she held him.
Wallace had refused to help him. Said there was no point. He’d hit an artery. Kyle had bled to death in her arms.
At Wallace’s hands. She could never forgive him that. How could she?
She had loved Kyle so much. Kyle. Carl. Dennis Lee.
Wallace. She had loved him most of all. This was what happened.
Maybe she had caused all of this. She had lost every man she had ever loved.
Except Reggie. He was as good as lost to her now, too.
The girl just sat, quietly watching Wallace.
This was the first time Jennifer had ever been that close to her. It was rather like looking in a mirror to the past. The cheekbones and jaw were certainly different. The skin tone. The hair, the eye color, the build. She could see it.
“What are you going to do?” Jennifer asked. “This isn’t exactly taking care of things. What about Reggie?”
Their son was supposed to get out of here in the morning.
Reggie was one floor down from where they were right now. “He’s not going to understand this, Wallace.”
“No. I don’t think he will.” He looked at the girl. “There are journals. He’ll want them some day.”
“Allen had them. He turned them over to the TSP,” the nurse said. “Is that what this is about? He read them. He said there was nothing in them that stood out.”
“He read all twelve?”
“There were eleven. He read them while we were…traveling.”
“Twelve. There were twelve.” Wallace stepped closer to her. Jennifer watched as the girl flinched away. “I’m sorry about that. I didn’t know about it until today. It wasn’t a car accident , was it?”
“No. You need to get out of here, Dr. Henedy. There are patients in there now. You know Vince will be watching on security videos. And Rafe won’t let you do anything to hurt this hospital. Someone will be coming here, soon.”
Jennifer had to hand it to her—that nurse wasn’t panicking.
There wasn’t any hint of intimacy between them. Not like she’d seen between him and other women he’d slept with. Like Darla Carrington.
Jennifer had known, long before Darla had tried to rub it in.
No. He hadn’t slept with this girl.
Which made even less sense to her now.
“Why did you shoot her that day, Wallace? Why her?”
111
Allen stared at Vince. “Get out of my way. Now.”
“Hell, Jacobson, you know I can’t let you through.”
“I’m going in there.” Everyone else had been evacuated through the emergency exit of the surgical ward. They’d only had two patients in procedures at the moment—Shelby and a child. “Izzie’s in there with a madman.”
Allen had arrived as Cage and his team were prepping Shelby to move her. Nikkie Jean’s patient and the rest of the surgical team had already been evacuated safely. They were now in the east wing—as far away from this section of the hospital as possible.
No one knew where Izzie was.
Until Allen had come face-to-face with Izzie’s father.
He’d been leading the evacuations of the two surgical teams. He’d told Allen what he knew.
Henedy had Izzie and his wife in the waiting room. Alone.
Allen had cursed and ran to the rear entrance to the waiting room.
Vince had already been there, locking down the surgical ward.
Now…Vince was all that stood between Allen and Izzie. “Move.”
“Hell, Allen, you know I can’t let you in there. It’ll be my head.”
“That’s my world in there. What if it was Cherise in there? What would you do then?”
That had Vince hesitating. Then the older man shook his head. “I understand. I can’t let you in there. That would just be giving him one more hostage. Rafe is on his way up now. The TSP are on their way back. They’ll get her out of there.”
Allen wasn’t waiting around for that to happen.
112
Izzie had always wondered why. It seemed like she was going to get her answer now. She didn’t matter here. She had no illusions. Whatever was happening around her was happening between them. She was incidental.
That didn’t exactly reassure her.
“I told you before. I looked at her and for a moment there, she turned into you. I was so angry, Jenny. I didn’t understand why you could end our marriage on that day. The day we buried Ray. That should have been a day for him. For us to talk about him, and grieve together with Reggie as a family should. I…just reacted.”
That was it. A marital spat with his wife and he’d shot Izzie.
There really wasn’t any rhyme or reason behind it.
That didn’t exactly make her feel better. That didn’t cover all of it. Not by far. “What about Nikkie Jean? Why did you go after her? Was it because of her parents? Revenge? Did you not like that she turned you down for Caine?”
He shook his head and looked at her for a moment. “No. I…she saw me.”
“Doing what?” Izzie asked, standing. She wasn’t going to face him sitting down. No.
She was going to face him on equal footing, at least.
“With…a nurse. I didn’t want that getting back to…the wrong person.” His look told her who that wrong person was.
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“I…that nurse is dead now. I didn’t want people putting my name with hers. They’d know. So…I…focused on Nikkie Jean and hurt her when I shouldn’t have. Then…and the day of the storm.”
“How?”
A guilty look crossed his face. Izzie crossed her arms over her chest and waited. Apparently, Wallace Henedy was in a confessing mood. “I sedated her. I was going to ask her a few questions. But she got out of my car. I lost her in the storm. Until she came into my tent that day.”
“That’s why she was so lethargic. She could have been killed out there.” It answered that question—and why he had never ordered blood tests that day. He hadn’t wanted to get caught.
“I know. I never wanted to hurt her. Or you. Or C
onnie or Miranda or…anyone else. I just…got angry and things spiraled out of control. For that…that I am sorry. I’m here…to make things right. To make you understand.”
“What?”
“Don’t be like us, Lizzie. Not like us. Don’t repeat mine and Jenny’s mistakes. I want you to promise me you won’t. You deserved better for parents.”
Izzie looked at him. The man was…mad. There was no other word for it. “You aren’t my parents. The only parent I have is my uncle Jake.”
113
They could hear everything the man was saying. Allen stood outside the waiting room door, trying to determine what they needed to do to get Izzie and Wallace Henedy’s wife out of there. Out of the line of fire.
Stockton stood next to him. He’d surprised Allen. The older man had tackled Vince like a pro, then yelled for Allen to go, to get his daughter to safety. Within a moment, he was behind Allen.
Vince came up the rear, limping on his already bad leg. Vince was scowling, but he wasn’t arguing any longer.
“I’m going in,” Allen said.
“That’s damned stupid,” Vince said. “You’ll get both of you killed.”
“Is it?” He leveled a look at the head of security. “I know you have a .38. Give it to me.”
“You think I’m giving you a weapon now? Hell no. You’ll go in there and get yourself shot. Don’t be stupid, or suicidal, Jacobson. He’s not waving the gun around. He seems reasonably stable. Wait for the TSP.”
While Izzie was in danger.
Allen couldn’t do that. “They’ll take too long.”
“No, they won’t.” Another voice said from behind Vince. One Allen recognized.
Jake MacNamara stepped into the hallway from the emergency entrance. “What the hell is going on here?”
Allen’s plans changed in an instant. This was the one other man on the planet who loved Izzie as much as Allen did. “Easy. You’re going to take advantage of the distraction I’m about to cause. Get Izzie out of there.”
We All Sleep Alone Page 32