Heart Like Mine (35 page)

“I'm not sure we really have anything to say to each other right now, Delaney.” He stood up. “Please. Don't insult me.”

She felt a tiny ice ball growing spikes in her stomach. “Kevin was lying.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “About which part? Your tendency to lie about what you're planning to present to the board? Or your penchant for letting other people deliver your bad news?”

“Wha—”

A loud popping sound silenced her, and Joshua immediately turned back toward Delaney, grabbing her around the waist and pushing her to the floor.

“Get down!” he hissed, pointing. “Go! Over by the bookcase.”

“Was that—” Delaney felt her eyes go wide as she scrambled backward.

He nodded, fumbling his phone out of his pocket and dialing 911 as they heard another pop. In a low voice, he gave his name, then said, “Mercy Hospital, third floor pediatrics. Shots fired.”

Delaney heard a scream, then a deep voice yelling, “I want the doc. You tell me where the doc is and nobody else gets hurt.”

Nobody
else
? Her mind raced through all of the patients and staff members on the floor. Who had he shot, for God's sake? Who
was
he?

She saw Joshua's face go white. They were in a room with glass walls and a glass door. The bookcase was flimsy protection.

The hospital-wide intercom beeped to life, emitting the lockdown code they'd all drilled on, but had prayed they'd never have to use.

“Oh, doc-tor!” the man called out in a singsong voice.

“Any idea who it is?” Delaney whispered.

He shook his head, then grabbed her hand. “Come on. We need to make a run for the storeroom before he gets any closer.”

They ran on tiptoes across the hallway to a tiny room that housed a couple of wheeled carts with equipment on them. Joshua closed the metal door silently, flipping off the lights as he turned the lock.

Delaney's phone beeped with an incoming text from Megan, and she scrambled to shut off the sound before she looked at the message.

Where are you? Please not peds!

She tapped out a message back, then pocketed her phone. She tried to calm her ragged breathing as they heard the guy get closer to their end of the hallway, but the closer he got, the more she was afraid he could hear every breath she was taking. The seconds stretched out like minutes, and every terrified cell in her body wanted to bury itself against Joshua right now, but she couldn't.

Where was security, anyway? How long could it take to get up here?

She closed her eyes in the darkness. It had probably only been fifteen seconds since he'd fired the first shot. Even the express elevator couldn't move that fast.

Another shot made her wince.
Oh, God!
She held her breath as she looked at the bottom of the door and saw a shadow of feet walking slowly by the storage room. Then the feet stopped, like he knew exactly where they were. Delaney was sure he could hear her heart trying to thud itself right through her ribs.

“Next one's gonna be a kid, doc.” The man's voice was frighteningly calm. “Payback for taking mine away.”

Joshua reached for the door handle, motioning for her to move away from the door and stay hidden.

She shook her head rapidly. If he was going, so was she.

He leaned down, mouth at her ear. “Stay here. Security's not going to get here before he hurts more people.”

“I'm coming—”

They heard a shuffle, then a screech from Annabeth's room, and they both reached for the door.

“Don't!” Joshua rushed out, Delaney on his heels.

Then they both stopped cold.

The guy was holding Annabeth in front of him like a shield, and the teenager's eyes were wide with terror as he pointed a gun toward her head.

 

Chapter 31

“You Dr. Mackenzie?”

Joshua put both hands in the air, taking a small step toward him. “Yes. Please let her go.”

The man's grip tightened, making Annabeth squeak in fear. “Don't think I will. You and me have some talking to do first.”

Delaney froze in place, trying not to startle the guy by moving. Her eyes sought to meet Annabeth's, to somehow try to reassure her she was going to be all right, but she was dead afraid that the girl would see the fear in her own eyes.

She had no idea if they
were
going to be all right.

As she tried to listen for security personnel, she was struck by how completely silent the floor had gone. Instead of the usual bustle and chaos, there was utter, dreadful silence.

“What would you like to talk about?” Joshua's voice was low, calm.

“Not here.” He pointed the gun at a patient room across the hall. “Everybody in there.”

Delaney caught Joshua's eye as they backed toward the room with their hands in the air. Dammit—she knew the room had two patients in it.

Joshua slowed, but the man waved the gun at Joshua. “Hurry up. Unlock the door.”

Joshua kept one hand in the air while he pulled his badge free to wave it against the security pad, and the door clicked. Delaney heard gasps from inside as it opened, and was horrified to see that not only were there two patients in the room—there were four other adults and a nurse as well.

“Well, isn't this just perfect?” The man looked around, taking in the scene. Then he waved the gun again. Annabeth stumbled, and Delaney saw tears running down her cheeks, but the teenager stayed silent.

“Everybody over there by the beds where I can see you. Hands in front of you at all times. Don't even think about trying anything, or you'll have the same fate as the other three.”

Delaney swallowed hard. Three.
Oh, God
.

“Okay,” Joshua's voice was open, steady. Delaney had no idea how he was staying so calm. “Let's talk. I know you don't really want to hurt anyone. Let's talk this through.”

The man raised his eyebrows. “I'm not stupid, you know. Not crazy either, so don't talk to me like I am.”

“Okay.” Joshua nodded.

“I want my son back. That's why I'm here, and I'm not leaving till I get him.”

Delaney felt her eyebrows furrow. Wanted his son back? Had he—died? Had this man gone over the ledge out of grief?

“Who's your son, sir?”

The man tipped his head like
Joshua
was crazy now. “Ian. The one you stole. You and
Delaney
, whoever that is.” He spat out her name like it tasted of gasoline.

Joshua closed his eyes and let his head fall back a millimeter.
Oh
, she could practically hear him saying inside.

The guy waved his gun again, and as one, the people trapped in the room ducked. “I know he's here somewhere. And if I have to start bumping off people in order to get him, then that's what I'll do.”

He pointed the gun directly at Delaney, and she swallowed, but tried to keep her chin up. “This Delaney? Maybe I'll start with her.”

“Let's focus on Ian.” Joshua took a slight step to the left, shielding Delaney.

Delaney breathed out as the gun dipped a couple of inches and the man's eyes went back to Joshua. Then he looked wildly behind him as they all heard pounding feet in the hallway. He'd closed and locked the door when they'd come in, and now he turned to point the gun toward the door.

“Mr. Dawson, this is Lieutenant Schirling. Are you in there, sir?”

Ian's father shook his head, speaking softly. “Only time I get called
sir
is when I've got hostages. Go figure.”

Delaney looked around the room while he was focused on the door. Way too many frightened eyes looked back at her.

“Mr. Dawson? We know you're in there, and we know you're upset. How about you come on out, and we can figure this all out?”

Delaney heard the lieutenant's voice, calm and measured like Joshua's had been, but as she watched Ian's dad's eyes, she knew the police weren't going to be any more successful than Joshua had been so far.

“I just want my son,” he called through the door. “You give me my son, and we can all walk out of here without any more bloodshed.”

“Your son is safe,” Joshua said, quietly. “He's safe now.”

“Safe where? Safe how? He was
safe
at home. He was
safe
with my wife. And now she's in jail, some bitch social worker has been to the house three times this week, and everybody's saying Fiona tried to—tried to kill him. You've ruined our lives!”

“Ian was a very, very sick boy when he came in. We did our best to help him get better.” Joshua sat down slowly on one of the beds, projecting a calm that no one else in the room felt.

“You took him away. You took her, and then you took him. You had no right.”

“I had no choice, and I'm sorry that this happened. I really am. I'm sure you had no idea what was going on when you weren't at home, because if you had, you would have stopped it.”

Delaney heard his words—heard how he was removing blame in hopes of getting them all out of here alive—and she marveled at his cool control.

“Damn right I would ha—” Mr. Dawson stopped as he seemed to realize what he'd been about to say. “You had no right. I'm taking my boy home.”

Delaney couldn't hear anything out in the hallway now, but had a feeling every word spoken inside this room was somehow being monitored and recorded. Without moving her head, she glanced at the intercom over the first patient bed and saw the red light glimmering. They
were
listening.

“Let's see if we can make that happen.” Joshua nodded, like he was considering it. “But I have to tell you, coming in here and doing it like this isn't going to work. They'll never let him leave with you if you come in shooting.”

“I didn't have a choice. I couldn't get anybody to listen.” His voice broke. “You people don't even know him. You don't know what's right for him.”

The man took a ragged breath, but didn't let the gun drop any farther. Joshua just sat quietly, but Delaney could see his calves flexing under his khakis. Was he planning to do something stupid and make a move on the guy? Try to take him out at the knees?

Get shot?

She took a shaky breath, then said, “I know his favorite color is green.”

His dad rolled his eyes.

She barreled on. “And he loves carrots but hates peas. He wants to be a veterinarian someday. He loves fish, but not the zebra-striped ones because they freak him out. He likes the tree house you built him last summer, and he's hoping to have a sleepover in it with you when he gets out of the hospital.”

He looked at her, narrowing his eyes, but he didn't speak, so she kept going. “He loves Go Fish, but not Old Maid, and he's figured out enough ways to cheat at checkers that nobody here can beat him. He worries about his older sister worrying about
him
, and he wishes you could be home more, but he understands you have a really hard job. Did you know he wears your extra boots around the house all day long, just waiting for the day when he's big enough to go to work with you?”

Delaney kept her eyes steadily on his, and as she did, she noticed his shoulders dropping—noticed the gun falling downward toward his side. She had to keep talking.

“Mr. Dawson, Ian loves you. He wants to go home with you, and we want that, too. But we have to do it the right way. We have to do it when he's all better.”

“Where is he?” His voice was soft, pained, and even through her fear, Delaney felt a stab of sympathy for the man who'd lost his son and wife in one fell swoop.

“I don't know,” she answered.

The gun came back up, and she tensed. “Bullshit.”

“She doesn't.” Joshua spoke quietly from the bed. “And now that you're here, I don't, either, because the first thing they would have done upon seeing you come in like this was move him somewhere secure.”

“Where I can't get to him, you mean?”

Joshua took a deep breath. “Would you want him to see you like this? Really?”

He sighed. “No.”

“How about you let Annabeth go, and we'll take a walk out of the room—see if maybe you can see him?”

Delaney felt her eyebrows furrow. Surely, the moment he left the room, he'd be in handcuffs. Did Joshua really think the guy didn't know that? He wasn't going to fall for a lie—not when he was this far in.

Not when he had hostages to help him control the situation.

“If I walk out of this room, I'm going to get a free ride to the police station, doc. We both know that.”

“Maybe,” Joshua allowed. “But it'll go a lot better for you if you let this end right now, before anybody else gets hurt.”

“Nobody's hurt.” He shook his head sadly, like he couldn't believe his life had come to this moment. He gave Annabeth a little push toward Delaney, who caught her in a tight squeeze, then pushed her behind her own body. “I didn't shoot anybody.”

Delaney's eyes widened at his words.

“Even better.” Joshua stood up slowly, but she could tell from the tone of his voice that he wasn't sure whether he believed him. “How about if you hand me the gun, and then we'll open the door. That way it won't be in your hands when the officers first see you?”

Delaney held her breath. No way would he capitulate this easily. No way would he give over control of his weapon. It was the instrument of his power right now, and once he
did
give it up, all hell was going to break loose. He had to know that.

She saw a look of abject pain cross the man's face. “I'm going to jail, aren't I? My kids are going to have two parents in jail. Who's going to—oh, God—what have I done?” The gun shook in his hand, and Delaney saw Joshua notice as the man's hand gripped it harder, his finger edging closer to the trigger.