Her Dying Breath (43 page)

Brenda moaned and he gathered her in his arms. “Just rest, sweetheart, the medics will be here soon.” He pressed his shirt more firmly into her abdomen, but blood was soaking through fast.

Way too fast.

If the ambulance didn’t get there soon, she might not survive.

Brenda fought to remain conscious. She couldn’t believe they’d gotten so close to Seven and that she’d escaped. “Nick, you don’t have to stay with me,” she whispered. “Go find Seven.”

Nick pressed a finger to her lips to shush her. “I’m not leaving you, Brenda.”

The pain in her stomach had turned to a dull throb. Or maybe it was because she was so weak.

Nick stroked her hair, and she couldn’t help but close her eyes. She was so tired. Her limbs felt heavy, her head so dizzy that the last few minutes blurred in her mind. “Who was shooting?”

“I don’t know.” Anger hardened his voice. “Jake said a man coldcocked him outside by one of the bunkhouses.”

Brenda’s legs were starting to feel numb. “Was he shooting at us or Seven?”

A heartbeat passed. “Us. Probably one of the Commander’s hired guns. He must have followed you out here.”

“I didn’t see anyone,” Brenda said, her throat raw. “Nick?”

He continued to stroke her face, gently brushing her hair away from her cheek. “What?”

“If I don’t make it—”

“Shh,” Nick said, cutting off her sentence. “Don’t talk like that. We both know you’re too stubborn to let a gunshot wound get you.”

A smile tried to fight its way onto her face, but failed. Brenda’s eyes felt glued together. She tightened her grip on Nick’s arm. She wanted to hold on to him.

She wanted to live and finish the story and ask her parents what really happened at the sanitarium, ask them about the drug-addicted homeless woman.

Ask her father if he’d known about the experiments.

The thought made her ill, and she moaned as the world began to slip away.

“Brenda,” Nick said softly. “Hold on—the ambulance will be here soon.” He dropped a kiss into her hair, and Brenda relaxed in his arms and fell into the beckoning darkness.

Nick cradled Brenda to him, rocking her back and forth, emotions pummeling him. She couldn’t die.

Not now. Not here like this. Not when they hadn’t settled anything between them.

Not when he thought…that he loved her.

He kissed her hair, holding her tight, determined to assure her he was there. The seconds ticked into minutes that felt like days as he waited on the ambulance. Finally a siren’s wail blasted the air, and Nick released a breath he’d been holding.

They would get her to the hospital, and she’d be fine.

She had to be.

He eased her down on the floor, wadded his jacket up to serve as a pillow, then raced outside to meet the medics. The ambulance lights twirled against the night sky, then the vehicle roared to a stop.

“In here,” he shouted as the medics jumped from the ambulance. “She’s been shot in the abdomen, and she’s lost a lot of blood.”

“Adam and Joe here,” the blond medic said. “Is she conscious?”

“In and out,” Nick answered.

The men rushed around back to retrieve the stretcher and carried it into the building, along with their medical kit.

“Where’s the bullet?” Adam asked.

“Abdomen, right side. I haven’t looked for an exit wound yet.”

Brenda looked pale, her face beading with perspiration, and she was shivering.

“Brenda,” Nick said, then knelt beside her. “Help is here now. We’re going to get you to the hospital.”

She mumbled something he couldn’t understand, then the medics began to work on her. They took her vitals and exchanged worried looks.

“Oxygen level is not good. Heart rate one-sixty.”

Adam examined her wound, then rolled her to the side. “No exit wound. Bullet is lodged in the abdomen.”

“Respiratory rate is elevated,” Joe said as he started an IV drip in one arm.

Adam removed blood stoppers from the medical kit and pressed them onto the wound, then secured them with tape while Joe made quick work of attaching wires to her chest to monitor her heart. “Blood pressure low. Eighty-eight over forty.”

“Let’s start another IV with lactated Ringer’s,” Adam said. “We need to maintain volume.”

Seconds later, they strapped Brenda to the stretcher and carried her to the ambulance. Nick followed, then grabbed Brenda’s hand and kissed it. “Stay tough, Brenda. I’ll meet you at the hospital.”

“We’re transporting her to the level-one trauma hospital,” Adam said as he climbed in the back with her, and Joe headed to the driver’s side.

“I’ll follow in her car,” Nick said.

The medics nodded, and he jogged over to Brenda’s car. Thankfully the keys were still in the ignition and her purse on the seat.

The ambulance peeled away from the camp, siren wailing, lights flashing.

Nick fired up the engine and followed them. By the time they reached the main road leading to the hospital, he decided to call her parents.

The mayor answered on the third ring. “Brenda?”

“No, it’s Special Agent Blackwood. Brenda’s been shot, Mayor,” Nick said. “She’s on her way to the hospital now.”

“Dear Jesus,” the mayor mumbled. “Is she…all right?”

Nick’s stomach clenched as he remembered all the blood. “I don’t know. You’d better meet us.”

“We’ll be there as soon as possible.”

They hung up, and Nick tried to focus on staying positive as he sped over the bumpy dirt road, then turned onto the main highway. The ambulance driver kept the siren going and flew
around cars as they pulled to the shoulder to let the ambulance pass.

Twenty minutes later, he veered to the right into the hospital. The ambulance raced to a stop at the emergency entrance, and he threw Brenda’s car into a parking space and jumped out.

By the time he’d reached the entrance, the medics were wheeling Brenda inside. He took her hand in his and hurried along beside the gurney as they pushed her to an ER room.

Nick rushed to the door, but a nurse blocked his way. “I’m sorry, sir, you’ll have to wait outside.”

He gritted his teeth. He wanted to be with Brenda, make sure she made it.

She
had
to make it.

He started to argue, and a heavyset guard motioned for him to step away.

Hating being helpless, he paced the waiting room and studied the clock, his panic increasing as each minute rolled by. An elderly couple glared at him as if he was getting on their nerves, but he didn’t care.

Ten minutes later, the Bankses rushed in, both ashen-faced.

“Where is she?” Brenda’s mother asked.

“They’re prepping her for surgery.”

The mayor’s cheeks bulged with fury. “What happened?”

Nick grimaced. “She received a call from the Slaughter Creek Strangler and went to meet her.”

Mrs. Banks’s legs buckled, and her husband helped her into a chair. “We warned her not to pursue that case.”

The mayor shook his finger at him. “She got into this because of you.”

Guilt suffused Nick. They were right. If Brenda hadn’t been so upset with him, maybe she wouldn’t have gone to meet Seven on her own.

A vein bulged in the mayor’s forehead. “Tell me you at least caught the person who shot her.”

Nick heaved a frustrated breath. “Jake went after him. I stayed with Brenda to wait on the ambulance.”

A doctor in surgical scrubs approached. “Are you the Banks family?”

Mrs. Banks jumped up, and the mayor rushed toward the man. “Yes. How is our daughter?”

“She’s in serious condition,” he said. “We’re going to perform surgery to remove the bullet, which appears to be lodged in her kidney. I’ll need you to sign some permission forms.”

Nick’s phone buzzed, and he stepped aside to answer it while the Bankses handled the paperwork.

“I caught the shooter,” Jake said.

“Thank God.” Nick pulled a hand down his chin. “Did he tell you who hired him?”

“Not yet—I’m on my way to the jail with him now.”

Nick could meet Jake at the jail.

But he wanted to stay with Brenda. Even though her family didn’t want him here. He didn’t even know if Brenda wanted him here.

Seven’s diatribe with Brenda echoed in his head. She’d said something about his father and the mayor…

He relayed the conversation to Jake. “I’m going to see what the mayor has to say.”

“You think he knew about the Slaughter Creek experiments?”

“I don’t know, but he sure as hell tried to dissuade Brenda from investigating the story. Maybe because he was afraid of what she’d learn.”

“Keep me posted.”

They hung up, and Nick hurried to talk to the mayor.

Mrs. Banks sat wringing her hands together, teary-eyed. The mayor was pacing, his hand sliding over his bald spot in a rapid, nervous motion.

“Mayor Banks, I need to talk to you,” Nick said. “Let’s take a walk and get some coffee.”

That vein in the mayor’s forehead throbbed again, stark beneath the hospital’s fluorescent lights. “All right.” He leaned over and whispered something to his wife, who nodded, but didn’t bother to look up.

He and the mayor walked down the hall to the vending machines, then Nick stuffed quarters in the coin slot and hit the coffee button. The machine whirred and spurted out a cup of dark liquid.

The mayor accepted a cup as well, and they walked to another seating area near the hospital entrance. “All right. What really happened?” the mayor asked.

“I told you the truth,” Nick said. “Brenda met the Slaughter Creek Strangler. The woman has been texting her about each murder.”

The mayor stumbled backward. “She didn’t tell me that.”

Nick wasn’t surprised. “A shooter must have followed her there and opened fire. Jake arrested him. Hopefully he’ll tell us who hired him.”

“I don’t understand,” the mayor said.

Nick studied his demeanor. The man was worried. But was he worried simply about his daughter, or about what Nick might uncover about his relationship to the Commander?

“We believe whoever was behind the project hired the shooter.”

“Meaning your father?”

Nick studied the man’s craggy face. “Possibly. But we also think someone with more authority oversaw it. Maybe a higher-ranking officer in the military or CIA.”

The mayor’s face blanched. “I thought the shooter was working with the Strangler.”

“No. Hopefully when Jake interrogates him, we’ll learn who that is.”

“Did you at least catch this crazy woman?”

“I’m afraid not.” Nick shook his head. “But before she escaped, she revealed some interesting things pertaining to her motive.”

Mayor Banks swirled his coffee, then took a sip, his mouth working side to side. “Get to the point, Blackwood.”

“The Strangler calls herself Seven. She was part of the Commander’s experiment. In fact, she’s his daughter.”

The mayor’s shocked gaze flew to his. “Arthur Blackwood had a daughter?”

Nick nodded. “My brother and I were told our sister died at birth, but we know differently now.” He explained about the empty coffin. “But Seven was confused. For some reason, she thought Brenda was the Commander’s daughter. That he gave her to you to raise to save her from the experiments.”

The man’s eyebrows drew together. “Where in the hell did she get that idea?”

“Apparently she heard you and the Commander talking at the sanitarium when Brenda was little.” Nick paused, weighing his words. “Did you know what the Commander was doing back then, Mayor Banks?”