“I’m sorry,” she says, and that stops me dead. Even makes me check over my shoulder, certain my sister is apologizing to someone behind me.
“I heard a commotion, and I thought the patient was in distress.” She pauses, and then adds, “Kenny,” as if she had to recall his name. “I thought that’s why someone was banging on my door. It didn’t occur to me that anyone would be up this early.”
I say nothing. I can’t tell her it’ll be all right. I have no idea how to handle this, and considering what’s happening with Garcia, this wrinkle is the last thing on my mind. It’s more than a wrinkle, though. We’ve smuggled my sister into Rockton. I don’t even want to consider the implications of that.
“Kenny’s fine,” I say. “This is a whole other situation, and I need you to stay inside. Lock the doors. Don’t open them unless it’s me or Will.”
She nods, and then gives herself a shake, throwing off the confusion of sleep. She stands, straightening, and when she speaks, there’s a snap in her voice I know well.
“They are being ridiculous,” she says. “The council or whatever you called them. You had a man in serious need of medical attention,
for a spinal injury, and your sister is a neurosurgeon. They should be grateful that the”—she flutters her hands—“stars aligned. What is the chance of that? And the fact that they don’t have a full-time medical doctor is breathtakingly irresponsible. I cannot believe you allow such a situation, Casey.”
“Breathtakingly irresponsible is my middle name.”
She gives me such a frown that I half expect her to say, I thought it was Analyn. Instead, she waves it off and says, “Your town needs a doctor.”
“Are you volunteering?”
The horror on her face makes me sputter a laugh, and she frowns again in confusion.
“Yes, April, I am well aware of our need for a physician. We lost ours last year, and we’ve been pestering for a new one ever since. Right now, though, I need you to stay put.”
I make it halfway to the door before there’s a shout. An angry shout. Then a gunshot.
“Was that—?” April begins.
“Yes, it was. Now stay put.”
EIGHT
I race out the door. There’s a distant commotion, and I have a flash of déjà vu, of running out of the station what seems like only minutes ago.
No, it was only minutes ago.
This time, this disturbance is Anders and a couple of others. Dalton’s voice booms from another direction. “What the hell is going on?”
I run toward Anders, which is also the direction of that shot. I see someone on the ground, and I catch a flash of dark skin, and my heart jams in my throat. It’s not Anders, though, I see that in a second, as I notice dreadlocks.
“Sam?” I say as I race over.
He’s getting to his feet.
“Are you okay?” I say.
“No.” He gives an angry shake of his head. “I’m not. I’m a goddamn idiot. That’s what I am. He got away.”
“Garcia?”
“He—” Sam tries to take a step. His leg buckles, and he swears.
“Where’s Will?” I ask.
Sam gestures toward the forest, and I pick up the sound of people running through it.
“I heard a shot,” I say.
“That was Will,” Sam says. “Trying to spook the guy into stopping. It didn’t work and—”