Chapter 2
Monday morning, Penny was in her office when a phone call came through. “Warrick is here to see you.”
Her heart jumped, and then she tried to school the silly smile off her face. She got up, grabbed a pen and walked out front. Warrick stood at ease at the counter. His gaze lit up when he saw her, and then immediately a shadow moved across his face. She understood how he felt. They hadn’t exactly had the easiest beginning.
She smiled. “I hope you have the paperwork.”
He shrugged. “I need help.”
That startled a laugh out of her. “Come into my office, and let’s take a look.” She snatched up his paperwork, studying it as she walked back to her office with him following. She motioned toward a chair. “Go ahead and sit down.”
She walked around to her side of the desk, sat on her chair and went through the paperwork. At least, if she focused on it, she might manage to get through this. All she wanted to do was hop back into his lap and let him give her a kiss like he’d given her before. She’d been unable to think about anything else since.
She worked her way through the pages, asking him questions about the couple boxes he had left blank. Before she knew it, it was done. She flipped it around and put an X on the signature line. “Sign here.”
He signed it and looked at her. “Is it over?” he asked with relief, his expression hopeful.
She nodded. “It’s good.” She put it back on her desk. “Now you’re off the hook, at least until we get this processed.”
He sagged back in his chair and grinned. “May I take you out for lunch as a thank-you?”
She stared at him. “You may take me out for lunch but not as a thank-you.”
He frowned. “Why not?”
“I don’t want anything to make it sound like it was a bribe to do my job.”
He nodded in understanding. “Well, I came in because it’s almost lunchtime. So, if you’re free, maybe we can go now.”
She glanced at her calendar and nodded. “I think I can do that.” Grabbing her jacket and purse, she walked him back to the outer office. It was empty except for Sally off in the corner. Penny called out, “Sally, I’m heading out for lunch.”
Sally didn’t even look up. But then Sally was sixty-five and working her last thirty days until she got to retire.
In the elevator, Penny and Warrick were silent. As they walked through the lobby, Warrick asked, “Where would you like to go?”
She glanced at him. “Did you have a place in mind?”
He shook his head. “Not really. But I’m always up for a burger.”
“Of course you are,” she said drily. “That’s definitely man food.”
“Nothing wrong with man food,” he protested.
“No. But we could go to a place where there’s man food and woman food.”
“Don’t tell me that you want us to eat rabbit food?”
At that, she laughed. “Well, at least I like a salad with my burger.”
“I think you can get that at the man places I go.”
She shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not.” Just as they walked outside, she said, “If we’re driving, we need to take my car.” She pointed at his cast-covered foot.
He glared at it and nodded. “I forgot. I got dropped off as it is.”
She laughed. “Come on. My car is over here.” She led the way to a small Kia.
He got into the front, feeling like the sides were closing in on him.
She motioned at the seat and said, “Push back so you can get some leg room.”
He adjusted the seat backward and that helped some.
She turned on the car, pulled out into the traffic and headed toward Bob’s Burgers.
“How did you know I was talking about this place?” he asked when they pulled into the parking lot.
“It’s very much man food.” She laughed.
It was also very busy. They had to wait a good ten minutes for a table. When they finally sat down, one of the waitresses walked over with menus and said, “Hey, Penny. Haven’t seen you in a while.”
“Hi, Kathy. How you doing?” She exchanged pleasantries with the waitress whom she’d known for a couple years. “May I have a burger with a Caesar salad?”
Kathy nodded, wrote it down and turned to look at Warrick. He ordered the house burger and fries. She took the order and disappeared. Just as they were about to start a conversation, she returned with coffee.
And instantly the awkward space that they’d been in before returned.
When Warrick’s phone chimed, he pulled it out, looked at the message and said, “An officer lost his temper and emptied his handgun at stationary cars on base this morning, The MPs are trying to track him down but say it’s possible he got off before security locked it down.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Really? I hope they catch him fast.”
“Me too.”
“Is Mason on base himself?”
Warrick nodded. “He is at the moment and will keep us in the loop. Not to worry.”
Just then her phone went off. She glanced at it. “It’s my boss. He said there’s a shooter somewhere close by. He heard the man escaped the base. He wants to know where I am.” She sent a text back as to where they were and frowned. “How often does this happen? Maybe once a year?”
“It’s been a little more often than we’d like, but, yeah, once a year maybe.”
But something was in his tone. She glanced at him. “Did you know about this?”
He shrugged. “I heard a rumor this morning from one of the men in my unit. But it was never backed up.”
“A rumor?” she asked, her tone low. “What kind of a rumor?”
“That somebody went on a rampage this morning. He then disappeared, and the base was looking for him.”
She thrummed her fingers on the tabletop and studied him. “But obviously you didn’t know it would escalate.”
“Of course not,” he said. “Unfortunately there’s been a lot of escalation lately. An awful lot of very unhappy people are out there.”
She thought about that. “I think they’re unhappy all over the world.”
“I know. With all this unrest, I’m hoping to get back on my feet before my unit heads out for any missions. I’d hate to be sidelined with medical issues.”
“How long for the ankle?”
“A couple weeks.” He flashed her a smile. “Maybe faster if I can get in to see the doctor once that paperwork is processed.”
She laughed. “Could’ve done that days ago.”
He nodded.
Just then Kathy returned with their orders and asked, “Did you hear about a shooter?”
Penny nodded. “Hopefully they’ve caught him by now,” she whispered.
The waitress nodded, disappeared and came back with ketchup a moment later. She said, “You take care of yourself.”
Penny nodded. “You too.”
“I can’t see this having anything to do with either of you,” Warrick said. “Although, if this guy’s got to fill out paperwork like I did, I can see him getting mad enough to kill someone.”
It wasn’t a very good joke. Particularly considering the offices where she worked were near the base. Many servicemen and women from the base came through her claims processing division when they required more specialized medical care than the navy could provide locally. As long as the shooter was on base, then she was free and clear. “Still, it’s not good news.”
“No, it isn’t.” Warrick picked up his burger and took a big bite.
She realized he was right. They could deal with only so much at one time. And right now, there wasn’t time to do anything. They didn’t know anything yet. They would find out soon enough.
She’d just finished her burger when her phone went off. She wiped her hands and face, took a quick sip of water and then answered. “Hello.”
And her boss’s voice was strident. “Are you still at Bob’s Burgers?”
“Yes. Why?”
“The shooter has taken some hostages.”
“Who?”
“A couple doctors, a nurse and a patient at the hospital.”
“So what’s that got to do with me?”
“He mentioned you specifically. So the cops are looking for you.”
“What? Who mentioned me?” she asked in bewilderment. “And I haven’t heard from the cops.”
“You will. I gave them your number. As to who’s asking for you—it’s the shooter.”
“Why?” she asked, raising her horrified gaze at Warrick, who was obviously listening in. She held the phone out a little bit more so he could hear more clearly.
“He says you need to get your ass down there. Or he’ll take out the patient first.”
“Who’s the patient?”
Her boss sighed. “It’s Nina.” And her boss hung up.
“Who is Nina?” Warrick asked in a hard tone. He put down his french fries fast, as if realizing they were leaving in seconds.
She stared at him. “A coworker who was in a really bad relationship.”
“And what do you have to do with it?”
“I’m not sure. I didn’t even know she was in the hospital.” She turned to look around the restaurant.
Just then the waitress came racing back. “Here’s your bill.”
Penny looked at Kathy, confusion on her face. “How did you know?”
Warrick said in a low tone, “I waved for the bill after that call.”
She nodded blankly as her phone rang again. Sure enough, it was the cops asking her to join them at the hospital.
“We have security set up. Identify yourself, and you’ll be let through.” The policeman hung up, leaving her staring at Warrick.
He got up, tossed enough money on the table to cover the bill and reached out a hand. “Come on. Let’s go.” He led her outside to the car. He stopped, then said, “Give me the keys.”
She looked at him in surprise. “I can drive.”
He shook his head. “You can explain while we go.”
Mute, she handed over the keys and got in on the passenger side. Maybe it was for the best after all. She was still adjusting to the news. He got into the car, pushed the seat back for more legroom, started the engine and reversed the car out of the parking lot. “Tell me about Nina.”
“She was engaged to a naval officer,” Penny said. “But he was very abusive.”
“How abusive?”
“He threatened her with a knife, punched her in the face a couple times, broke her ribs.”
“And she stayed with him?”
A wealth of disbelief resided in his voice, and Penny understood because she’d had that conversation with Nina several times, trying to convince her to leave George. “I know it’s hard to understand why an abused woman goes back to her abuser,” she muttered. “The thing is, the last time I convinced her not to go back.”
“Okay, now we’re getting down to the real reason you’re the one involved.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know about that. There’s no reason for him to want to see me.” But she knew on the inside there was. “Nina must have told him something about me.”
“If he’s holding her hostage along with a couple doctors and a nurse at the hospital, then that would make sense.”
“Nothing like this ever makes sense,” she said. “I tried to convince her for years to leave him. And it was always the same story. He loves me. He needs me. He’ll never do it again.”
“What was the trigger this time where she did leave him?”
“He broke two ribs,” she said. “I convinced her to leave, but she was walking and talking and definitely not in the hospital the last time I spoke to her.”
He shot her a glance as they sped through traffic. “Do you think she went back?”
“I hope not. But it’s possible,” she admitted. “It’s also possible he tracked her down and beat her up.”
“But didn’t kill her. She managed to get to the hospital, and he came after her again?”
Penny shrugged. “You know as much as I do.”
As they approached the security perimeter, he pulled up. When the police officer walked over, Warrick explained the gunman was asking for Penny.
The police officer nodded, picked up his radio and then motioned to him. “Head toward the hospital. They’re expecting you.”
Penny asked in a worried tone, “What does that mean?”
“It means, they’re looking for this vehicle. We’ll pull over when they tell us to. Then we’ll get out. We’ll do whatever they say.”
“What if the policeman wants me to go inside the hospital?”
“They won’t let you,” he said. “They won’t put another person in danger.”
“But I can’t let George kill those other people,” she cried out.
He shot her a look. “Are you skilled in any manner that’ll stop this from happening?”
She shook her head. “No, I work in the medical department. I’m a clerk. Okay, maybe a little bit above a clerk,” she said, trying to muscle up a smile. “But I’m not a soldier. I’m not in any way armed or skilled with weaponry. I don’t have a clue how to deal with a hostage situation.”
“Which is why we’ll follow everything they tell us to do,” he said calmly. “Trust in the system.”
“And sometimes that gets the hostages killed,” she muttered. “Nina doesn’t deserve that.”
He didn’t say anything. She hoped he wasn’t judging Nina for being in the situation she was in. It was also just as possible that George had tracked her down and beat the crap out of her. If she’d managed to escape and get medical attention, he could have again tracked her down to the hospital as well.
“Are they still engaged?”
“I’d like to think not, but she did refer to him still as her fiancé.”
“That implies she’s still emotionally attached to him.”
“I know. She always kept making excuses for him.”
“That’s also very common in that situation.”
There wasn’t a whole lot she could say to that.
As they drove nearer to the hospital, a police vehicle drove up beside them and motioned for them to follow. Warrick quickly fell in behind him. They drove around behind a large barricade. There were vehicles, armed men and crowds kept behind the barricade with what appeared to be some communication system setup in the front.
“Wow, I didn’t expect this,” she said. “For some reason I thought this would be pretty low key.”
“This is low key,” he said curtly. “Stay with me when you get up there.”
Startled, she looked at him. “Why?”
“I don’t want them pushing you to do anything you aren’t comfortable doing. If they think you’re alone, they might try to push your emotional buttons a little more.”
She frowned at him. “I want to help. I want to get Nina out of there.”
“I get that. But, in this instance, you’re not alone. Remember that.”
She wasn’t exactly sure what he meant by that, but she was willing to go along with it. She got out of the vehicle, and one of the men walked over, asked her to identify herself. When she gave him her name, he said, “Come with me please.”
She turned to Warrick, and the officer pointed to the others to stop him. And she realized that she wasn’t comfortable going without him. She understood this was a chaotic situation, but Warrick was right. The last thing she wanted was to go into this alone.
“He’s with me,” she said in as firm a voice as she could manage. “Warrick stays with me.”
The officer in front of her glared at Warrick, who stood there with his arms across his chest. Two more officers stood at his side. Everybody froze, waiting for officer to give an order. Finally he nodded. “Fine, he can come with you.”
*
Warrick didn’t say it out loud, but in his mind he was muttering, Damn right I’m coming with her. He fell in step at her side, and she slid her fingers into his hand. He clasped hers firmly and smiled at her. “It’ll be fine.”
She didn’t appear to believe him. They walked up behind a large van and several other vehicles. Another man turned and looked at her. “Are you Penny Thornton?”
She nodded. “Has he said what he wants?”
“He wants you.”
“Did he say why?”
“He blames you for some reason.”
Her shoulders sagged, and Warrick understood exactly. The man looked at Penny and asked, “Why does he blame you? What does he blame you for?”
She glanced at Warrick, her shoulders straightening, and said, “He beat the crap out of Nina. He’s been abusing her for years. I convinced her to leave him.”
“When was this?”
“Six days ago,” she answered. “Approximately,” she added hastily.
Warrick watched and listened as the man asked several more questions. But she didn’t have a whole lot of answers. He glanced at Warrick. “Do you know these people?”
Warrick shook his head. “Nope, I don’t.”
The officer frowned, his gaze going from one to the other. Warrick placed a large hand on her far shoulder, gently tugging her toward him so she stood right in front of him. She came willingly.
“Will you talk with him?”
She nodded. “Absolutely. I want to do anything I can to help. I don’t want him to hurt her anymore.”
The officer nodded. “We heard gunfire, so we’re not sure if it’s too late for that.”
Warrick winced. If that was the case, they might as well storm in there and take out the gunman. But it was a hospital. And that meant an awful lot of innocent people were in a vulnerable position.
The officer brought out his cell phone. When it was answered inside the hospital, he said, “Penny is here.” He turned to Penny. “He wants to talk to you.” He held out the phone.
It was on Speaker. “Hello?” she said. “George, is that you?”
“What the fuck did you tell Nina?” he cried out. “She said she’s leaving me.”
“You keep hurting her,” Penny said. “You know that’s not … nice.” She stumbled over the word as if realizing it was a weak word but couldn’t come up with something else.
“Nice?” he roared. “She says the damnedest things. Things that hurt me too. So, of course, I hit back and hurt her. If she would smarten up and not always lash out at me, it wouldn’t be so bad,” he protested.
Of course he had the typical blindfold view of somebody who wanted everything his way and was prepared to beat up people to get it.
“You need to let everybody go,” she said. “You’re in a hospital. You’ll hurt people.”
“Since I’m in a hospital, and I’m going to hurt somebody, we’re in the right place, aren’t we?” he said sarcastically. “I want you in here. I want you to tell Nina what you told her was a lie. That you want her to come back to me.”
Warrick shook his head. “You have to be careful.”
She hesitated and looked over at the officer. He shook his head too and mouthed no.
“I can’t come in,” she said. “The officers won’t let me.”
“Well then, you tell them you are either allowed to come in or I start shooting people. Remember what you just said. This is a hospital. I’m not short on targets. You’ve got five minutes to decide.” And he hung up.
She handed the phone back. “For what it’s worth, I do think he’ll shoot people.”
The officer nodded, but he was obviously in a quandary. “If you go in there, he’s likely to shoot you.”
She nodded. “I know. But he’s also got a lot more people in there to shoot if I don’t show up. Let me go in.”
“No,” Warrick said, his voice hard. “It won’t help Nina to have you get killed too.”
“But if there’s anything I can do to stop him from shooting the others …” she said, letting her voice trail off.
“Then I’m coming with you,” Warrick snapped.
She stared at him. “Why would you do that?”
“Because I’m at least equipped to take him down if I get an opportunity.”
“He’s likely to shoot you as soon as he sees you. Half the time I want to shoot you myself,” she cried out.
He glared at her. “Definitely not the time. When we go in there, you’re gonna follow my instructions right down the line.”
She glared at him. “You’re not the boss.”
He poked her in the shoulder. “When we go in there, you will listen to everything I say. You’ll do that, right?”
She turned to the officer and said, “Don’t let him come in.”
The officer stared at Warrick. “I want your name, rank, and why it is you think you should go in there.”
When Warrick explained who he was and the training he’d gone through, the officer was already nodding.
“You might be our best chance. We’ve got snipers trained on the windows, but we need a clear shot. You’ll have to maneuver him over toward that far window. I don’t care how you do it, but, if we can get a clear head shot, we’ll take him out.”
Warrick nodded. “That’s fine. If I can’t take him down, I’ll do the best I can to get him to where you can.”
“You give us that, and we’ll take the kill shot.”
Warrick studied him for a long moment. “No taking out innocents. If you take out the wrong man, we’ll all be dead.”
“I know that.” The officer walked to the front line and said, “These two are going through.”
Instantly the men parted.
With his hand now clasping Penny’s, Warrick asked, “Are you okay?”
“Yes, but you shouldn’t be coming with me.” She motioned to his foot. “You’re injured. You won’t be any help.”
He snorted. “Even with my damn leg as it is, I’m twice the man that asshole is. You don’t worry about me. I’ve got more tricks up my sleeve than that guy will ever know.”
She shook her head. “You realize we’ll both likely get shot as soon as we walk through that door.”
“Not if he wants to get out of here alive, we won’t be,” Warrick said calmly.
But he also knew that too often the guys didn’t want to get out alive. All they wanted was to create chaos, have a voice, and then they were happy to take out as many people around them as they could. Warrick would do his best to stop that. But he also had to take down this asshole—or at least get him in a position where a sniper could. Warrick understood the logistics of the problem, but first he had to convince this asshole that Warrick had a reason for coming in. “Make damn sure he thinks I’m your boyfriend,” Warrick said.
“Why would I lead my boyfriend into a scenario like this?” she asked. “If I loved you at all, I’d do my best to keep you outside.”
“Which, considering you’ve already tried to keep me out,” he said with an interested tone, “means maybe you do love me, at least a little bit.”
She snorted. “In your dreams.”
“Sweetheart, you’re already in my dreams.”
They neared the front door. She reached up and knocked.
He looked at her. “Are you expecting him to answer that?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never been in a position like this.”
Just then the door opened, and standing far enough back that Warrick couldn’t lunge for him was a man holding a semiautomatic rifle. Warrick studied the rifle, looked at the man and said, “George, I presume?”
The rifle was raised and pointed at his chest. “Who the fuck are you, and what are you doing here?”
Penny stepped in front of him. “You wanted me. He wouldn’t let me come without him. He’s my boyfriend.”
George snorted. “Sounds like you need to get some sense knocked into you too.” He motioned the two of them inside. He looked at Warrick, saw the foot and sneered. “You’re injured. What she’d do? Beat you up?” His tone was mocking, but he made sure the rifle was trained on one or the other. George motioned for the two of them to walk in toward the ICU. “Nina is over there.”
Warrick stayed at Penny’s side as she walked forward in a straight line. She could see nurses sitting on the side of the hallway, their hands and ankles taped. Nobody appeared to be injured; they all just stared, their gazes huge. They were so hopeful she was coming to rescue them, when, in actual fact, there was a good chance she would be joining them.
She pushed aside the designated curtain, and there was Nina, lying in the bed, her face black and purple. Penny raced to her side.
Nina took one look and started to cry. “You shouldn’t have come,” she said, sobbing. “You were so right. He’s nuts. He said he lost his temper this morning because of me and shot up some cars on the base, then came after me.”
Penny gently stroked her friend’s face. “Hush. Don’t talk like that.”
“She better talk like that,” came the voice at the end of the bed.
It was all Warrick could do not to give the man a hard smack, but the rifle was pointed at Penny. Just one slight move on the trigger, and both Penny and Nina would likely be dead.
Penny straightened and turned to glare at him. “George, is this how you want her to love you?”
George drew his brows together. “What are you talking about?”
She pointed to Nina’s face. “You did this. You beat her up. Look what she looks like now.”
George shrugged. “She’ll heal. That’s just bruising.” He lifted the rifle tip again so it was a little higher, pointed it at Penny’s upper chest. “Now tell her.”
She clasped Nina’s fingers.
Warrick only watched with half a mind. He was studying the layout of the cubicle, the hostages tied up on the chairs in the outer hallway. He estimated the height of everybody around and determined the only ones vertical were the three of them. Nina was in bed, slightly propped up. So everybody was below George’s ribs, which meant, as long as George kept the rifle high, the only ones in the line of fire were Penny, Warrick and the asshole.
Warrick would be totally okay if George went down in the process. Preferably forever. Assholes who beat up poor innocent women didn’t deserve a chance. Warrick just needed the right moment. He listened as Penny tried to speak the right words that would make the gunman happy.
But Nina was beside herself. “No, no, no. He hurt me,” she cried out. “I don’t want to be with him anymore.”
If she’d been at all herself, she probably would have realized she had to be conciliatory and tell George that he was the best and that she would be everything he wanted her to be. But, as it was, she was so terrified she couldn’t think of changing her position, and it was all Penny could do to calm her friend down.
“See what I mean?” George said in disgust. “That’s what I brought you here for. Talk some sense into her.”
“Well, maybe if you weren’t pointing the gun at us,” Penny said in exasperation, “I could get her to calm down.”
George glared at her, raised his arm and shot into the ceiling. “Watch your tone, bitch.”
Penny’s shoulders and spine locked down. She glared at him, then faced Nina. “Calm down, Nina. Crying like this won’t help.”
But George did change the angle of the gun so it no longer pointed at the two women. Instead, he turned it directly on Warrick. “Get her to stop that fast,” George roared, “or I’ll shoot your bloody boyfriend myself.”
Instantly she turned toward him. “If you do that, then I won’t help you at all. I’ll tell Nina to run away from you as far as she can get.”
George spun the rifle back in her direction. Warrick realized what she was doing. As long as the gun wasn’t pointed at him, she was happy. But the minute it turned his way again, she did something to bring attention to herself. He understood, but he didn’t think she did. She obviously cared more than she was willing to admit.
Warrick stepped forward at an angle as if toward the bed, but it also took him closer to George.
She glared at George. “Now raise that at least a little bit so she doesn’t feel she’ll be shot if she says the wrong thing.”
“Maybe she is getting shot if she says the wrong thing,” he roared, his hands trembling from holding the weapon.
Warrick noted George’s trembling fingers. Also his emotional state was ricocheting him back and forth. Something else Warrick understood. It was hard to stay emotionally stable when the world was sending you one way or another.
George had taken a major step in the wrong direction. There wouldn’t be a happy outcome to this.
Nina continued to cry, but it was a quiet sob. Penny leaned down, wrapped Nina in her arms and gently stroked her hair. “Take it easy, sweetie. Just take it easy.”
Warrick watched George out of the corner of his eye, and he seemed to calm down now that Nina was just sobbing, not saying all those things he didn’t want to hear. In his own way he cared for Nina. He just didn’t know how to make all this work.
George lowered the weapon yet again. It almost pointed to the ground. Nobody else was around but the three of them.
Warrick judged the distance between him and George as over six feet. Warrick would have to move fast, grab the rifle and take George down. Warrick returned his gaze to Penny to make sure George didn’t understand what was happening, and just then Penny turned to look at him. He gave her a harsh short nod, and he jumped.
He crossed the six feet in a single leap, his gun hand reaching for the rifle, shoving it into the floor as it fired, using his boot to keep it there as his hard right fist smashed George’s face once. George stared at him in shock, his eyes glazing over, and he slowly sagged to his knees and then fell facedown onto the hospital floor.
Warrick leaned down quickly, picked up the rifle and unloaded it. Afterward he checked George for a pulse, found he was out cold but fine. Warrick turned into the hallway to speak to the medical personnel tied up there and said, “I need something to tie this guy up with. Anybody got something?”
One of the nurses said, “There’s medical tape in the top drawer of the nurses’ station.”
He pulled out the drawer, and, sure enough, there was good solid medical tape. He bound the guy’s wrists, then his ankles. He walked over to the front door, pushed it open and yelled, “Coming out.”
He stepped outside, and, with his hands held up in front of him, he said, “The gunman is down. We need the police in here now.” He walked back inside, headed straight to the hospital bed, pulled Penny up and away from Nina and wrapped his arms around her.
She hugged him tight and whispered, “You did that so damn smoothly.”
He chuckled, tilted her head up and said, “Told you that I’m good.” And he leaned down and kissed her.