Annie hurried to her feet when a physician stepped into the room. “Dr. Patel? How is she?”
“Next of kin?” he asked, but it was just a formality. Everyone knew that Annie was about all who Izzie had. Everyone who knew them, anyway.
Annie nodded. “How is she?”
“She’s doing ok, Annie. Not great. The bullet nicked her lung, and we had to repair the damage. But she should be able to keep the lung intact. The other two bullets—”
Dr. Patel patted her shoulder. Nikkie Jean’s hand tightened on Annie’s.
“The other two weren’t as problematic. One passed through her arm and missed anything important. It’ll be sore for a few weeks, but it was a small-caliber bullet. The worst bullet passed through fatty tissue in her other arm. It entered her again, but was slowed down considerably; it lodged in her liver. We removed the damaged portion and closed off the bleeding. At this point, we’re optimistic. It wasn’t a large part of the liver, so the damage was relatively minimal. We’re watching for complications from the asthma. Izzie is young, strong, and relatively healthy. She should be ok, Ann.”
Annie sank into the chair next to where Nikkie Jean’s wheelchair was parked. The mayor was there. His hand came down on her shoulder. She wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but it helped steady her a bit.
“She’ll be ok.” Nikkie Jean said, sniffling. “She’s too mean not to be. We...we...all know that.”
Annie just cried.
Nothing in the world was making sense right now. Nothing.
She wanted someone to put their arms around her again and just hold the world at bay. As if she’d said it aloud, the mayor’s arms went around her again. Annie just let him hold her, half-convincing herself he could make things ok.
Turner wasn’t going anywhere. Annie was still practically inconsolable. And why wouldn’t she be? How much more could this woman take?
She was being evicted—unless the storm had destroyed her home—she’d been impaled and trapped by a tornado, and now some madman had shot her best friend and nearly killed her.
A lesser person would have done more than just cry.
The chairs were hard plastic, with no arms to impede him. He slipped his arm behind her back. “Come here, honey. It’ll all be ok.”
“You’ve said that to me before.”
“And I was right, wasn’t I?” He kept his words low, private. Just between them.
Her little friend was wrapped around Caine Alvaro, crying just as hard.
He looked at Caine over the two women’s heads. How the man felt was right there for Turner to see. Caine loved her. The hell the two had gone through today was right there for everyone to see.
Turner had never loved a woman that much. He’d never had the opportunity. Caine was lucky he was going to have the chance to continue loving Nikkie Jean.
Turner kept rocking slightly. Annie’s hands were around his neck, and she held him tightly. Turner just rocked.
He didn’t know what else to do. But thank God Izzie was going to be ok. Now they had to make sense of what Wallace Henedy had done.