Reveling in Sin Read online

Page 15


  I give him the rundown, and he doesn’t look nearly as stunned as I expect. “I’ll kill that little bastard myself for starting the fucking fire. I’ve been watching the news and waiting on updates about Karma before I go offer my services to the evacuation effort. This shit needs to be organized or it’ll turn into a complete clusterfuck.”

  “Where do they stand with the evacuation right now?”

  “Half the town is on notice. If they’re smart, everyone on the other side of the river will get the fuck out as soon as possible.”

  “Are they evacuating The Gables yet?”

  “If they’re smart.”

  Jackie stands. “But Addy and Maddy are at The Gables.”

  Shit. How had I forgotten that?

  “I’ll have Lincoln talk to his sister. She can bring them—”

  Before I can finish my sentence, a code is called over the hospital’s PA system, and in the hallway, we hear someone swear and break into a run.

  Confused, I look around the room. “What does that mean? What was that code?”

  I have no idea how he knows, but Asa meets my gaze first.

  “They’re getting ready to evacuate the hospital.”

  48

  Lincoln

  I grab an ER nurse as soon as the code is called and everyone outside the room breaks into a flurry of movement. “What the hell is going on?”

  Her eyes wide, she says, “We have to evacuate.”

  Fuck.

  Magnus just returned with coffee and curses under his breath. Commodore sits up in the hospital bed.

  “Evacuate? Here?” I ask.

  The woman nods, and I think of Whitney’s family upstairs. “What about the people in surgery? What happens to them?”

  “I assume they try to get them stable and then move them. I don’t know anything else, sir. This has never happened in the time I’ve worked here. I’m so sorry.”

  “Find someone who’s in charge. Send them in here.”

  She nods and scurries away, and I figure the chance of her actually following directions has dropped to slim-to-none as soon as she disappears into the chaos in the hallway.

  “Fuck,” I whisper, and turn to find Commodore shifting in the hospital bed. “What are you doing?”

  “I gotta get the fuck out of this bed and back into my chair. I’m not helpless.”

  I look at his knee, which is bandaged. “Sir, they’re going to come for you. Let me go find—”

  “You think I survived the war by waiting for someone to come for me after my plane went down? No, I fucking broke out of that POW camp myself and made it back to my ship. Nothing good happens to those who wait. That’s a load of bullshit. Now, wheel my chair over here and help me into it. I’m not burning to death in this building when someone forgets about me.”

  “He’s right.” Magnus moves the chair across the room toward the bed. “I wouldn’t wait either. We get him out now.”

  I can’t fault their logic, because with the sudden onset of mass hysteria that has already taken hold of the hospital, there’s no telling what could happen next. People in the halls are screaming to be moved, and the staff is no doubt going to be working as hard and quickly as possible.

  This is everyone’s worst nightmare, and Commodore already escaped being burned alive once today—at least, that was part of my brother’s threat.

  We help him into his chair, and I turn to Magnus. “They’re probably going to evacuate down to Rock Hollow, unless somehow the fire changed direction. Wait for instructions, but if shit goes sideways, get the fuck out of here any way you can.”

  “We know what to do, boy,” Commodore says. “Don’t worry about us. Go get your woman and her family, and then we can talk about that wedding of yours I want to see happen.”

  My gaze snaps to his, and for a moment, I wonder if he’s high on painkillers. “Excuse me, sir?”

  “I think we all agree it’s time to end this feud for good,” he says as Magnus nods. “And that’s how we’re going to do it. We bring the families together and it’ll be done.”

  “I agree,” Magnus says. “Especially because you’re not a little bitch like your brother.”

  Shaking my head, I glance from one lined face to the other. A Gable and a Riscoff. Friends. It sounds like the feud was already well on its way to ending, but no one told the rest of us yet. I think back to how Commodore told me to marry anyone but Whitney Gable when she first returned to town, and even though now is not the time to be discussing this, I ask one question.

  “What changed your mind?”

  Commodore’s canny stare sparkles. “I’ve always liked her. She’s got spunk and heart. Your grandmother would’ve approved. Now, go get that girl and her people, and let’s get the hell out of here. Tell them we’re paying for all the transport if they need extra incentive to move that cousin of hers more quickly.”

  I reach out and grasp my grandfather’s good hand. “Thank you.”

  “No time for the sentimental shit. We’ve got a hospital to clear.” He squeezes my hand and then reaches for the control on his power chair. “In case I didn’t say it before, I’m proud of you, boy. Damn proud. You grew up to be a hell of a good man who anyone could rely on.”

  From the look on his face, I know he’s telling me the absolute truth. Commodore Riscoff may not be a perfect man, by any stretch of the imagination, but he’s one of the best I’ve known. Under his influence, I became the man I am today. I’ve battled with being able to trust anyone, but Whitney finally broke down those walls.

  Maybe I was missing the point of that lesson all along. It isn’t that trusting others is bad, but that you have to be able to trust yourself first and be strong enough for others to depend on.

  Commodore took a legacy and turned it into an empire, and he gave me all the tools to do the same.

  “Thank you, sir.”

  With one nod at Commodore, I head for the hallway to find Whitney.

  I make it only a handful of steps before coming to a dead stop in front of a doorway where someone is yelling. Someone whose voice I recognize. I look inside to see my brother, whose mangled hand is wrapped with bandages, yanking at the cuff hooking his good hand to the bed as he screams for someone to unlock him.

  “You better not let me burn here, you fucking idiots. My family will take every single penny this hospital has ever made if anything happens to me.”

  Harrison’s ridiculous threats stop the moment he sees me. His lips curl, and he glares.

  “You think this is funny, big brother? You think you finally won? Go fuck yourself. You haven’t won shit.”

  It’s entirely possible that my brother has lost his goddamned mind, but I don’t have time to worry about that. Hundreds of lives are at risk right now—thousands, if you count the town—and Harrison has proven he has zero respect for the sanctity of human life.

  “Shut up, Harrison. You’re a disgrace, and you don’t deserve the Riscoff name. They’ll move you when they move you.”

  He yanks at the cuff. “You’re going to leave me here, aren’t you? You want me gone. You’ve always wanted me gone.”

  I take another step toward him and meet his gaze—one that looks like my mother’s, but nothing like mine or McKinley’s, but it never occurred to me to question it. Yet another thing that doesn’t matter right now.

  “It would be poetic justice if you died in the fire of your own making. You did this. No one else.”

  “But—”

  “No. You don’t get to speak until I tell you that you can speak.”

  Harrison’s nostrils flare with rage, and I step toward him again, my fists clenched at my sides.

  “I don’t think you understand how much damage and destruction you’ve caused. When this is all over, every single penny of your trust fund and every dime in your bank account is going to go toward replacing what you’ve destroyed. You did this. You’re responsible. No one else. You can try to blame everyone else like you have for everything in
your goddamned life, but there’s no arguing this. It’s on you.”

  “You think you’re so fucking perfect? You’re—”

  I turn and walk away from my brother’s venom-charged words, not giving a single fuck what he has to say right now. He can scream down the halls for all I care.

  As I walk away, I see a nurse. “Make sure Harrison Riscoff doesn’t receive any special treatment in the evacuation process. In fact, make sure you get every single patient out of here before you even think about moving him. You understand me?”

  “Fuck you, Lincoln!” Harrison yells from the room, as he no doubt overhears my order. “You can’t let me burn!”

  The nurse’s eyes go wide. “Excuse me, sir?”

  “Ignore him. You heard me. Harrison Riscoff goes last. Everyone else goes first. He set this fire, and I won’t let him try to use my family’s name to escape the consequences of it.”

  Shocked, she nods at the order.

  I leave the ER, the sound of Magnus Gable’s voice in my ears as he helps Commodore down the hall.

  “Come on, cripple. Let’s get you the hell out of here.”

  I can’t help but smile as I dash up the stairs.

  49

  Whitney

  Pure chaos. That’s the only way I can describe what’s happening right now.

  A nurse comes to the waiting room and tells us that all family and visitors have to leave immediately, and that they will be able to meet their loved ones at the hospital in Rock Hollow, which is where they’re temporarily being moved.

  “But what about my daughter? She’s in surgery. I’m not going anywhere until I know she’s okay,” Jackie protests.

  The nurse is completely no-nonsense with her. “Ma’am, I know you’re concerned, but right now, the best thing you can do for your daughter is make sure that you’re waiting for her when she gets to Rock Hollow. You won’t be allowed to travel with her. We’ve got too many patients to move, and every county within a hundred miles has ambulances on the way here to assist.”

  “Is there anything we can do?” Asa asks. “Help move patients? Transport them?”

  I don’t know if it’s the tone of his voice or his posture that clues her in to the fact that he has military experience, but the nurse surveys my brother differently.

  “You can come with me, sir. We could use an extra pair of hands, if you’re willing and able.”

  “I’d be happy to help any way I can.”

  Asa and the nurse leave the room, and Cricket, Hunter, and I watch Jackie as she paces and shoves her hands through her hair.

  “I’m not leaving this hospital without my baby. I’m not doing it.”

  “Mom—” Cricket says, and Aunt Jackie whips around to face her and Hunter.

  “Call Ms. Riscoff and get Addy and Maddy. Take them to the hospital at Rock Hollow, and God forbid, if the winds change, you get them out of harm’s way. That’s your only job right now.”

  “Yes, ma’am. That’s exactly what I was going to suggest,” Hunter says.

  Cricket nods. “Okay. We’re going.” She gives me a quick hug, and then she and Hunter disappear through the doorway.

  As soon as they’re gone, I try to talk Aunt Jackie down from her panicked state.

  “You heard the nurse. The best thing we can do is get out of the way. They don’t need to be worrying about anyone who isn’t a patient. So let’s go, and help anyone we can on the way out.”

  She spins around and looks at me. “I know you and Karma don’t get along. She doesn’t get along much with anyone, but she’s still my child. I won’t abandon her.”

  The steel in her tone and the implacable determination in her eyes tell me that I won’t be able to convince my aunt Jackie of anything right now, especially leaving this hospital without knowing Karma has already been evacuated. But that doesn’t stop me from trying.

  “What about waiting in the parking lot? You can watch for her to be moved, and then we follow the ambulance convoy all the way to Rock Hollow. There’s no reason to stay inside and wait now.”

  She spears me with a stare. “You go. Make sure Magnus is okay. Find Lincoln. Wait for us at the other hospital. I’ll meet you there with Karma.”

  “Jackie—”

  She shakes her head. “It doesn’t matter what you say to me right now. I’m not leaving this room until she’s out of surgery and they have a plan to move her. You need to go, Whitney. Don’t wait for me.”

  “I’m not leaving this hospital without you, Jackie. I’ll give you a little time to get confirmation on how and when they’re going to move Karma, but you better be ready to go when I come back for you. Because if I have to drag you out kicking and screaming, I will.”

  My aunt nods.

  I wish I could believe she’s agreeing with me and not just trying to get me to go, but I don’t buy it for a second. Making a promise to myself that I will come back for her as soon as I find Lincoln, I leave the room.

  I reach into my pocket for my phone so I can text Lincoln to find out where he is . . . but it’s gone. Shit. I have no idea when I lost it, but there’s a good chance it’s either in the chopper or somewhere on the lawn of the Riscoff estate. Either way, it won’t help me.

  The hallway is an obstacle course of IV poles, patients in beds and wheelchairs, and hospital staff trying to stay organized in the face of chaos. I can barely find my way through the maze of everyone desperate to get the hell out of here with the fire closing in. I catch snippets of conversation with every other person I dodge.

  “They say it’s moving fast. Wind’s picked up.”

  “The whole town might burn.”

  “It’s worse than the blaze back in 1901.”

  “If we don’t hurry, we might not make it out in time.”

  “They better save an ambulance for me. I can’t walk.”

  Fear tinges everyone’s tone, and I wish there was something I could do to offer comfort. But right now, it sounds like the best thing I can do is get the hell out of the way.

  I find a stairwell and jog down two flights to the bottom, intent on finding Lincoln and figuring out how to get the hell out of here as fast as possible, with all the people we love.

  He has a helicopter. There’s no reason they can’t transport Karma in that. My aunt would definitely leave then. When I see Lincoln, that’s going to be the first thing I ask him.

  Except I can’t get to the ER because the hallway is completely blocked.

  Shit.

  I turn around to retrace my steps, but instead of heading up the stairs again, I have a different idea. If I can get out of the hospital, I can come around the side to get back in through the front to the ER that way. I turn down the hallway that leads toward radiology, which is already completely empty, and scan for the nearest exit.

  I spot the red letters on the sign and lock onto it like a beacon. I dart toward it, but a body slams into me from the side.

  Like an idiot, my first instinct is to apologize. “Sorry, I was—”

  “Fucking up my entire goddamned life because you just couldn’t stay away.” Harrison Riscoff’s face, contorted in a mask of rage, is inches from mine.

  I blink in shock, my attention shifting to the white bandage wrapped around his hand and a sling holding it close to his body. He’s still wearing his blood-spattered shirt from earlier.

  “But you’re gonna stay gone this time,” he says, spittle flying from his lips and pupils the size of pinpricks.

  Where the hell did he come from? Lincoln told the deputy to have someone stay with him.

  I jerk my head around, intending to look for the cop he must have slipped away from, but there’s no one in the hall. Just us.

  Harrison lifts his good hand, which is wrapped around the grip of a pistol.

  Oh sweet Jesus. No.

  “Harrison, please just—”

  “Don’t tell me what the fuck to do. I’m the one with the gun, you Gable bitch.”

  His good hand jerks, but ins
tead of pulling the trigger, he slams the butt of the gun into my temple.

  Stars burst in my field of vision and pain radiates out from where he connected. I wobble on my feet before everything starts to fade into darkness.

  “That’s right, bitch. You’re going to sleep, and you’re never waking up again.”

  50

  Lincoln

  I find Jackie Gable alone in the surgical waiting room.

  “Where did Whitney go? Why aren’t you evacuating?”

  Whitney’s aunt spins to stare at me. “I’m not leaving until Karma is out of surgery.”

  “Please, Jackie. Wait outside. Whitney will never forgive me if I leave you here.”

  Jackie’s lips flatten. “She already tried to get me to go. I’ll tell you exactly what I told her—I’m waiting.”

  “We have a chopper outside to evacuate Karma. Okay?”

  Her face relaxes for a beat and then tenses again. “They have to finish the surgery first. She could die.”

  “We’ll get her out of here alive. I promise.” It’s not a promise I should be making, but I do it anyway.

  Jackie nods. “Okay. I’ll come out after I get another update. They should be coming any moment.”

  “Good. Now, where the hell is Whitney?”

  Jackie points toward the door. “She left to find you.”

  Shit.

  “Okay. Then I’ll go back to the ER, find her, and we’ll meet you at the chopper. Got it?”

  “Got it.”

  I can’t waste another moment hoping Jackie is telling me the truth rather than just telling me what I want to hear. I need to find Whitney.

  But when I make it back to the ER, there’s no sign of her. I stop in front of my brother’s room and find the bed empty but for a pile of sheets.

  I step inside, shocked to see a nurse lying passed out next to the bed. The sheriff’s deputy is crumpled on the floor beside her.