Page 41 of Trail to Trouble
“Hey, Jackie, can you send Dr. Fields to the ER? I have a patient who requires stitches on her arm.”
Gloria hung up the receiver and peeked under the bloody gauze. Then she disinfected the area.
Within minutes, Dr. Fields entered the room. The old man smiled warmly.
“Good afternoon, Miss?”
“Hannah Rice.”
“Hannah, we’ll have you fixed up in no time.”
She didn’t doubt that. He looked like he’d been around the block a few times.
He pushed his glasses up on his nose and edged closer to her.
“Oh yeah. Four stitches should do it.”
Gloria handed him a syringe.
“Okay, Hannah, I’m going to numb up the area.”
Hannah closed her eyes and tried to relax to prepare for the sting of the needle, but relaxation didn’t come. All she could see on the back of her lids was Alyssa’s lifeless body. Lifeless, possibly because of her. She opened her eyes wide to rid herself of that horrible image. Tears flooded her eyes, and she sobbed. Her friend was dead because of her. Sebastián. It had to be him. He was probably aiming for her and hit Alyssa instead.
Gloria grabbed Hannah’s hand. “It’s okay, sweetie,” the older woman assured her.
She probably thought Hannah was upset about the needle, and that wasn’t it at all, but the woman wouldn’t know that. The next thing she knew, Gloria had wrapped her arms around her, holding her tight as she whispered everything would be okay, but Hannah knew it wouldn’t. They needed to find Bianca and Hunter and get them out of harm’s way.
After a few beats, Gloria released her. It was then she realized Chief Ricco had entered the room and stood next to the nurse.
“Hannah, you’ve got to let Doc get you stitched up so we can get out of here and focus on Hunter and your friend,” the chief said with both firmness and empathy.
He was right. She swallowed back the next sob and nodded.
Gloria reached out and took her hand, holding it while Doc stitched her up. It didn’t take but a few minutes, and she and the chief were on their way to meet Cap and Cici so she could describe to them where she’d hid their brother.
She and the chief arrived at Yooper Adventures. He drove past her car and parked next to the entrance of the office. Following his lead, she slid out of the vehicle and then walked to the back of the squad where he stood. He swung his gaze around. Looking deep into the woods.
A man resembling Hunter hurriedly walked toward them. A woman with similar features kept pace at his side. Both wore concerned expressions. Must be Hunter’s siblings.
“Jack. What’s going on?” the Hunter look-a-like asked.
He didn’t call him chief, so they must know each other well.
“Is Hunter okay?” the woman asked.
Her dark brown eyes and hair matched Hunter’s. The man’s did, too. The three of them looked so much alike they could be triplets.
The chief gestured toward her. “Cap, Cici, this is Hannah Rice. She and two of her friends were on a guided trip with Hunter. We have an active shooter situation.”
“Oh, God,” Cici said as her hand flew over her mouth.
The woman’s eyes watered.
Cap swallowed audibly. “Is Hunter okay?”
“I’m going to give it to you straight. We don’t know. When Hannah last saw him, he was alive but badly injured. We need to find him, and the shooter is still out there. We need to proceed with extreme caution to find Hunter, and we need to track the shooter. My staff is calling in the appropriate resources, but it will take a while to assemble them. We’re going to look in the meantime.”
Cici swiped a tear from her cheek.
