Page 58 of Isla by Any Other Name

“I’ll be right down. How bad is it?”

“Two are critical,” she said with a frown. “I guess there was a shootout at Hidden Haven Ranch tonight. We’ve got four suspects, one critical, and two private security, one critical. It looks like a war zone down there. So much blood—”

Isla jumped to her feet. “Okay, let’s go. I’m ready. After tonight, I plan on sleeping all day if Jesse permits it. I hope Gramma Dawn doesn’t mind keeping him again today. It’s still today, right?”

“It is—you’ve been up twenty-three hours,” said Grace. “Are you okay?”

“I’ll be fine. My adrenaline is pumping,” said Isla. “It feels like nursing school all over again.”

They got down to trauma in seconds and Grace was right—it did look like a war zone. Isla looked in trauma room one and the doctor gave her a thumbs up, so she moved to the next trauma room. The team was working feverishly to stabilize the patient.

Dr. Moore looked over as she walked in. “Thank goodness you didn’t leave. We’ve got a male, approximately forty years of age. Gunshot to the left hip. He lost consciousness on the way here. The bullet nicked a femoral artery. He’s lost a lot of blood. He’s coded twice already. They’re on standby in operating room three. Let’s get moving, people. We don’t have time to waste.”

“Siobhan, can you scrub in? I need you for this one.”

“Not a problem, doctor,” said Isla. “I’ll meet you in the operating room.”

As Isla scrubbed in, the tiredness she had felt earlier disappeared. She knew she’d be paying the price for it once she got home, but right now, she was in the game. She walked into the operating room and stood next to Dr. Moore, waiting for his instruction. They worked well together. She was going to miss working with him when she left St. Vincent’s.

It took them three hours to repair the damage to the patient’s hip. He was in for a long rehabilitation. He had been lucky that Dr. Moore had been on shift. He was the best that Isla had ever worked with. With therapy and time, the patient would be up and around again.

When the operation was over, Dr. Moore turned to Isla. “Thanks for your help. I was able to repair the damage he had. If that bullet had been a millimeter closer, it would have severed the artery completely. The bone fragments alone caused enough problems. Mr. Larkin doesn’t know how lucky he is.”

Isla grabbed onto the table, “Did you say Larkin?”

“Yeah, Mitchell Larkin,” said Dr. Moore. “He’s one of the private security guys that was involved in the mess up at the Hidden Haven Ranch tonight. Why? Do you know him?”

Isla nodded as she went to the top of the table for the first time that evening and looked down to see if this Mitchell Larkin was her Mitchell Larkin. Her heart pounded and stars flashed before her eyes. My Mitch, here. My Mitch. His eyes blinked open, and then fell shut again.

Isla felt the world go black as she sank to the floor.

Isla found herself on a gurney outside of the operating room. Her head throbbed. Grace stood over her with a glass of orange juice. “Hey, you,” she said. “Welcome back to the land of the living. Here, drink this.”

Isla sat up slowly, accepting the glass.

“What the heck happened in there?” Grace asked. “One minute you were talking to Dr. Moore and the next minute he was picking you up from the floor. Have you eaten anything all day? We had lunch at noon, but I don’t recall seeing you eat anything after that.”

“I had some crackers from the vending machine for dinner,” Isla answered. “I guess between not eating and exhaustion…”

“Well, off to bed with you. You’re done for the day. I called Kech and he’s picking you up. He’ll be here within the hour.”

“Grace, I can’t leave, not now.”

“And why not?” Grace asked, concern lacing her voice.

“I need to stay and make sure our patient is out of the woods.”

“What patient? The one you and Dr. Moore were taking care of during surgery?”

“Grace, I know him. I need to make sure he’s okay.”

“Siobhan, he’s out of the woods. They have him up in ICU, just as a precaution. He’ll probably be in a regular room as soon as tomorrow. Who is he anyway?”

“He’s just a person I once knew. I need to see for myself that he’s okay.”

“I’m not going to say you need to take care of yourself—I know you know that. But you need to get some sleep. You’ve got Jesse to take care of. Go and check on your guy if it makes you feel better. I’ll have Kech come into ICU when he gets here.”

“Thanks, Grace, I really appreciate it,” said Isla. “And one more question. Is anyone in the waiting room for him?”