Chapter 15

The whole time they bickered and teased, Pearl studied Tristan's features intently. "You can't be that badly hurt if you're still arguing with me," she declared, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Exactly. I'm not badly hurt. See? That's total proof." He glared at the nurse behind Pearl. "She won't let me go until a doctor sees me."

"Of course she won't," she told Tristan. "That's her job, and you won't get her in trouble just because you didn't do your job." He opened his mouth and glared at Pearl now, and she grinned. "Gotcha."

Tristan shook his head. "Did Suzan hurt you?"

"No, she didn't hurt me," Pearl said, "and I knew you would be upset about that, but, no, she didn't hurt me. She didn't do anything to me. I talked to her and had no idea that she'd knocked you out, until I couldn't find you after she left, and so I called for help. Did you see her attacking you?"

"Just coming up behind me," he confirmed. "I turned and ended up with a partial blow to the head, which is probably why I'm still alive."

"But she managed to roll you under the vehicle."

"Yeah, that part will never leave me alone." He growled. "I don't understand why she came back today though."

"She is not Drew's sister," Gideon began, as he stepped up beside Tristan, "because Drew doesn't have a sister. So that leads to other reasons why Suzan would come back today, for example, maybe she thinks Drew is still alive too."

Tristan stared at him in shock and then slowly nodded. "Now that makes more sense. So why else would she come back?" He looked over at Pearl. "Any ideas?"

"Not really, except for Suzan asking outright if I knew anything, from watching out the window at Drew's place, which I told her wasn't my style. Yet she seemed to be a little more upset about the guy who was killed in my place than about Drew dying." She took a moment to consider. " That may well be why she was there. She did ask me if I was the one who killed my intruder, but I told her no. It was the men coming to rescue me. She was a little bit upset about that."

"Maybe she knew the intruder," Tristan noted.

Gideon suggested, "Maybe the intruder was her brother because I sure as hell can't see that gunman having a romantic partner like Suzan, but you never know with women," he admitted, giving a wave of his hand. "Anyway, we have everybody out looking for Suzan right now."

"If she was supposed to kill you"—Tristan pointed at Pearl—"that failure will cost her."

"Not if she's part of this, one of the ringleaders," Gideon stated, with a forceful tone.

Tristan shook his head. "I don't see her as a mastermind. That woman has a boss she reports to. I see her more as a liability now. That's why she was talking to Pearl, getting answers. If Suzan was supposed to do a job and didn't do it, it doesn't matter who she's sleeping with or how she's a part of this. She's now done something that the bosses can't allow to continue."

"Maybe," Gideon replied, "but, if she can convince them that she had nothing to do with it, she should be safe."

"I don't trust it though," Tristan murmured, as he turned to Gideon. "Would you trust her if you had some doubts?"

Gideon immediately shook his head. "No, I sure wouldn't." He stared off into the distance. "We just need to find her."

"You'll find her dead," Tristan snapped. "She'll turn up in a dumpster somewhere, probably killed soon after she left Pearl's place."

"If that's the case," Pearl asked, "why didn't somebody go dump her body and then finish you off?"

"Maybe because, once he realized what she'd done and how public it was, he decided to get rid of her first, and maybe I was to be next," Tristan suggested, with a shrug. "Maybe he was hoping I would still be there. Maybe he was hoping all kinds of things that didn't come to pass, but I can tell you one thing for sure. So far this group hasn't allowed anybody to fail, and that's what she just did, soft heart or not. Suzan let Pearl walk, and Suzan left me alive. Both of those things will be a black mark against her."

Gideon's phone rang just then, so he excused himself and stepped outside of the curtain barrier. Pearl walked closer to Tristan and asked, "So, how are you feeling?"

"Like I got slammed over the head," he said bluntly.

She smiled. "That's the correct answer, as that is exactly what happened."

He groaned. "And she just talked to you? Just talked?"

"She just talked to me, and I didn't even realize we had a problem, not until she was gone. I'm so sorry. I should have gone out there looking for you sooner."

He shook his head. "No, I let my guard down. I was packing up those damn boxes."

She winced. "Seems like those damn boxes are causing nothing but trouble."

He nodded. "You should just get rid of it all."

"I might at this point, because who needs more of this headache?" She sat here and visited with him, making sure that he felt okay, convincing him that he needed to stay long enough for the doctor to check on him.

He asked her, "Have you been in the ER lately? Do you know how long I've been waiting already?"

"Somebody will be here soon," Pearl assured him.

Just then a nurse stepped in, and a doctor followed. "Are you his wife?"

"No, I am the person he was protecting when he was attacked." At that, the doctor's eyebrows shot up. He was about to say something, and Pearl declared with a finality that was hard to argue with, "Don't bother telling me to leave. I'm here and I'm staying."

Rolling his eyes, the doc nodded. "I've come to learn that some women are just not worth arguing with."

"Good," she said, with a smile.

Just then Gideon stepped in behind her, and the doctor glared at him now, until Gideon said in an apologetic tone, "I'm taking her with me."

"Good," Tristan said. As Gideon turned to leave, Tristan swung his legs over the hospital bed. "Wait, wait, wait. Let me come too."

The doctor shook his head. "You are staying here for at least a few minutes, while I sort you out."

Gideon pulled Pearl through the curtain and whispered, "One, Tristan should be checked over, and you'll be in the way, and, two, we just found Suzan."

"Where?"

"She's coming in via ambulance. She's been shot, and I'm not sure she'll make it."

Pearl stared at him and swallowed hard. "So, Tristan was right."

"Looks like it." Gideon nodded. "I'm hoping that, when she arrives, she's verbal, but I don't know that yet. If she's got life-threatening injuries, they won't let me talk to her anyway."

Pearl winced and nodded. And, sure enough, the ambulance pulled up within a few minutes, and the EMTs ran in with a patient. Then the doc and the nurse in with Tristan all rushed out to help in the ER with the new arrival. All kinds of chaos broke loose as the emergency doctors and nurses jumped in to save her.

From the sidelines in the hallway, Pearl stared into the emergency room, just out of the way, but it was hard to see what was going on, except that it was obvious the poor woman was in desperate straits. At one point in time, Pearl looked over at Gideon and whispered, "It doesn't look like she'll make it."

"We have to trust the doctors," Gideon said, but his tone was tight with worry. Pearl knew what he was thinking. He was worried they were about to lose their one potential lead. As it was, the doctors eased back a little bit when they got Suzan's blood pressure and pulse under control. She was conscious for only a moment. She looked around, struggled to sit up, and, in the midst of her struggle, Gideon stepped forward to talk to her, but Suzan's gaze landed on Pearl.

Suzan took one look at him, then at her, and her eyes widened and she cried out, "Run." She gave a half guttural sound and fell back.

The doctor hollered for a crash cart, but they could do nothing more. "She is gone."