AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Jack stifled his frustration.
She wasn’t going to follow through on her unexpected offer.
Not surprising, given how reluctant she’d been all along to discuss South Carolina. He’d have to resort to research and hope—
“I was in the produce section when the guy s-started shooting.” Lindsey’s choppy voice was so low he had to lean close tohear her. “There was chaos around me. People were running, screaming ... bleeding.” Her breath hitched, and a shudder rippled through her.
It took every ounce of his willpower to ignore the powerful and unprofessional urge to move beside her and fold her hands in his. “Witnessing that kind of carnage can take a huge toll.”
“It was worse than th-that. I was more than a bystander. I ended up being the gunman’s hostage.”
Jack bit back a word he never used. Took a long, slow inhale. The kind that usually calmed him in stressful situations.
Didn’t work today.
The woman sitting across from him had dealt with more trauma in the past twenty-one months than most people faced in a lifetime. And in South Carolina, she hadn’t just witnessed violent bloodshed. She’d been a victim herself.
If anyone had a reason to freak out, perhaps experience psychological issues, it was her.
“I’m sorry.” He gentled his voice. “I’ve been involved in those kinds of investigations, talked to the victims. Recovering from an experience like that can be a slow process.” And being a witness at a murder scene wasn’t going to help her regain her balance or heal.
“That’s why I got counseling. I couldn’t deal with the terror or the nightmares.”
“Did the cops determine a motive?”
“Yes. The shooter was a disgruntled former employee out for revenge on the manager who fired him, and he didn’t hesitate to aim his gun at anyone who got in his way. A clerk, several shoppers, the security officer at the s-store. I was hiding behind a display of tomatoes when the cops arrived, and he dragged me out. Pointed his gun at my head and threatened to k-kill me if they didn’t let him leave. I remember the tomatoes smashing onto the floor around us. There was red everywhere. Like b-blood.”
Jack leaned forward, hands clasped. “Did they let him leave?”
“No.” She began to shake. “They tried to talk to him. Brought in what I assume was a hostage negotiator. But he k-kept getting more and more agitated. When he pressed the gun to my temple, I was sure it was over. Then all of a s-sudden, he took it away, and a shot went off. I waited for everything to go black, but instead he collapsed b-behind me.”
“A sniper got him?”
“No.”
Meaning the man had turned the gun on himself, leaving Lindsey unharmed.
Yet she’d come within a hair’s breadth of death, just as she had at the Robertson house.
Amazing that she was still functioning after two such traumatic incidents so close together. Not to mention her bizarre experience today.
“I’m sorry you had to go through that.” Not nearly adequate, but a hug was out of the question.
“I survived.” She lifted an unsteady hand and tucked her hair behind her ear. “But it left scars no one can see. The first few days afterward, I took dozens of showers, but I never felt like I could get all the b-blood off. And the nightmares ... they never stopped. Waking or sleeping.”
A bead of sweat trickled down her temple, and her respiration grew erratic. Like she was beginning to hyperventilate.
Could be a panic attack coming on. The symptoms were all there.
As he well knew.
Though such attacks were in the past now, they remained vivid in his memory.
“Sorry.” Her breath came in short gasps as she confirmed his conclusion. “Panic attack. This is ... why I don’t talk ... about South Carolina. Haven’t ... had one ... in a while.”
“Tell me how I can help.”
She closed her eyes. “Xanax ... in kitchen cabinet ... by the sink.”
