Chapter 8
EIGHT
Izan rushed out his front door just as a patrol car pulled in. Two officers climbed out, guys he didn’t work with much. He strode toward them. “Alonzo Sosa was here. Olivia chased after him.”
Izan put a hand on his chest, trying to still his racing heart. Should he have said Officer Tazwell? Maybe she didn’t want everyone in the department to know they were friends. He’d been so surprised at finding Sosa in his house that now everything was upside down and he needed a second.
She’d gone after Sosa.
He turned back to the house. One of the officers said, “Which way did they go?”
“Through the back. They climbed the fence. It’ll dump you out on the street behind.” And he didn’t want to be here when she was out there, running down a dangerous man with Izan’s gun.
Yeah, he was gonna have to explain that.
Izan started walking down the sidewalk. He could go around, get to the street behind.
“Hold up, buddy.”
Izan said, “It’s Collins.”
“Eastside Firehouse, right?”
He nodded. “Olivia is a friend of mine.”
“I know, but you’re not chasing down Sosa. That’s the cops’ job.”
“I’m not trying to interfere, but she went after him alone.” He glanced back. The partner had probably climbed the fence. He would get there quicker.
“Tell me what happened.”
“I came home and Sosa was in my house. He took my gun, and when Olivia came in, he ran off. She can fill you in on all the rest.” He didn’t feel like rehashing it.
What he wanted to do was contend with this urgency in his chest making his heart pound.
The way he’d rather run after her than anything else right now.
Kind of like the way she’d run after Sosa.
But it wasn’t that.
It was the look on her face.
The second Sosa had dragged Izan in front of him, she’d flipped out.
He’d seen it in her eyes, blazing with fire.
She’d kept a lid on it and maintained control.
But seeing him with a gun to his head? She’d been about out of her mind in those few seconds.
He was so sure he would’ve put money on it.
She’d freaked out—and it wasn’t about an innocent being in the line of fire in a dangerous situation. Or her being a cop.
It was him.
She cared about him. She’d recognized the moment he’d been about to die, and she’d had a visceral reaction. Which let him know that there was a distinct possibility she felt the same way about him as he did about her.
Something he hadn’t dared to hope before, but he could now. He’d seen it on her face.
They reached the next intersection, and he spotted the other officer, crouching. “Over here!”
Izan and the cop ran to where he knelt by Olivia, who lay on the ground. “Make some room. I’m an EMT.” He crouched. “Olivia?” He glanced at the officer. “Was she unconscious when you found her?”
The guy nodded. “No response.” He turned to his partner. “No sign of Sosa.”
“So go find him,” Izan said. “But call for an ambulance to this location.” He turned back to Olivia, whose eyes hadn’t opened.
“Can you hear me, Tazwell?” He pressed two fingers to the pulse in her neck and bent to listen to the air escaping her nose, turned to see the rise and fall of her breathing.
He vaguely heard the cop asking for an ambulance for an injured officer.
She had a steady pulse, but she wasn’t awake. He lifted her lids and saw her pupils react equally. So no spinal injury.
“Tazwell, can you hear me?” He did a sternal rub, putting as much authority as he could into his voice. If she thought he was a disappointed superior, she might wake up faster.
A moan escaped her lips and she shifted.
“There you are.” He couldn’t assess her further unless she was awake. “Wake up for me, Olivia. Tell me what happened.”
She groaned again. “Sosa.”
The officers shifted closer. One said, “Ask her what happened. Where did he go?”
Izan wasn’t going to press her when she was barely conscious. “I’m not asking her anything. She’s going to the hospital. If you want Sosa, then go find him.”
He didn’t bother to see their reactions to that. He focused on her.
Soon enough, the ambulance pulled in. Trace and Kianna were still on shift right now.
When they raced over, Izan said, “Good, it’s you guys.”
“You okay, buddy?” Trace knelt, shifting immediately to assess Olivia.
“Don’t worry about me.”
Kianna touched his throat with gloved hands. “Nice bruise.”
He gently nudged her hands away. “I’m fine. Olivia was found unconscious.” And for some reason, he was still terrified. She would be fine. She was going to get taken care of.
He got up and paced away a few feet, probably feeling the same thing she’d felt seeing him with a gun to his head.
You protected both of us, Lord. Help us still.
He prayed for the three missing convicts and the officer who’d gone with them—presumably an accomplice—to be located and brought in by the cops.
Izan didn’t want to face down Alonzo Sosa again.
But he was going to have to explain one thing to Olivia. Or the cops, at least.
Kianna and Trace got Olivia onto a backboard, and her head lolled to the side. She was only partially conscious. Izan helped them lift her onto the stretcher and into the ambulance.
“Coming with?” Trace asked.
Izan said, “I’ll meet you there.” He closed the doors and hit his palm twice on the back window, then turned and went back to his house. He didn’t really want to go inside after what had just happened, but he grabbed his wallet and keys and locked up.
He drove to the hospital, his stomach rumbling. If Sosa hadn’t been there, Izan would have eaten by now. Olivia probably would have as well. He swung through a takeout place with breakfast burritos and grabbed an extra one for Olivia, just in case.
Right as he entered the hospital’s emergency department, he ran into his sister Ainsley again.
She stood by the nurses’ station in the center of the ring of side-by-side emergency bays.
Most had a clear slider door to cut down the noise.
Some only had a curtain separating the patient from the rest of the room.
“Peace offering?” She indicated his bag of food.
“Uh, sorry. No. It’s for Olivia.”
“Another one of your friends got hurt?” A worried expression shifted across her face. “What happened?”
Izan didn’t know what to say. He hadn’t told the rest of his family anything about looking into the Sosa crime family.
Months ago, he’d shared a little with Ainsley about the firefighters getting involved with Bryce going missing, and all that stuff with the governor and the plane crash, but he didn’t want to talk about it right now.
He wanted to see Olivia.
“What is going on with you?” Ainsley shook her head. “Seems like everyone’s having an off day since that van accident. It’s scary to think criminals are on the loose.”
“One of them was in my house.”
She gasped.
“It’s fine.” He just held me at gunpoint and called me “cousin.” “Don’t worry about it, Ains.”
“Not worry! Are you serious?” She slapped his shoulder. “I’m telling Mom.”
Izan rolled his eyes, because a man with two sisters in addition to the three brothers he had was an expert at doing that. “Don’t tell them. I was on shift, and we worked the van crash scene, that’s all. The cops in this town are friends of mine.”
Her expression shifted.
“They’re friends of yours too? Or is it just Junior?”
She rolled her eyes right back at him. “We’ve only gone out a couple of times. I can’t believe he got shot.” She covered her mouth with her hand. “His job is so dangerous.”
“So is mine, but you deal.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
Okay, maybe she didn’t deal as well as he thought she did. “We’re all highly trained. Yes, we take risks, that’s part of the job. But we do it as safely as we can.”
He wanted to point out that they always had someone to watch their backs, but Junior had been alone. The same as Olivia when she’d faced down Alonzo Sosa.
Izan dragged his sister over and gave her a hug, kissing her forehead. “Junior is gonna be fine. Hopefully, my friend will be too.”
“Is this Olivia a friend or a friend.”
“None of your business.”
She giggled and shoved him away. “You’re serious about her. You like this woman.”
“Shush your face.”
She erupted into laughter. “I’ll go find out if she’s okay.”
“Thanks.”
“I’m fine!”
Izan flinched, turning to the side where he could see into a bay with the curtain drawn back. Olivia lay in the bed, resting on one elbow. A slightly dazed expression on her face—but he wasn’t sure what that meant. “Olivia!”
“Don’t you ‘Olivia’ me, Izan Collins.” Her elbow gave out, and she collapsed back on the bed. “Ouch.”
He rushed over and took her hand. “What is it?”