Chapter Seven
Livvy sat next to Ethan in the waiting room of the hospital, waiting for Sunny to be medically cleared so they could talk to her. Whenever that would be. Livvy just hoped she could stay on mental autopilot for a while longer until she could get somewhere quiet and process what’d happened.
For now, though, she had to focus on the job.
On the aftermath of what had been a fatal attack.
Focus on the fact that Ethan and she hadn’t been hurt and their baby was okay.
She knew that for a fact since Grace had insisted she have a checkup and an ultrasound.
Livvy hadn’t minded since she had wanted the exam for her own peace of mind.
Added to that, it meant she wouldn’t have to keep her ultrasound appointment for tomorrow.
Despite having to fire those shots, they had all come out unscathed. Not the still-unidentified gunman though. And not Teddy either. The security guard was dead, shot and killed in the line of duty, trying to protect the medical staff and patients.
And for the most part Teddy had managed to do just that.
There’d been only one other injury to a nurse who’d been shot in the arm. She was expected to make a full recovery. Ditto for the patients who’d been forced, in some cases, to pull out their own IVs so they could take cover and hide. But all in all, the patients had gotten lucky.
Ethan’s phone dinged with a text, and she risked looking at him.
Risked because at this point something as simple as eye contact might cause her composure to drop a couple of notches.
He no doubt knew that, and he hadn’t doled out anything emotional.
Just the opposite. He’d been all cop since the shooting, and that gave her some much-needed steadying.
“Hank Stover,” he read aloud from the text. “That’s the ID that they just got on the dead gunman.”
She mentally repeated it a couple of times, testing it to see if it rang any bells. It didn’t.
“Aged thirty-nine. A long rap sheet for drugs, assault, robbery. He was from San Antonio,” Ethan continued. “Eden is searching for any connection between him, Sunny, Zadie and New Hope.”
There would likely be one, but it might not be easy to find, especially if this Hank Stover had been hired to kill Zadie and come after Sunny. If that was the case, who had hired him? Chloe, Franklin or someone else?
And why?
Too bad they wouldn’t be able to get the answers from Hank himself, but Livvy knew she’d had no choice but to kill him. If she’d hesitated just a second, he would have ended up shooting Ethan.
“Did you look at the ultrasound?” Ethan asked, the question surprising her.
Livvy turned to him, and yeah, staring at him straight in the eyes packed a wallop. The look alone might have pulled her right in, bringing on the flood of emotion, but then his question sank in.
“No,” she answered. “Not really. I just listened to what the doctor was saying.” Especially the part about the baby being all right. “Did you?”
He wasn’t so quick to answer, and he finally nodded. “The images were a lot clearer than I’d expected.”
“Oh. So, you saw…the sex of the baby.” And Livvy wasn’t sure how she felt about that.
Nor did she get a chance to think about it because Grace came into the closet-sized waiting room. She handed Ethan a Pepsi and Livvy a small box of milk.
“You got word about the ID of the gunman?” Grace asked, downing some of her own Pepsi.
“Yes,” they answered in unison.
“So, you know he was a lowlife son of a bitch before storming in and committing murder.” Grace stopped and seemed to be making an attempt to rein in her anger. “Sorry—I just had to do the notification to Teddy’s family. Let’s just say I have a whole lot of ill will for Hank Stover.”
“Same,” Livvy agreed, drinking some of the milk. Her stomach was in knots, so she hoped she could keep it down.
“So, here’s the deal,” Grace went on a moment later. “I’ve put Sunny in protective custody. This Hank might be a one-off hired gun, but I can’t risk her life on it not happening again.”
“Sunny must know something if someone sent a killer after her,” Ethan spelled out.
Grace nodded. “Or maybe this is all just overkill. Eliminate her in case she knows something that she might have learned from her dead sister.” She groaned, drank more Pepsi.
“Sunny has to stay the night in the hospital, so Bennie and Rory will cover that, but come tomorrow afternoon, she’ll have to go somewhere. ”
“Not to New Hope,” Livvy couldn’t say fast enough.
“I can’t stop her if she insists on it, and that’s where the two of you come in.
Sunny has asked to speak to the two of you.
I’m not exactly sure what she wants to tell you, but I’m hoping you can work into the conversation that she’s potentially in danger and that she needs to stay in protective custody. ”
“Protective custody with us?” Ethan asked.
Grace lifted her shoulder. “I’m playing around with that idea, but let me back up a bit and spell out what I’m thinking. The two of you have to take twenty-four hours of downtime. Standard procedure after a shooting. Twenty-four hours is about when Sunny will be released.”
“Into our custody?” Livvy pressed.
“Yeah. It’ll get you off the street. And no, I’m not babying you.
It’s protocol for a pregnant cop to move to desk duty.
Which I know you don’t want,” Grace added when Livvy opened her mouth.
“You could just do the desk duty at home while guarding a woman in potential danger.” She stopped again, and concern spread over her face. “How’s the security at your houses?”
“Good,” Livvy supplied while Ethan said, “Outstanding. I just did a major upgrade.”
“Okay, there you go,” Grace replied, as if that solved everything.
It didn’t. Livvy hadn’t been to Ethan’s place since the night she’d gotten pregnant. Lots of memories there. Also this chemistry between them. But memories and chemistry would have to take a back seat to keeping Sunny safe.
Grace checked the time again. “All right. Go talk to Sunny. She’s been moved to room 116 at the other end of the hall. Let me know what she has to say, and then go home. To his home,” she emphasized, tipping her head to Ethan. “Can’t beat a major upgrade in security.”
No. But Livvy didn’t like to lie to herself about such things. It would be a different kind of hell sharing close quarters with Ethan.
They finished their drinks, tossing the empty containers, before they made their way out of the waiting room and into…chaos. That was the only word for it. The CSIs were in full operational mode, and there were two of their fellow deputies still taking statements.
And then there was the blood.
Teddy’s body had already been examined and moved by the county ME team, but the cleanup hadn’t started yet, and that blood was a stark reminder of what had happened.
It was easy to find Sunny’s door since there was a reserve deputy, Walt Sanchez, standing outside. Walt had obviously known they were coming because after greeting them, he stepped to the side to let them in.
Livvy spotted Sunny right away, not so much lying in the hospital bed but more like cowering in it. She had the cover pulled up to her chin, and she looked ready to jump out of her skin. Livvy couldn’t blame the woman. Not once but twice today someone had tried to kill her.
“Deputy Walsh, Deputy Oakley,” Sunny said, sitting up just a little. “The sheriff told me what you did. Thank you for saving me.” Her mouth trembled. “That man was coming for me. I heard him ask where I was.” And the tears began to pool in her eyes.
Livvy decided not to verify any of that. No need to spell it out. Instead, she went with a cop’s response. “Did you know the man, Hank Stover?”
“No,” Sunny was quick to respond. “The sheriff showed me a picture of him, and I’ve never seen him before.”
So, that added some weight to the theory that he’d been a hired gun.
“Do you think he’s the same man who attacked you at New Hope?” Ethan pressed.
“I just don’t know. He was wearing a ski mask, and I didn’t see his face,” she admitted. “But it must have been him, right? I mean, I can’t have two people after me, can I? And he must have been the one who murdered my sister.”
That trembling of her lips went up a notch, and Livvy so wished she could reassure Sunny that all would be well. But she couldn’t. It was better for Sunny to understand that they still had a lot of unanswered questions and that she was still in danger.
“We’re looking into that,” Livvy settled for saying. “We’re looking into a lot of things, and we need your help.”
“I’ll do anything.” This time, the tears spilled down her cheeks. “My sister is dead, and if that man was the one who murdered her, I want to know why.”
Ethan nodded and moved closer to the bed. “Had anything unusual been going on with Zadie in the last couple of weeks?”
“You mean something other than her break up with Anthony,” Sunny muttered, and then her head whipped up to spear them with her gaze. “Did Anthony hire that gunman?”
“We don’t know yet,” Livvy admitted. “That’s why we need all the info you can give us.”
Sunny gave a resigned sigh and used the back of her hand to swipe away the tears. “Zadie had been contacting former surrogates and their families, asking them about any irregularities at New Hope.”
That got Livvy’s attention, and Ethan and she exchanged a glance. “Irregularities?” Livvy questioned.
“Rumors that Chloe and Franklin would purposely cause certain procedures to fail so the clients would have to pay for repeats. Or end up paying for the most expensive gestational-surrogacy service,” Sunny said, her voice a tangle of fear, nerves and grief.
“Zadie said she had talked to a couple of women who believe that’s what happened to them. ”
“Do you have these women’s names?” Ethan quickly asked.
She shook her head, then shrugged. “I’m not even sure it was true. I’ve never seen any proof of it anyway.”