Page 90 of State of Suspense

“On it.”

“Let’s go see what the Attorney General wants with us.”

Chapter Fifteen

Shelby told herself that her only goal was to hold it together, no matter what was waiting for her at the hospital. The possibility that Avery could be…

No.

No.

No.

She would not let her mind go there.

With baby Maisie strapped into her car seat next to her in the back of an FBI SUV, Shelby focused on breathing and staying as calm as she possibly could.

“Is there any word?” she asked George when they were stopped in traffic.

“Only that they’re working on him.”

What would she do if he died? How would she survive without the love of her life after waiting so long to find him? When she glanced at her baby girl and pondered the possibility of her and Noah growing up without the daddy who loved them so…

Stop it, Shelby Faircloth Hill. Just stop that.

George had apparently decided he’d had enough of the traffic and turned on the siren that had cars moving out of their way to let them through.

They pulled up to the Emergency entrance at GW a few minutes later.

George turned to her. “Let me go in and figure out what’s going on. I’ll be right back for you.”

Shelby appreciated him doing what he could to make this horrific situation easier for her. “Thank you.”

For the rest of her life, she’d never forget opening the door to their third-floor suite to find one of the White House ushers and George at her door. Her knees had turned liquid when she’d had a second to register George’s presence as well as his tormented expression.

“Avery’s been shot,” he’d said.

Shelby had nearly blacked out from the sudden wave of adrenaline that had overtaken her entire system.

George had reached out to steady her. He’d been steadfast as she’d gathered the baby and what she needed to take with her to the hospital, which was the last place she’d wanted to bring a newborn. But she’d had no breast milk pumped or anything prepared to leave her with someone else.

Celia, having heard the news, had come running to help, offering to keep the baby for her, but Shelby hadn’t wanted to have to leave Avery to come home to feed her. So she’d asked Celia to take over from the nanny with Noah that afternoon so she could stay put for as long as she’d need to be at the hospital.

She wasn’t sure how she’d thought so clearly, but all that had mattered was getting to Avery, telling him she loved him and that he had to be okay.

Tears filled her eyes, but she fought them off. If she started crying, she might never stop.

George opened the back door to the SUV. “They’ve got him stabilized and are taking him up to surgery. They said you could see him, but we need to be quick.”

Shelby unclipped the baby from the car seat, gathered her into her arms and followed George inside.

They took her directly to a cubicle where it looked as if a war had been fought. The sight of blood had her feeling faint for a second before she forced herself to move to her husband’s bedside.

Oh God, he looked awful. Pale and pasty with tubes coming from all over. A massive, blood-soaked bandage covered his right shoulder.

“This is Mrs. Hill,” George said to the doctor, who stood on the other side of the bed.

“How… how is he?”

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