Page 88 of Crosshairs

In her peripheral vision, Linc carried Sarah across the lawn to the ambulance that had just arrived. She palmed her hand in their direction. “Do you know if Sarah Tolliver is okay?”

Gran looked toward the ambulance. “I think I heard someone say she might have a concussion.”

She hoped Sarah would be all right. Ainsley would hate to beresponsible for another person going to the hospital. Her heart quickened when Linc walked her way, bringing a paramedic with him. Kanesha again.

Linc knelt beside the chair. “How are you?”

“I feel like I’ve been hit by a Mack truck.” She removed the towel with ice in it. “And that’s just my head.”

“Can’t you and Cora stay out of trouble?” Kanesha asked, kneeling on her other side.

“Doesn’t look like it,” she said.

“Well, you know the drill. I need to examine you.”

Linc stood. “I’ll move out of the way.”

“Wait,” Ainsley said. “Is Sarah okay?”

“She has a headache,” Linc said. “She’s refused to be transported, says she’s fine.”

“You think she needs to go to the hospital?”

He shrugged. “Hard to tell, but I don’t think she’s badly hurt.”

That relieved her. “Did she see the attacker?”

“Briefly before he shoved her into the wall. She said he could be the person in the sketch, but she couldn’t be sure.”

As Kanesha wrapped a blood pressure cuff around Ainsley’s arm, she muttered, “I’m not going to the hospital.”

The medic chuckled. “Why does that not surprise me. Looks like that vest saved your life, but it could’ve bruised a rib or two.”

“My ribs aren’t sore except where Linc tackled me.” She traced her finger along the rip in the vest where the bullet had traveled across her chest. “If I hadn’t turned, it’d be a different story. Not sure this vest would’ve taken a frontal attack.” But it had changed the trajectory of the bullet enough that she hadn’t been wounded.

She turned back to Linc. “Did you see the shooter?”

“Barely. Just long enough to know someone presented a danger to you.”

Before she could respond, Kanesha held up her hand. “I need you to hush so I can get your blood pressure.”

Ainsley forced herself to relax. If it was high, she might pushharder for her to go to the hospital, and like Sarah, Ainsley didn’t intend to.

“A little high, but not bad,” she said and removed the cuff. “Pulse is a little high too. Let me look at the gash in your scalp.”

She managed to yelp only once when she felt around on her skull.

“Looks like you hit your head on a patio stone. I think Steri-Strips will take care of the wound, but I need to trim a little of your hair,” she said.

When she agreed, Kanesha sprayed something on her skin that numbed the gash. She heard the scissors snipping rather than felt them. Probably have a permanent part there now. The feeling started coming back after she cleaned the wound, and the strips stung as she applied them.

“That should do it, unless you’ll let me transport you to Merit.”

She very carefully shook her head. “I’m good.”

Kanesha laughed and elbowed Linc. “We raise some tough women in Natchez.”

Ainsley didn’t know how tough she was, just that she had better things to do than spend half the night in the ER.

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