Page 145 of Lone Star

Maddox was shouting, going for his gun, but fast being overpowered. And there was that knife.

Reese ran the possibilities in the span of a breath, and he reacted. The way he figured it: Fox had sent him here to keep watch for a reason. He was here because he would make the sorts of decisions that others wouldn’t. He wasn’t polite, wasn’t worried about manners or form.

He pulled his gun, aimed – time moved in slow motion, as it always did in these moments. Aim, fire.Crack. The man with the knife toppled. Aim, fire.Crack. The one holding Maddox fell.

He was dimly aware of screams behind him, on the other side of the wall. The staff would be panicking. Someone would already be on the phone with security, or with the police.

Reese scanned the area, searching for another threat, but it was a small bit of hallway, with only the elevators and a door to a stairwell to offer a vantage point. No signs of any others.

“What the fuck?!” Agent Maddox scrambled inelegantly to his feet, face flushed, frantic gaze searching out the still-warm bodies on the floor. Blood spread outward in a tide, slick and dark beneath the lights. “What the fuck?” he repeated, spinning to face Reese, hand fluttering to the gun he wore on his hip. “Are you insane? You can’t–”

The door into the ICU opened behind Reese, and Tenny’s voice said, “Shut up, he saved your life.”

Reese glanced back over his shoulder and saw that Ten was on his feet, his white-knuckled grip on his IV pole seemingly the only thing keeping him on his feet; spine bent, legs shaking, face ashen.

Reese’s stomach tightened unpleasantly when he imagined Tenny’s knees buckling any moment. It would be so easy for the wound at his throat to reopen. “You should be lying down,” he said. “If your blood pressure gets too high–”

“Fuck that, I’m up.” He lifted his other hand, and that was when Reese noticed that he held a gun.

“Where did that come from?”

“Fox left it. The nurses hadn’t found it yet.”

“Are you kidding me?” Maddox charged toward him. “Are you – you’re both so under arrest. I can’t even–”

“Shut up,” Tenny repeated. He turned to Reese. “We have to move. There’ll be more. If they came for me, they’ll come for – what’s the other guy? Jenkins?”

“Jinx.”

“He’s on a lower floor.”

Which meant they might already be too late.

“Do you have a car?” Tenny asked Maddox.

The agent clenched his jaw, tight enough to make a muscle in his cheek twitch. He looked at both of them in turn – precious wasted seconds that had Reese caressing his trigger guard with one finger, adrenaline spiked so strongly he was having trouble keeping still. Then Maddox turned to look at the bodies. Sighed. “Yeah, I have a car.”

“We need to move,” Tenny said, starting forward.

One of his legs gave out. He swore, and the IV pole rattled and nearly tipped as he clutched at it for dear life.

But he didn’t fall, because Reese was at his side immediately, ducking smoothly under his free arm and hauling it securely across his shoulders. He knew it was only an impression, a fiction, but he thought Tenny felt too-light, already weakened and wasted since he’d been admitted.

“This is–” Maddox stared, glaring at them.

“Shut up,” Reese and Ten said as one.

“We’ll take the elevator,” Reese said, because there was no way Ten would be able to navigate the stairs like this. “Lead the way.”

Maddox’s face said he wanted to argue, but he turned and punched the down button.

~*~

Jinx had broken his arm as a kid, and as an adult he’d had some cuts and scrapes; stitches a time or two, especially after that one knife fight…

But he’d never been injured like this. Never overnighted in the hospital. Never been held hostage by his own body. The pain was sharp, and the temptation of morphine was great, but in this moment, as it started to unfold in horrifying slow-motion, he was glad for the pain, and for the sharpness of his mind.

Gringo realized what was happening a heartbeat after Jinx did, but he was healthy, and whole, and not laid up bare-assed in a hospital bed. He was already on his feet, and Jinx saw him tense in his periphery.

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