Page 58 of Dark OZ

I holstered my gun and jogged back into the store. Crowe had his head to Thea’s chest.

When he lifted his panicked eyes to me, I knew. She’d stopped breathing.

“Her heart stopped.”

From the back, Sarah shouted, “There’s epinephrine in the cage.” A small key on a stretchy wristband came flying towards me.

“We brought our own,” I said, at the same time Crowe pulled the syringe from his jacket pocket.

“Thigh, not heart. Those movies are bullshit. You need to put it in a muscle, it’ll reduce the risk of brain damage, and she won’t bleed out,” she warned.

Crowe squeezed the needle so a small amount of clear liquid beaded on the tip.

“What do you think we are, amateurs?” He pulled down Thea’s leggings and immediately pierced the skin of her upper thigh.

Long seconds ticked by while I waited to see her chest rise. Crowe hovered with his ear to her chest. Finally, his body relaxed, and he placed a trembling kiss to her forehead. “I knew you were a fighter.”

With a snap, Sarah commanded, “The nebulizer. Set it up, now. Stop just standing there!”

I slid down aisle six, spotting a green box on the bottom shelf. A small medicinal aerosolizer used to treat bronchial infections. I tore the packaging open and plugged it into the wall beneath the counter at the same time Sarah came back with a generic-looking cartridge.

“I hope this works. Keep the mouthpiece covering her mouth and nose. If she stops breathing, hit her with an extra EpiPen from the cabinet.” She slid the cartridge into the top of the nebulizer, then took off at a jog down aisle six.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

“You said your brother was in the car.” She picked up a portable nebulizer and snatched a pack of batteries from an end cap. “I’m going to dose him. Stay here. I’ll be right back.”

The whirring of the machine filled the quiet space. My eyes locked on the gentle rise and fall of Thea’s chest. Slowly, too fucking slowly, the rhythm became more regular.

Crowe sighed with relief and sank to the ground.

It was his sudden collapse that saved his life.

Following a dull pop, a bullet sank into the wall where his head had been a fraction of a second before. Plaster and drywall burst around us, as three more shots broke apart the wall.

Pulling my gun free, I scanned the store for the shooter. Crowe rolled behind the counter, grabbing Thea and pulling her to the ground with him.

“Looks like whoever spiked the pie wasn’t taking any chances.”

“Looks like.” A flash of brown hair streaked an aisle past us. I trained my gun on the middle of the aisle, firing just as the person would be traveling in that direction. A cry of pain and gurgled exhale told me I had guessed right. “Keep her covered. I’ll take care of ouramico”

Carefully, I prowled towards the fallen attacker. A glock laid halfway down the aisle.

“Don’t move,” I said seriously, kicking the gun away. It had a hushpuppy silencer affixed to the end. In all honesty, it was a beautiful gun. I’d need to remember to pocket it when this was over. I reached down to her ankle and pulled a pistol from her boot, where I could see the bulge of a small ankle holster.

She rolled towards me and recognition instantly set in.

“Hello, Sherri.” Her hands gripped at the wound spilling blood from the side of her neck. “Does the diner always use Morphan in the pie? Sounds like an unsustainable business model to kill off your clientele.”

Sherri laughed, blood dripping down the corner of her mouth and staining her teeth. “You’re funny.”

“I’m really not. Who sent you, Sherri?”

“Fuck you.” She spat a blood filled wad at me. I fired a round into her knee. She screamed, and the blood started flowing more freely from the wound at her neck.

“You’ve only got another minute before you bleed out, Sherri. Better start talking if you want me to do something about it. Who hired you?”

Her jaw tightened in a grimace. She wasn’t going to talk. It didn’t matter, only one person really wanted Thea dead. “How’d you find us?”

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