We All Sleep Alone (Finley Creek #11) - Calle J. Brookes Page 0,126

now. She didn’t matter here. She had no illusions. Whatever was happening around her was happening between them. She was incidental.

That didn’t exactly reassure her.

“I told you before. I looked at her and for a moment there, she turned into you. I was so angry, Jenny. I didn’t understand why you could end our marriage on that day. The day we buried Ray. That should have been a day for him. For us to talk about him, and grieve together with Reggie as a family should. I…just reacted.”

That was it. A marital spat with his wife and he’d shot Izzie.

There really wasn’t any rhyme or reason behind it.

That didn’t exactly make her feel better. That didn’t cover all of it. Not by far. “What about Nikkie Jean? Why did you go after her? Was it because of her parents? Revenge? Did you not like that she turned you down for Caine?”

He shook his head and looked at her for a moment. “No. I…she saw me.”

“Doing what?” Izzie asked, standing. She wasn’t going to face him sitting down. No.

She was going to face him on equal footing, at least.

“With…a nurse. I didn’t want that getting back to…the wrong person.” His look told her who that wrong person was.

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“I…that nurse is dead now. I didn’t want people putting my name with hers. They’d know. So…I…focused on Nikkie Jean and hurt her when I shouldn’t have. Then…and the day of the storm.”

“How?”

A guilty look crossed his face. Izzie crossed her arms over her chest and waited. Apparently, Wallace Henedy was in a confessing mood. “I sedated her. I was going to ask her a few questions. But she got out of my car. I lost her in the storm. Until she came into my tent that day.”

“That’s why she was so lethargic. She could have been killed out there.” It answered that question—and why he had never ordered blood tests that day. He hadn’t wanted to get caught.

“I know. I never wanted to hurt her. Or you. Or Connie or Miranda or…anyone else. I just…got angry and things spiraled out of control. For that…that I am sorry. I’m here…to make things right. To make you understand.”

“What?”

“Don’t be like us, Lizzie. Not like us. Don’t repeat mine and Jenny’s mistakes. I want you to promise me you won’t. You deserved better for parents.”

Izzie looked at him. The man was…mad. There was no other word for it. “You aren’t my parents. The only parent I have is my uncle Jake.”

113

They could hear everything the man was saying. Allen stood outside the waiting room door, trying to determine what they needed to do to get Izzie and Wallace Henedy’s wife out of there. Out of the line of fire.

Stockton stood next to him. He’d surprised Allen. The older man had tackled Vince like a pro, then yelled for Allen to go, to get his daughter to safety. Within a moment, he was behind Allen.

Vince came up the rear, limping on his already bad leg. Vince was scowling, but he wasn’t arguing any longer.

“I’m going in,” Allen said.

“That’s damned stupid,” Vince said. “You’ll get both of you killed.”

“Is it?” He leveled a look at the head of security. “I know you have a .38. Give it to me.”

“You think I’m giving you a weapon now? Hell no. You’ll go in there and get yourself shot. Don’t be stupid, or suicidal, Jacobson. He’s not waving the gun around. He seems reasonably stable. Wait for the TSP.”

While Izzie was in danger.

Allen couldn’t do that. “They’ll take too long.”

“No, they won’t.” Another voice said from behind Vince. One Allen recognized.

Jake MacNamara stepped into the hallway from the emergency entrance. “What the hell is going on here?”

Allen’s plans changed in an instant. This was the one other man on the planet who loved Izzie as much as Allen did. “Easy. You’re going to take advantage of the distraction I’m about to cause. Get Izzie out of there.”

Allen grabbed the door to the waiting room and threw it open.

He stepped inside.

114

Jake bit back a curse when Jacobson disappeared through the metal doors. All Jake knew was that he was halfway to the TSP when a call had gone out that there was something going on at FCGH.

He’d been the closest.

Just his luck to be first on scene.

To see Jacobson in the middle of everything. Of course. It was always that guy. “What’s going on?”

He looked at the head of security. They’d met before; the guy’s son was on