Sinner’s Empire Series: Sin of Silence, A Silent Reckoning, Goodnight Sinners

Chapter 2

"Mom, I'm fine, really."

Shaun took a long thirsty gulp of water before hurriedly wiping her mouth and putting the bottle back in the fridge. She flexed her shoulder blades, wincing a little at the crackling sound and the tight, pinched feeling in her neck. She was on day three of a four-day twelve-hour rotation. She shook her head. It wasn't like she stuck to her working hours. She worked when there was work to be done, and she went back to her tiny boarding room when she could no longer stand up and keep her eyes open.

"I read in the news that there was a bombing close to the hospital last night. Did you hear it?" Fatima asked anxiously over the phone.

Shaun frowned in concentration. She tried to get her tired brain to remember if anything had happened the evening before. Usually after long shifts she would go home and eat a quick, cold meal, take a lukewarm shower with appalling water pressure, then pass out until her next shift began.

Still, she had to reassure her mother. It was the only way to keep Fatima sane while her daughter willingly ventured into the hearts of war zones. "No, Mom, it was nowhere near here. Trust me, I'd have noticed if a bomb went off near the hospital. We're not all that close to the front lines, and the town is no longer being targeted."

Shaun was telling the truth. Partly. It was true that the hospital wasn't a target, but it was located closer to the front lines than Shaun knew her mother would be comfortable with. Luhansk, or Luhansk People's Republic, was rebel held, which automatically made the area more dangerous. The government couldn't step in to provide law and order in the now lawless, rebel-held no-man's-land.

"I hate that you aren't safe at home."

"I know, and I'm sorry, but this is what I need to be doing." They'd had the same conversation dozens of times, almost without deviation. It was pointless, but Shaun understood her mother's need to express her fear. "How's your garden doing? Are the sunflowers taller than you yet?"

Fatima perked up and chatted about her garden for a few minutes, giving Shaun a chance to eat her snack of almonds and fruit before she got back to her rounds.

Doctors were scarce in that part of Ukraine, having been killed in the fighting or fleeing to safer areas as the war advanced, taking down entire cities in the process. Doctors Without Borders came in to help manage the humanitarian crisis on the front lines. Shaun, a neurosurgeon, had been called in from her home city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, along with two American nurses and a Brazilian radiologist. They worked alongside the skeleton crew of hospital staff who had elected to stay behind.

The hours were long, the accommodations were awful, and the future was uncertain, but being part of the Doctors Without Borders team was one of the most fulfilling things Shaun had done with her life. She'd put herself through med school, she'd put her time in at the bottom of the pond in order to pay off student loans, and now she was free to pursue her passion: providing medical care to people in need ? people in desperate situations. Additionally, Doctors Without Borders was a chance to immerse herself in another country, culture and language. It was fulfilling on so many levels.

Shaun listened to her mother for a few more minutes, most of the conversation happening on Fatima's side.

"Mom, I have to get back to work. Give Fitzy a kiss for me."

Fatima laughed. "Only if I want my throat cut. That cat lives for you alone."

Shaun smiled as she thought of her giant ornery orange tabby.

"Thanks for taking him for me." Shaun blinked away tears as a wave of homesickness hit her. "Love you both."

"Love you too," Fatima said before hanging up.

Shaun had barely tucked her phone away when the door flung open. She jumped and turned as it banged into the wall.

"Doctor Patterson, oh thank goodness." A harassed looking Janet, an American nurse, rushed into the break room. Her blond hair, which had been in a tight ponytail that morning, was now frizzing around her head. Her eyes were red-rimmed from fatigue. She'd only been in the camp for a few weeks, but she would get used to the long brutal hours. Shaun was on her fourth month.

Shaun straightened her shoulders, shaking off her exhaustion and putting on her professional face. "What do you need?"

"Asthma attack in emergency, bed four. 10-year-old male presenting with shallow breathing, coughing and wheezing. He's not getting enough oxygen. He's turning blue."

Shaun strode out of the room, Janet running to keep up with her.

"How long has the attack been going on for?" Shaun asked.

"It started about an hour before he arrived, according to his mother. It's been 20 minutes since he was first examined."

"Where is Doctor Zelensky?" One of the local doctors was supposed to be covering emergency.

Janet shrugged and pressed her arm against a door, flipping it open so they could walk through. "Yolanda thinks he went to do a house call. Someone who can't be moved."

"Okay," Shaun said. "I'll have a quick look, but we may have to intubate. Is the mother calm?"

"No." Janet shook her head. "Almost as hysterical as I felt when I couldn't find you."

Shaun smiled grimly. "I'll need you to get her out of the exam room and have someone join me for the procedure. Danilo is on desk, so send him in. The patient may need to be held, depending on his level of alertness."

It turned out the child was no longer responsive when they arrived. Janet rushed the mother out of the room and Danilo, one of the local nurses, stayed to help. Shaun carefully intubated the boy and then gradually filled his lungs with air, essentially breathing for him through a plastic tube.

"Pulse returning to normal," Danilo said from where he stood across from her.

She nodded and began to relax. The boy would live. His mother should move him out of the city. Too much dust and debris floating in the air from the bombings. This wasn't the only case of acute asthma Shaun had seen. In fact, it was becoming more and more common for people to wander in complaining of breathing problems, whether or not they were asthmatic.

"Please get a box of the Prednisone," she told Danilo. "I'll watch him for a few minutes, then we can invite his mom to come back in and show her how to administer the steroid."

He nodded and left while Shaun turned back to the table. Scared blue eyes looked up at her, surprisingly sharp considering the ordeal he'd gone through. He must be utterly exhausted. She smiled big for him, forcing her lips to stretch into a grin. Even if she wasn't feeling it on the inside, she would pretend for his sake. He deserved a smile until he could see his mom again.

"You're doing great... kiddo," she said in stumbling Ukrainian, realizing she had no idea what his name was. Usually the nurse told her when giving her a rundown of the symptoms. They'd forgotten in their rush to get him breathing again.

The boy blinked up at her.

She continued to smile and dropped her hand to squeeze his shoulder.

Then his eyes moved past her to settle on something behind her.

Shaun turned her head slowly, intuition lifting the hairs on her neck, telling her to drop to the ground, to run, to scream. Something in the child's expression told Shaun that there was a threat standing right behind her.

Sure enough, when she turned her head, she found herself staring down the barrel of a gun. A loud gasp flew from her lips. Her eyes followed the length of the gun to the gloved hand holding it. A man's hand, a leather glove. Pale skin, tattoos between the edge of his glove and the cuff of his leather jacket. They reappeared from beneath the collar of his shirt and wound their way up his neck. They were both barbaric and beautiful, completely out of place in the hospital.

The man had dark hair, cut close to his scalp. He wore sunglasses so she couldn't see his eyes, but the set of his face told her everything. Prominent cheekbones, sharp wide jawline, and thin, cruel lips with a scar slashing right through the middle, as though someone had tried to cut his mouth.

She was going to die.

She closed her eyes, deciding to take a moment to come to peace with her destiny. She was okay with dying, even expected it to some extent, given the places she chose to work, but she was sad about the child. Wished she could shield him from both the danger of a gunman in the hospital and the trauma of seeing her killed.

Pain burst through her cheek and her eyes flew open, her hand automatically coming up to touch her face where he hit her with the gun. She winced. It hurt, but nothing was broken and there was no blood. Tears filled her eyes and she stared at the man who was threatening her. The gun was still trained on her, the sunglasses staring blankly down at her. He was tall. So was Shaun. At almost six feet, she could stand toe to toe with most men. Not this guy; he was three or four inches taller.

"What do you want?" she asked, her voice shaky.

He jerked his head to the door. Her eyes followed, and he nodded, waving the gun, showing she should walk out ahead of him. Comprehension hit and she shook her head. "No," she said, stepping back. She wouldn't leave with him. She wasn't that stupid.

He stiffened, then shifted his arm, his shoulder flexing beneath the supple leather of his coat. He trained the gun on the bed, on the boy. Shaun moved to stand between the child and the gun. He'd have to shoot her to get to the boy. He lowered the gun a few inches and waved it at the door again.

What was he trying to say, and why didn't he just tell her what he wanted?

He took a threatening step toward her and impatiently reached up to drag the sunglasses off his face. She stared, her heart pounding in terror. Without them, he should look more human, but he didn't. His eyes were a startling deep blue, so dark they looked almost black, like the bottom of a frozen lake. He shoved his sunglasses into his jacket pocket and took hold of her arm in a painful grip. He gave her a shake and waved the gun, first at the boy, then back toward the door.

"You want me to go with you?" she asked breathlessly.

His eyes seemed to darken and he nodded, jerking his head again. She really didn't want to leave the room with him, but she couldn't allow him to shoot the child either. Maybe if she went with him, she could reason with him once they were away from other people.

"Okay," she whispered. "Let's go."

"I couldn't find the prednisone, but we have..." Danilo walked into the room holding a bottle in his hand. When he caught sight of the man and the gun he stopped, his back against the door as it swung shut behind him. "Doctor Patterson?"

Her name was the last thing he said as a bullet went through his right eye, killing him on the spot. His body was still falling when the gunman dragged Shaun forward, forcing her to step over her dead colleague and out into the hallway. She twisted around to look behind her, catching the wide, terrified eyes of the boy, now sitting up in his bed and staring after them.

"You killed him!" Shaun yelled, yanking on the arm he was gripping.

He swung her into a wall, which shook ominously when her weight hit it. The entire structure was nearly as thin as cardboard, meant to come down and go up quickly and easily. She would be a lot more than winded if he'd just thrown her into an actual wall. He was much bigger than her, and he was using his strength to force her compliance.

"Shaun - "

Shaun looked over, her head moving against the wall. Janet was rushing down the hall toward them, heedless of the gun coming up toward her. Shaun threw herself against his arm, knocking his aim to the side. A bullet slammed through the opposite wall; the bullet meant for Janet. He shoved Shaun away from him and brought his arm back up, but Janet had flung herself into one of the exam rooms. Instead of going after her, he took Shaun's arm again and hauled her against his side, running with her down the hall.

He was after her specifically it would seem. He could have grabbed someone from the reception area if he wanted any medical professional. Instead, he'd gone to the trouble of searching her out in the hospital, putting himself and everyone else at risk. They rounded a corner where a patient was standing in the hallway.

"Get back!" Shaun screamed, not wanting him to get shot.

The man took one look and ducked out of the way.

They hurtled through the hospital at such a dizzying pace that Shaun lost track of where she was until they were standing outside, the sky a bright blur above them. She tried to look around, figure out what was happening, but her captor wrapped an arm around her middle, picked her up off the ground and flung her toward a white panelled van. Someone else grabbed her and dragged her inside.

She let out one more scream before the gunman jumped in the back of the van, slammed the door shut and brought his hand down on the driver's shoulder. The driver nodded his acknowledgment and the van started moving. The gunman turned back to look at her. She curled her legs protectively underneath herself and pressed her spine against the metal panel. The look on his face was a weird mix of satisfaction and despair.