The Shooting Read Online Free PDF Page A

The memory of it shocked her, almost as much as the knowledge she’d taken a bullet.
    A swarm of police officers dressed in combat gear, and two paramedics wearing dark blue overalls, suddenly surrounded her and she breathed a sigh of relief. Help had arrived. She’d be okay. She was sure of it. As if to confirm it, a female paramedic reached over and put an oxygen mask over Lily’s face.
    “You’re going to be all right, okay? Just hold on and we’ll get you to the hospital. You’ve lost a little blood, but we’re going to get you to the hospital very soon. Do you understand?”
    Lily nodded.
    “We’re going to give you something for the pain, okay? Just sit tight. It won’t be long.”
    The other paramedic moved Lily’s arm off her stomach and unbuttoned the buttons on her blouse. Lily looked down and grimaced. She’d probably never get the stain out of it. Scrap that, the blouse had a bullet hole in it. It was fit for nothing but the trash. What a waste. It was one of her favorites.
    The irrational thoughts went back and forth in her head while she did her best to breathe through the pain. A wad of padding was pressed against her wound and then bandaged tightly around her stomach. She closed her eyes, exhausted. She wanted nothing more than to drift into sleep.
    “Lily? Lily, can you hear me?”
    Lily frowned and opened her eyes. It was one of the paramedics. She forced herself to nod through the haze of pain and narcotics.
    “We’re going to move you now, Lily. We’re going to lift you onto the stretcher and get you into the ambulance. We’re taking you to the Royal North Shore Hospital.”
    It was the female paramedic who spoke to her again and Lily thought she acknowledged the woman’s words with a nod, but in the end, she couldn’t be sure. The morphine they’d given her was taking effect. She could barely keep her eyes open.
    “She’s losing consciousness. Quick, we need to get her to the hospital.”
    The words echoed across the vastness of Lily’s brain. She fought against the blackness with everything she had, but still it wasn’t enough. The murmur of voices above her receded.
    Tom. She had to tell Tom. He’d have heard it over the police radio. He’d be worried sick. He’d know straight away she could be involved, even injured. She had to talk to him. She had to make sure he knew she was okay.
    And Cassie and Joe. She didn’t want them finding out on Facebook. Cassie was always watching live news feeds on her phone. It fascinated her that she could be watching a drama unfolding in real time. Lily found it a little unsettling, if she was honest.
    Another hospital mask came down over her face, replacing the first one. It smelled different. She tried to struggle against it, but it was useless. Her limbs were leaden, her head was dull.
    And there was Tom. She breathed a sigh of relief, but then realized it wasn’t the Tom she’d kissed good-bye that morning. Had it really only been that morning?
    It was Tom as he was when she’d first met him, more than seventeen years ago. His hair was thick and blond and curling up a little across the back of his neck. He’d worn it longer in those days. Not that he still didn’t look hot. He’d always looked hot. From the moment she’d spied him across the room at that party, he’d had the ability to weaken her knees…
    She smiled at the memory, suddenly yearning to have him close. She needed him to reassure her that everything was going to be all right, to give her a wink and to toss her a cheeky grin. But more than anything, she needed him to hold her hand and keep the fear at bay. She needed to tell him she loved him. She needed to hear it from him, too. She needed… And then, there was nothing.
    * * *
    The paramedics hurried across the front of the school yard, pushing a gurney. Tom could see a woman strapped to it. The patient was tall, but petite and sported a sleek crop of golden blond hair. His heart lurched in an agony of disbelief.