Chapter 18

Brendan lowered me to the grass. I lay fighting to breathe. Brendan was down on his hands and knees and appeared to be in almost as bad a shape. After another minute or two or twenty, I rubbed a hand down Brendan’s arm. He looked at me.

“Did you shoot what’s-his-face? Nick something?” I asked. I felt fairly stupid as soon as the words left my mouth, but the crap that had happened up there in the hallway still wasn’t entirely clear to me.

“Yeah. In the head, as soon as he moved the gun away from you.” Brendan wiped a hand across his face and it left a soot smear. “He was going to kill you, then I think he switched gears and was going to kill me, then you.”

I hacked away for a few more seconds, trying to comprehend exactly what had happened. “He’s dead?”

“Yes. I’ll go find Rudy, the cop that was on guard duty in a few minutes, then I’ll call…” His own coughing kicked up again.