On my way home, I swung by Lackington Hughes Memorial Hospital in hopes of seeing Vic but was told he was in surgery. I hadn’t really expected anything different and felt a little silly for bothering.
I ran into Austen on my way out, a nice-looking nurse who had always been kind to me, and I kept him company on his break while he drank bad vending machine coffee and gave me the lowdown on the young man Vic was working on at that very moment.
“We had two college kids brought in a few hours ago. They both lost a lot of blood, I mean, a lot. Then we lost one, and now everyone’s on edge.
“God, how terrible.”
“Well, the other kid’s in surgery. If anyone can patch him up, it’s Vic.”
No doubt.
“He’s the best we’ve got. A little city like this is lucky to have him.”
I narrowed my eyes at Au
