She slammed open the door to the stairs and hoped the elevators were as slow as usual.
James didn’t complain and instead ran down the two flights of stairs ahead of her. He hit the exit for the first-floor door before Rose even saw it. Which meant when she made it out to see the front of the elevators, she was already late to the fight.
The reporter pulled a gun up just as James swung around to grab her waist.
Rose could have flinched, ducked, dropped herweight and let James do the rest, but there was more than one reason that she wore the nickname Wildcard so well.
She actually had some skill to back it up.
James put his arm around her and pulled her along with him to the corner of the hallway. Rose let it happen but she didn’t turn around. Instead, she had her gun up and aimed.
Rose might have been known for running into danger without a plan but people often left out the part where, once she was in a situation, she didn’t back down. If her boots made any noise as they slid across the floor, she didn’t hear it.
The gunshot she let off was just too loud.
The reporter bellowed out in pain as her hit landed. The force and surprise must have offset his trigger finger to fire late. James was able to pull her the rest of the way around the corner before he could get a shot off.
The glass windows over the side parking lot exit shattered in response to the miss. Screams sounded in the distance. Someone cut in on the overhead announcement system, but Rose wasn’t paying attention to anything else.
She stepped out of James’s hold and yelled out to the reporter.
“Sheriff’s department, throw your weapon away or—”
He apparently wasn’t having it.
James cut her off.
“Listen! He’s running!”
Rose quieted in time to hear a heavy bang. It wasn’t a gunshot this time.
“He ran back into the stairwell!”
Rose led the charge to the door they had just come from and kicked it open. No shots or attack came their way.
There was blood, however. A trail ran up the stairs, dotting the concrete and giving them the direction they needed.
Rose peeked out between the floors and looked up. There was a small space between the railings. She could see all the way to the top floor.
The reporter wasn’t waiting to catch sight of her and shoot. He was climbing up without stopping.
Rose didn’t have a clear shot of him.
Which meant they chase was still on.
“Be careful,” James ground out, but Rose was already running.
* * *
THE RAIN HADslacked off, but the roof was still freshly wet.
Rose burst out from the stairwell and nearly fell because of it.
James was at her elbow and caught her quickly by the back of her shirt. Like in the hallway downstairs, the change in gravity didn’t stop her. The instant her momentum swung back, she was on the man’s heels, yelling again for him to drop his weapon.
This time he didn’t turn and shoot. He also didn’t stop.
The roof that they were on was one of three different heights along the hospital’s main building. Right now they were on the middle height. It led to another roof that was a floor lower.
