Sanctuary

be?” While the wind pounded the walls, Lexy paced the main parlor. “Where could they be? Giff’s been gone nearly an hour, and Brian twice that long.”
    “Maybe they took shelter.” Kate huddled in a chair and vowed not to panic. “They might have decided not to try to get back and took shelter.”
    “Giff said he’d be back. He promised.”
    “Then he will be.” Kate folded her hands to keep from wringing them. “They’ll be here in a minute. And they’ll be tired and wet and cold. Lexy, let’s go in and get coffee into thermoses before we lose power.”
    “How can you think about coffee when—” She cut herself off, squeezed her eyes shut. “All right. It’s better than just standing here. Windows all boarded, you can’t even look out for them.”
    “We’ll get hot food, hot coffee, dry clothes.” Kate reeled off the practicalities, picking up a flashlight as a precaution as she took Lexy with her.
    When they were gone, Jo rose. Her father stood across the room, his back to her, staring at the boarded-up window as if he could will himself to see through the plywood.
    “Daddy, he’s been in the house.”
    “What?”
    “He’s been in the house.” She kept her voice calm as he turned. “I didn’t want to say anything to Lexy and Kate yet. They’re both frightened enough. I’d hoped they’d get on the last ferry, but with Brian still out ...”
    Sam’s stomach began to burn. “You’re sure of this.”
    “Yes. He left—he’s been in my darkroom, sometime in the last two days. I can’t be sure when.”
    “Nathan Delaney’s been in this house.”
    “It’s not Nathan.”
    Sam kept his gaze hard and steady. “I’m not willing to take a chance on that. You go in the kitchen with Kate and Lexy, and you stay with them. I’ll go through the house.”
    “I’m going with you.”
    “You’re going to do what I tell you and go in the kitchen. Not one of you takes a step without the other two.”
    “It’s me he wants. If they’re with me, they’re only in more danger.”
    “No one’s going to touch anyone of mine in this house.” He took her arm, prepared to drag her into the kitchen if necessary. The front door burst open, letting in wild wind and flooding rain.
    “Upstairs, Giff, get him upstairs.” Breathing fast, Kirby sidestepped to keep the pressure firm on Brian’s chest as Giff staggered under his weight. “I need my supplies out of the Jeep. Now,” she ordered as Sam and Jo raced forward. “I need sheets, towels, I need light. Hurry. He’s lost so much blood.”
    Kate dashed down the hall. “God, sweet God, what happened?”
    “He’s been shot.” Kirby kept deliberate pace with Giff, never taking her eyes off Brian’s face. “Radio the mainland, find out how long it’ll take to get a helicopter in. We need to get him to a hospital, and we need the police. Hurry with the supplies. I’ve already lost too much time.”
    Without bothering with rain gear, Sam ran out into the storm. He was blind before he’d reached the Jeep, deaf but for the roar of blood in his head and the scream of the wind. He dragged the first box free, then found Jo shoving past him for the next.
    They shouldered the weight and fought their way back into the house together.
    “She’s putting him in the Garden Suite. It’s the closest bed.” Lexy put her back into it and managed to shut the door behind them. “She won’t say how bad it is. She won’t say anything. Kate’s on the radio.”
    Jo gripped the box until her knuckles were white as they hurried up the steps.
    Kirby had stripped off her blood-smeared slicker, tossed it aside. She didn’t hear the rain pound or the wind scream. She had only one goal now: to keep Brian alive.
    “I need more pillows. We need to keep his trunk and legs higher than his head, keep the site of the bleeding elevated. He’s in shock. He needs more blankets. It went through. I found the exit wound.”
    She pressed padding high on the back of his right shoulder. Her ungloved hand was covered with blood. “I can’t tell what the internal damage might be. But the blood loss is the first concern. His BP is very low, pulse is thready. What’s his blood type?”
    “It’s A negative,” Sam told her. “Same as mine.”
    “Then we’ll take some of yours for him. I need someone to draw it, I’ll talk you through, but I don’t have enough hands.”
    “I’ll do it.” Kate hurried in. “They can’t tell us on the helicopter. Nothing