ALL NINE BOOKS OF THE HALO LEGACY SERIES
ARE ONLY 99 CENTS THROUGH JULY 9!
The celebration continues! Today, I'm offering an excerpt from book #6. Arson fires and vengeful enemies bring the LEGACY UNDER FIRE as Halo's doctor struggles to regain her memory before killers bury her along with the evidence of their crimes.
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Shifts in the emergency room hadn't prepared Shiloh for triage on a site that looked like a battlefield. She simply patched up bloody arms and faces as best she could with limited supplies, then sent people on to a safe place.
Though shocked and hurting, the pioneer spirit of these citizens was obvious in their
stoic expressions and assistance in helping their neighbors and the strangers who were in town for the news conference. In a short time, the bandages and antiseptic Shiloh had crammed into her bag were gone, leaving her searching the bottom of an empty bag for tape to close a gash on someone's forehead.
"I'm going to get more supplies!" Shiloh shouted to one of the EMTs.
She sprinted back across Celestial Creek to her clinic, through the side door and upstairs where medical supplies were stored. As she jerked open the door of the storage room, orange tongues of fire roared toward her like the angry bellow of a giant beast intent on swallowing her whole.
The gasp of surprise was ripped from her throat as the force of the inferno threw her against the wall. Shiloh crumpled to the floor, instinctively curling into a ball.
Stunned and gasping for breath, she lay unmoving...
Grateful the other firefighters brought his turnouts and air tank when they arrived on the scene, Jeremiah was now equipped to help more people. As he carried another victim to the medic area, he expected to see Shiloh directing medical care.
"Where's the doc?" Jeremiah shouted to be heard amid the sirens and smoke and chaos.
Rochelle Wymer, one of the local emergency medical techs, glanced up from bandaging a gash on an older woman's arm. "She went to the clinic for more supplies."
"How long has she been gone?"
"Damn, Jer, I didn't set the timer on my watch when she left."
Jeremiah usually appreciated Rochelle's in-your-face approach that kept the EMTs and firefighters moving when sheer determination was all they had left. But today, worry for the lady doctor nagged at his gut.
He looked across Celestial Creek toward the doctor's clinic, hoping to see a slender figure moving this direction.
What he saw instead was smoke billowing out an upper window. The building wasn't part of those destroyed in the explosions on this side of the creek, yet it certainly seemed to be on fire.
Jeremiah started walking rapidly toward the building, then broke into a run, as he shouted into the radio wired to his helmet. "Fire at the doctor's clinic!"
A muffled curse answered him, followed by a pause, and the order to one of the engines to hit the other side of town. Jeremiah pounded across the bridge at a run, focused on Shiloh's clinic.
The redirected engine arrived at the same time Jeremiah did. Flames shimmered menacingly through the glass doors in the front of the building, so Jeremiah trotted around to the side. Usually unlocked during business hours, the side door seemed jammed shut. Using a crowbar, he pried it open. While his partner directed a hose line on the flames, Jeremiah dropped low and scanned under the smoke for any sign of the doctor.
He found Shiloh by the window, unconscious. A knot swelled at the back of her head, and her skin was red from the heat, but she was breathing.
"The whole building is about to collapse." The message came over Jeremiah's headphones.
***
(Copyright Genene Valleau, writing as Genie Gabriel)
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