Still, Vikram couldn’t help sending up a quick prayer for Aisha’s recovery. And then shook his head in mild disbelief when he realized he’d prayed more since attending temple with Ahana than Vikram had in the year his sister had hounded him to go.
Not that he planned on telling Kamini that.
Jeevika came abruptly around the corner and barreled right into him. Vikram steadied her with his hands on her shoulders. “Whoa, take it easy.”
“Sorry,” Jeevika said with a sigh, taking a step back. “It’s been so crazy busy.” Jeevika frowned. “Have you seen Ahana? One of her patients needs something for pain.”
“I’ll find her,” Vikram promised. “Just get her patient the pain meds for now, okay?”
“Okay.” Jeevika disappeared, and Vikram swung around to head back to the trauma bay.
Vikram slowed to a stop when he heard a familiar voice.
“Aisha’s not here, Kumar. Why don’t you put the gun down and have a seat so I can arrange for you to go and see her?”
Kumar? Gun? Ice crawled down his spine, and he sprinted toward the nearest phone and punched in called emergency number . “Kumar Sha is armed with a gun and is in the trauma bay with Ahana,” Kumar said in a low, terse tone to Grace, Shahil’s department dispatcher. “Hurry.”
Vikram hung up the phone, swung around, and quickly flagged down Diya, the charge nurse. “Keep everyone out of the trauma bay, do you understand?” Vikram said as quietly as possible.
“What’s going on?”
“Kumar Sha is in there with a gun, but the police are on their way. Keep everyone out and far away from this area,” Shahil repeated, moving toward the door.
“You can’t go in there,” Diya protested, grabbing his arm.
“Yes, I can. Just keep everyone out here, okay?” Vikram shook off her hand and edged toward the door leading to the trauma bay. Vikram didn’t want to barge in there in case he startled Kumar into shooting.
But he couldn’t bear the thought of Ahana facing someone as unstable as Kumar alone, either.
Dear Lord, please give me strength.
Vikram cracked the door open and peered inside. The ice on his spine turned glacier when he saw how close Kumar was to Ahana, just six feet away, with his gun leveled directly at the center of her chest. Ahana stared up at Kumar with wide, frightened eyes with nothing but a small metal bedside table between them.
There was no way Vikram was waiting for the Shahil’s team. Vikram shoved open the door and stepped into the room. “Put down the gun, Kumar.”
The older man swung around to face him, the gun bobbing up and down in his hand. “Stay out of this, doc. This is between her and me.”
“Put the gun away,” Shahil repeated, projecting a calmness he didn’t feel. “Don’t make this worse than it already is.”
“Get outta here!” Kumar shouted, his face turning red.
From the corner of his eye, he noticed Ahana was edging farther away from Kumar, exactly the way he’d hoped. The trauma bay was big and open; there weren’t any places to hide or much to use as a barrier against a gun.
“Why are you threatening Ahana?” Vikram asked, striving for a conversational tone. “She hasn’t done anything to you.”
Mentioning Ahana was a mistake as Kumar immediately swung back toward her. “You should have stayed away from Aisha,” Kumar accused. “You shouldn’t have filled her head with ideas of leaving me. It’s your fault she got hurt. If she wouldn’t have left, she’d be fine right now.”
The story will be continued in season 2, thanks for reading!😊🙏
