“If they’re smart.”

Jackie stands. “But Addy and Maddy are at The Gables.”

Shit. How had I forgotten that?

“I’ll have Lincoln talk to his sister. She can bring them—”

Before I can finish my sentence, a code is called over the hospital’s PA system, and in the hallway, we hear someone swear and break into a run.

Confused, I look around the room. “What does that mean? What was that code?”

I have no idea how he knows, but Asa meets my gaze first.

“They’re getting ready to evacuate the hospital.”

Forty-Eight

Lincoln

I grab an ER nurse as soon as the code is called and everyone outside the room breaks into a flurry of movement. “What the hell is going on?”

Her eyes wide, she says, “We have to evacuate.”

Fuck.

Magnus just returned with coffee and curses under his breath. Commodore sits up in the hospital bed.

“Evacuate? Here?” I ask.

The woman nods, and I think of Whitney’s family upstairs. “What about the people in surgery? What happens to them?”

“I assume they try to get them stable and then move them. I don’t know anything else, sir. This has never happened in the time I’ve worked here. I’m so sorry.”

“Find someone who’s in charge. Send them in here.”

She nods and scurries away, and I figure the chance of her actually following directions has dropped to slim-to-none as soon as she disappears into the chaos in the hallway.

“Fuck,” I whisper, and turn to find Commodore shifting in the hospital bed. “What are you doing?”

“I gotta get the fuck out of this bed and back into my chair. I’m not helpless.”

I look at his knee, which is bandaged. “Sir, they’re going to come for you. Let me go find—”

“You think I survived the war by waiting for someone to come for me after my plane went down? No, I fucking broke out of that POW camp myself and made it back to my ship. Nothing good happens to those who wait. That’s a load of bullshit. Now, wheel my chair over here and help me into it. I’m not burning to death in this building when someone forgets about me.”

“He’s right.” Magnus moves the chair across the room toward the bed. “I wouldn’t wait either. We get him out now.”

I can’t fault their logic, because with the sudden onset of mass hysteria that has already taken hold of the hospital, there’s no telling what could happen next. People in the halls are screaming to be moved, and the staff is no doubt going to be working as hard and quickly as possible.

This is everyone’s worst nightmare, and Commodore already escaped being burned alive once today—at least, that was part of my brother’s threat.

We help him into his chair, and I turn to Magnus. “They’re probably going to evacuate down to Rock Hollow, unless somehow the fire changed direction. Wait for instructions, but if shit goes sideways, get the fuck out of here any way you can.”