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As a trained sniper, Eve would know.
“If I hadn’t bent down to pick something up, he would’ve made a good shot to the back of my head.”
“What’d you pick up?” Serena asked.
“A penny.”
Any other time, he might’ve been slightly embarrassed to explain to the team what had been a sentimental move. But since it had saved his life, he had no problem saying what had made him bend down. Thanks, Mom, he whispered in his head.
“And that’s when you heard the first shot?” Gideon verified.
“Yeah. I heard another as I dropped to the ground and rolled beneath the car.”
“Where was Hawke?” Eve asked.
“Slightly behind me and to my right. The instant I was under the car, I turned to see that he’d been hit. I grabbed him and pulled him under the car with me.”
“So there was another shot while you were getting under the car?” Eve said.
Frowning, Xavier closed his eyes and forced himself to relive those brutal seconds. Opening his eyes, he nodded and said, “Two, then I turned. Then one while I was grabbing him. Another one after we were both beneath the SUV.”
“And Hawke was only hit once?”
“Yes.”
“So either the shooter wasn’t very good or…” Eve said.
“Or what?” Xavier asked.
“Or you were the target and not Hawke.”
“Hawke was already down, so the shooter likely wanted to focus on me. Maybe he didn’t?—”
A sound behind them had a dozen eyes focused on the door that had just opened and the weary-looking woman dressed in scrubs who appeared.
“Mr. Hawthorne’s family?” she said.
Olivia quickly stepped forward. “Yes?”
The woman gave a tired smile. “He lost a lot of blood and had to have multiple transfusions, but he should make a full recovery.”
A collective sigh of relief swept through the room.
“And the bullet,” Olivia said, “left no lasting damage?”
Her brow furrowing, the surgeon shook her head. “He wasn’t shot. A projectile—likely a shard of brick— was embedded in his carotid artery. It took hours to remove all the pieces and repair the damage.”
So the shooter hadn’t gotten even one bullet into either of them. That made no sense.
After reassuring Olivia that she would be able to see her husband as soon as he was moved to a private room, the doctor left. The room exploded with cheers, and a flood of relief rushed throughout Xavier’s body. Though he was not usually a pessimist, a huge part of him had believed he had lost his friend.
The celebration lasted for about five minutes, and then Olivia called out to get everyone’s attention. “Thank you all. Hawke, Nikki, and I are blessed to have so many people care about us. You’re all family to me, and I love you all. But now, please go and find the people who almost killed my husband. I’d like to have a talk with them.”
Every adult in the room gave her a nod of approval. They were family, they loved fiercely, and part of that ferocity was bringing justice to the wicked.
The OZ team went back into operations mode. Earlier, Olivia’s coworkers, Dylan Savage and Cole Mathison, had returned from the scene of the shooting with photographs of where Xavier and Hawke had been attacked and where they believed the shooter had been positioned.
Now, Ash gave Dylan and Cole a searching look. “You guys mind going back to the scene with us?”