Abingdon Press
Featuring: Kelly Atkinson; Dr. Mark Baker
304 pages ISBN: 1630889326 EAN: 9781630889326 Kindle: B00PYSUANA Hardcover / e-Book Add to Wish List
Kelly Adkinson, an emergency room RN, wheels a gunshot victim into the ER while being held at gunpoint herself. The victim's brother is demanding that someone do something to save his brother. Dr. Mark Baker is the doctor on duty that night, and his first thought is to find an exit, a way to escape and save himself. Kelly and Mark work together in an ER room to get IVs started on the victim and do CPR.
Both know that the gunshot victim is already dead, but they are trying to buy some time and figure out what to do to save everyone's life. Police officer Ed Purvis bursts through the door and shoots the man holding them at gunpoint, but Purvis takes a bullet himself for his efforts. Mark wheels the officer up to OR, but Purvis doesn't make it.
After a long night of questioning from the police, Mark and Kelly are allowed to leave the hospital. The next day they are told by investigators that the two brothers are part of the Zeta drug cartel that has infiltrated Texas from Mexico. They are a deadly bunch and always seek revenge when they lose one of their own. Mark and Kelly are now targets of the cartel. Later they learn that two members of the OR staff have been shot and killed, so Mark and Kelly team up to try to stay alive. Can they outmaneuver the cartel before the police and DEA catch them? Mark and Kelly dated for a few months prior to this incident. Will this experience bring them closer together or tear them apart?
Dr. Richard L. Mabry brings us another great inspirational medical thriller with FATAL TRAUMA. I always enjoy his novels. He begins FATAL TRAUMA with a scene of tragedy, excitement and suspense and never lets up. It's a page turner you just can't put down. Both characters are facing the same predicament, but handle it very differently.
Kelly is a Christian and has peace in her heart knowing that God is ultimately in charge. Mark holds great fear in his heart and can't seem to find peace anywhere. He wrestles with many questions about what kind of person he must be to react to this situation as he is. This is a wonderful story about finding peace and letting God have control of your life. "Inspirational" and "thriller" don't seem to go together in the same sentence, but it's one of my favorite genres, and Dr. Mabry certainly does it supreme justice.
It began with Dr. Mark Baker facing a gunman who had
nothing
to lose. It could end with him behind bars.
In the Emergency Room, Dr. Mark Baker and Nurse Kelly
Atkinson stand at the mercy of a gunman who declares, "If
he
dies, everyone here dies." At the end of the evening
three
men lie dead. One of them is a police officer Mark and a
surgeon, Dr. Anna King, couldn't save. The other two are
members of the feared Zeta drug cartel, and their threat
of
revenge puts the lives of Mark, Kelly, and others at
risk.
It isn't long before the shootings begin, and Mark finds
himself under suspicion as a killer, yet still a
potential
victim. Because of Kelly's growing love for Mark, she is
hurt when he turns to his high school sweetheart, now an
attorney, for help.
Who is the shooter? And can Mark find out before he
becomes
the next victim?
EXCERPT
Dr. Mark Baker swept his straw-colored hair away from his
eyes, then wiped his forearm across his brow. He wished
the air-conditioning in the emergency room were better.
Patients might complain that it was cool, but if you were
hurrying from case to case for eight hours or more, it
was easy to work up a sweat.
โNobody move!โ
Mark spun toward the doors leading to the ER, where a
wild-eyed man pressed a pistol against a nurseโs head.
She pushed a wheelchair in which another man sat slumped
forward, his eyes closed, his arms crossed against his
bloody chest. Dark blood oozed from beneath his splayed
fingers and dropped in a slow stream, leaving a trail of
red droplets on the cream-colored tile.
Behind them, Mark could see a hospital security guard
sprawled facedown and motionless on the floor, his gun
still in its holster, a crimson worm of blood oozing from
his head. Markโs doctorโs mind automatically catalogued
the injury as a basilar skull fracture. Probably hit him
behind the ear with the gun barrel.
The gunman was in his late twenties. His caramel-colored
skin was dotted with sweat. A scraggly moustache and
beard framed lips compressed almost to invisibility.
Straight, black hair, parted in the middle, topped a face
that displayed both fear and distrust. Every few seconds
he moved the barrel of the gun away from his hostageโs
temple long enough to wave it around, almost daring
anyone to come near him.
The wounded man was a few years older than the gunmanโ
maybe in his thirties. His swarthy complexion was shading
into pallor. Greasy black hair fell helter-skelter over
his forehead. His face bore the stubble of several daysโ
worth of beard.
โI mean it,โ the gunman said. โNobody move a muscle. My
brother needs help, and Iโll kill anyone who gets in the
way.โ
Markโs immediate reaction was to look around for the
nearest exit, but the gunmanโs next words made him freeze
before he could act.
โYou the doc?โ
Now the gun was pointed at him. Mark thought furiously of
ways to escape without being shot, but he discarded each
plan as fast as it crossed his mind. โYeah, Iโm the doc.โ
The gunman inclined his head toward the man in the
wheelchair. โHeโs . . . heโs been shot.โ He snatched two
ragged breaths. โI want you to fix him, pull him
through.โ He punctuated his words with rapid gestures
from the pistol. โIf he dies . . . if he dies, Iโm going
to kill everyone in here.โ The gunman turned back toward
his hostage. โStarting with her.โ
Markโs eyes followed the gun as it traversed once more
from him to the nurse pushing the wheelchair. To this
point his attention had been focused on the gunman, but
now that he recognized the hostage, he knew the stakes
were even higher. Although her red hair was disheveled,
her normally fair skin flushed, there was no mistaking
the identity of the woman against whose head the gunmanโs
pistol lay. The nurse was Kelly Atkinsonโthe woman Mark
was dating.
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