chapter five

Larissa melted against Gabe, lost in his kiss. It wasn’t until there was a

loud bang from someone slamming a car door nearby that she finally

regained her senses.

She pulled away, struggling to catch her breath. Why had he kissed her?

Why had she kissed him back?

“Larissa,” he began, and she immediately knew he was about to apologize.

“It’s okay,” she said quickly, cutting him off. “I really need to get going.

Thanks again for everything,” she said, desperately wishing she could just

walk away.

But of course, she couldn’t walk anywhere, not without the crutches.

“Can you get the crutches out for me?” she asked when he didn’t say

anything.

“Sure.” He stepped back, opened the door, and pulled them out. “I’ll walk

you inside,” he said.

“No!” The word came out much harsher than she’d intended. Couldn’t he

see she was hanging on by a thread? “Goodnight, Gabe.”

She tucked the crutches beneath her already-sore armpits and made her

way up the sidewalk. Of course, Gabe didn’t just let her go inside by herself;

in fact, he rushed ahead to open the door for her.

Keeping her gaze averted, she made her way toward the elevator. “Thanks,

but I’ve got it from here,” she said with a bright smile. “Have a great day at

work tomorrow,” she added as the elevator doors opened. She swung inside

and jabbed the button to close the doors.

It wasn’t until the doors closed and the elevator starting moving that she

sagged against the wall in relief. The trembling in her legs had nothing to do

with the exertion of crutches and everything to do with Gabe’s kiss.

What had just happened? A better question might be—why had that

happened?

She’d heard about Gabe’s aloof reputation on her very first day. All the

nurses talked about the fact that the good-looking ER doctor didn’t date

nurses. Not even ones who worked elsewhere in the hospital.

But that wasn’t the only reason she’d been fighting her attraction to him.

She didn’t want or need the complication of a man in her life. She was here

getting over a bad relationship, not to jump into a new one.

Still, she couldn’t help lightly touching her tingling lips. Gabe’s kiss

hadn’t just barreled against the walls she’d built around her heart, it had

broken straight through.

She closed her eyes and prayed for strength.

____________

Larissa’s ankle felt much better the next morning, so much so that she

decided against going to an urgent care, her only option on the Memorial Day

holiday. The swelling had come down to the point she probably didn’t really

need the crutches, but she used them anyway just to rest the ankle a bit more,

especially since she was scheduled for another twelve-hour shift the next day.

At least she was scheduled for the night shift, so she’d have the entire day to

rest it.

Summer clouds darkened the sky, making it a great day to stay inside

doing chores. Getting her laundry done was tricky, but she managed to scoot

the basket into the elevator to get down into the basement.

As the day wore on, she couldn’t seem to stop thinking about Gabe. Which

was ridiculous, because she’d already decided that she needed to keep her

distance from him. Yet she must have checked her phone a dozen times,

wondering if she’d missed his call.

Or a call from Annie.

She thought about the poor woman as she placed the frozen bag of peas

over her ankle. She’d called Annie’s number several times, but the calls went

straight to voice mail. Either Annie’s phone was turned off or Kurt had

destroyed it.

She shivered, hoping that Annie had managed to keep the phone hidden. If

not, the poor woman had no way of calling for help. Not that she’d called the

police so far.

Larissa had sensed Gabe’s frustration yesterday when Annie had refused

to press charges. She understood all too well what was going on in Annie’s

mind.

How many times had she begged her mother to leave George? Too many

to count. Her mother always had an excuse—either she was afraid she

wouldn’t be able to find a job, or she was afraid George would come after

her, or she was afraid George would actually leave her alone. She’d tried to

tell her mother they were better off without him, but it wasn’t until he’d

attacked Larissa that her mother had sneaked away in the dead of the night, going straight to a women’s shelter, one of the many Larissa had tried to

convince her to go to the past.

The years after George had been rough on both of them. Her mother had

been depressed, and the only job she’d been able to get was that of a waitress,

which hadn’t brought in much money. Larissa had gotten a job as soon as

she’d turned sixteen to help with the household expenses. When she was

seventeen, she took the nursing assistant program through her high school

and had gotten a decent-paying job at a local nursing home. She enjoyed

working with patients and had decided to go into nursing.

Ironically, once she’d headed off to college, her mother had found a new

man, one that didn’t hit her or abuse her in any way. He was significantly

older, but as long as her mother was happy, she didn’t care. In talking to

Annie in the ER, she’d tried to explain to Annie that she could do the same.

But after the incident last evening, she could only assume her words had

fallen on deaf ears. Well, maybe not completely deaf, as Annie had tried to

call her.

Shaking off her depressing thoughts, she finished her laundry and then

settled in for a movie marathon. She had a secret weakness for the old Star

Wars movies and watched one after another, staying up as late as possible so

she could sleep in before her next night shift.

The next afternoon, her ankle felt even better. She stayed off of it until she

needed to get dressed for work. Even then, she wrapped it snuggly for extra

support.

Dark storm clouds obscured the sun, streaks of lightning flashing across

the sky as she headed to the hospital. She hurried, trying to beat the rain,

making it inside the hospital with mere seconds to spare before the sky

opened up and rain pelted the earth.

She grinned at her friend Julie. “I thought for sure you’d be off today.

Didn’t you work the past two days

“Tonight is my last of three shifts in a row, and then I’m off for four

glorious days,” Julie responded. “Can’t wait"

Julie was lucky to have purchased a townhouse on the lake. She’d gotten a

decent price because one side had suffered a kitchen fire. If Larissa had

managed to save more money, she might have put in a bid for the place

herself. Although she was glad her friend had gotten it. Next year, she

silently promised. Next year she’d have enough money for a down payment.

“Are you in the trauma room tonight?” Larissa asked as they made their way over to the desk. Debra was the charge nurse, and she looked harassed as

they approached.

“I don’t know,” Julie said with a wry smile. “Guess we’ll find out"

“I’m glad you’re both here,” Debra said. “We’re short staffed tonight, so

I’ll need both of you to take a team and help cover the trauma room,” she

instructed. “Larissa, you’re team one, and Julie, you’re team two. I have

Jessica covering team three, and I’ll pitch in as needed.”

Larissa exchanged a wince with Julie before nodding. “Okay.”

“This is going to be a long night,” Julie muttered as they walked away to

their respective teams. “I bet this storm is going to bring a bunch of trauma

cases in. We’ll be running for sure.”

“You’re probably right,” Larissa agreed. Too late now to wish she’d gotten

a doctor’s excuse. Although to be fair, she was glad she hadn’t called in,

otherwise she would have left Debra, Julie, and Jessica to handle the ER

alone.

For the next three hours, Larissa dealt with a steady stream of patients, and

thankfully, only two trauma patients had come in. She’d taken the first one,

and Julie had taken the second.

“Tag, you’re it,” Julie had joked as they passed in the hallway like ships in

the night.

“I know, I know,” Larissa muttered. They were to take turns with the

traumas unless there were two at the same time, and then Debra would come

and assist.

Gabe walked into the ER at quarter to eleven, and she realized he was also

assigned the night shift. The doctors worked eight-hour shifts instead of

twelve, and she hadn’t really thought about Gabe at all until now.

Memories of their heated kiss made her blush, and she kept her gaze

focused on the computer screen as he went over to the main census board.

“Okay, Mr. Harris, you’re all set for discharge,” she said, walking into her

patient’s room. “Remember you have to follow up with your doctor first

thing tomorrow morning, okay?”

“I’ll remember,” the elderly patient said as he stood. Mr. Clarence Harris

had congestive heart failure and often forgot to take his medications, which

then caused him to become short of breath. In reading his chart, it sounded

like his son wanted him to go to a nursing home, but the older man kept

refusing.

“All right, take care, then.” She helped him out to a wheelchair. Rick, one of their techs, came over to escort the patient outside.

“Hi, Larissa, I’m surprised to see you here.” Gabe’s voice broke into her

thoughts. “How’s your ankle?”

She took a deep breath before turning to face him. “It’s a lot better, thanks.

I have the crutches in my car if you want them back.”

“No rush,” he said with a shrug. The way he stood there with his hands

stuffed into the pockets of his lab coat, she sensed there was more he wanted

to say, but just then, their trauma pagers went off.

“Car versus pedestrian just off Highway Z,” Gabe said out loud as he read

his pager. “Victim is a fifty-year-old woman, and her vitals are bad. It doesn’t

sound good.”

Her stomach clenched with dread as she read the same message. Annie

was fifty years old and lived near Highway Z. Granted, that didn’t mean she

was the victim. Still, she sent up a quick prayer for Annie’s safekeeping.

“We should call a chopper, in case she needs to get to Madison,” she

suggested as she followed Gabe into the trauma bay. They were only a level-

two trauma center, and if this patient was really bad, they’d need to stabilize

her and get her transferred as soon as possible.

“Good idea.”

She’d barely made the call when the ambulance bay burst open revealing a

bevy of paramedics surrounding a gurney. The moment she saw the victim,

she knew it was Annie despite the massive amount of blood.

“Fifty-year-old woman with serious head injury, unconscious at the scene.

Vitals reflect hypovolemic shock. We have fluids running wide open.”

“Is there another victim?” Gabe asked.

“No, apparently this was a hit and run.”

Larissa concentrated on taking care of Annie, but deep down, she felt

certain Kurt was the one behind the wheel of the car that had hit his wife.

And she suspected he’d intended to kill Annie.

____________

Larissa and Gabe worked on Annie for a solid hour before they deemed

her stable enough to transfer. Larissa watched the flight team wheel Annie

away and silently prayed.

Dear Lord, please keep Annie safe in Your care.

“Larissa?” Gabe’s low voice broke into her prayer. “Are you all right?”

Suddenly, she wasn’t. She had to get away, just for a few minutes.

“Excuse me,” she murmured, slipping away.

She stepped outside, staying beneath the overhang so that she didn’t get

drenched by the rain. What had happened to Annie? Had she tried to escape

Kurt on foot? Had she been on the road, helpless as he drove directly at her?

Squeezing her eyes shut didn’t help erase the image she could see so

clearly in her mind. Maybe it wasn’t Kurt, she tried to tell herself. Maybe

Annie had been running from her husband and dashed onto the road, directly

in the path of an on-coming car.

She took several deep breaths, trying to calm her ragged nerves. There

wasn’t anything she could do to help Annie right now. She and Gabe had

done their best, placing a breathing tube and a central venous catheter before

pumping several units of blood into her system.

The rest was up to the trauma team in Madison and God.

Feeling calmer, she turned to go back inside, shivering when a blast of

cold rain hit her back, soaking through the thin fabric of her scrubs. The

trauma bay was empty now and had already been cleaned up, which made her

feel guilty. It was almost four in the morning, the most difficult part of the

night shift, and she realized she must have stayed outside longer than she

intended.

Time to stop worrying about Annie and to focus her attention on the

handful of patients who still needed care on her team.

She was about to head through the trauma bay when suddenly the

ambulance bay doors opened behind her, letting in a blast of cool air. She

jumped around in surprise and nearly tripped over her feet when she saw a

disheveled man standing there holding a gun.

“This is all your fault,” he said in a harsh tone, waving the gun in her

general direction. “Annie’s gone, and it’s all your fault!”

Kurt Hinkle. Was he intoxicated? He certainly acted like it; his eyes were

bloodshot and his gait unsteady. She swallowed hard and tried to edge behind

one of the metal bedside tables, not much protection against a bullet. When

Kurt came farther in the room, she fought a rising panic.

Where was everyone? Couldn’t they hear Kurt?

“Don’t move!” he threatened. He took a step toward her, and she couldn’t

help shrinking backward, dragging the metal bedside table with her.

And this time when he raised the gun and pointed it directly at her, his

hand was far too steady.

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