Page 87 of Love and Other Lost Things

This continued for several more rounds—up, down, up, down, then, “Charging… clear!”—when suddenly the ECG machine let out a high-pitched beep and the line indicating the patient’s erratic heartbeat had gone flat.

“Administer one milligram epinephrine,” Nik barked, steeling his muscles to resume chest compressions. “Come on,” he murmured to the patient… up, down, up down… This guy was young. Did he have a family? Kids? Nik usually didn’t think about anything beyond the body parts in front of him, the outcome he was trying to achieve. Pulse… heart… charging… clear… But sometimes the thoughts slipped through.

Nik continued chest compressions through another round of epinephrine, and then another, but the ECG continued to show that the patient was flatlining and not responding to treatment. With a deep, sorrowful breath, Nik knew it was time to call it. He dropped his hands from the patient’s chest and checked the clock for the time of death.

Damn it. He always hated losing a patient, but knowing this guy was so young was an extra kick in the gut. The next part would be the worst… letting the family know. Would they be anxiously pacing the waiting room right now? Nik lifted his gaze from the patient’s lifeless body to his face. The man’s nose and mouth had been obscured by the ventilator, but now the nurse slowly detached the plastic parts and dropped them by his side on the bed.

Nik blinked. In a small town, there was always a chance he’d know his patients personally. This man, he looked familiar. Handsome face, dark hair, slightly crooked nose…

Nik’s own heart almost stopped beating.

Matteo.

Nik reared back, crashing into a hospital cart. The high-pitched clang of metal hitting the tile floor ricocheted in his head, bouncing around like a pinball. Matteo. The smiling man in the photo. The man brimming with violence and hatred in Mrs. McCaffrey’s hallway yesterday. This was Jane’s Matteo.

And he was dead.

Nik scanned the room, searching for a patient file, for some evidence of what had happened for the man to end up here. Like this. But of course Matteo didn’t have a file. He’d been brought in on a stretcher.

And with that realization came the most terrifying moment of his life.

Jane.

What if Matteo had attacked her, and she’d fought back?

Nik charged out into the hallway and found Elise, the other doctor on duty.

“Sorry about your patient in there,” she said. “It’s rough. Are you okay?”

“Was anyone else brought in with him?” Nik demanded. “A—woman?” He could barely choke out the words. Had Jane picked up Scarlett from Hannah’s house yet? “Or a kid?”

Elise slowly shook her head. “No.”

“Are you sure?”

She gestured down the hallway, where a single nurse sat calmly typing into a computer. “We’ve got an older man with food poisoning in room four, but that’s it.”

What if they hadn’t been brought into the ER because they were already?—

Nik nearly bent over from the horror of it. Don’t think that way. You can’t think that way. “I need to go, I—” He yanked off his white coat and crumpled it into a ball. “It’s an emergency.”

“Okay.” Elise blinked at him. “Of course. I’ve got this.”

Nik ran for his car in the parking lot and broke just about every traffic law on his way to the McCaffreys’ house.

He pulled up just in time to see Ed climbing into his police car. At the sight of the red lights flashing on the roof, Nik almost stopped breathing. He yanked the steering wheel to the right and jumped out of the car without even bothering to turn off the engine.

“Hey,” Nik called, running across the street to intercept the police officer. “What happened? Jane… Scarlett… are they…?” His lungs deflated before he could get the words out.

Ed climbed back out onto the sidewalk. “Jane and Mrs. McCaffrey are both fine, and Scarlett is still at my house playing with Amelia.”

Relief flooded through his limbs, and Nik closed his eyes, leaning against the police car. “Thank God.” But he quickly blinked them back open again. “What happened here?”

Ed shook his head. “911 got a call about a man collapsing. It sounded like cardiac arrest. Turns out it’s a friend of Jane’s from California. I guess he flew in yesterday.” He let out a heavy sigh. “I hope he’s okay. I was on my way over to the hospital now to check in.”

Nik swallowed hard. “I just came from there. He didn’t make it.”

“Damn. Did you know the guy?”

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