Page 73 of Chase

“As soon as that trace line went flat, that treacherous bitch ran,” she spits. I blink at her, stunned by her venom. “Doctors don’t run when a patient dies; they act professionally and do their duty of telling the family. They take responsibility if any mistakes have been made.”

“You think there was a mistake?”

Her face twists in displeasure with the question. I focus on her, trying to push her to say more. After a few seconds she relents, sighing and rubbing her forehead before answering. “That girl was no more suitable to be a donor than a child is. She was weak and malnourished. The operation should never have gone ahead.”

“And yet Dr. Rivera signed off on the operation?” I ask to confirm what I already know, but I want to hear from the senior nurse’s lips.

“Yes, she signs off on every surgery in this department. Whatever she’s involved in, it’s bad. And judging by her actions, her career is over. Something despicable happened today in that operating theater, and I feel sick from being made part of it.”

Chapter twenty-nine

The Level Boardroom

June 2023

Russell

“Is there still no sign of Josephine Rivera?” I ask again for what must be the hundredth time in the past few weeks since she disappeared.

“I told you,” Damon says, “the doctor and her husband have gone off the grid. None of my old contacts have turned up anything. After she ran from the hospital that day, they cleared their house and literally disappeared into thin air.” My friend raises an eyebrow, which only encourages my defiance of his explanation.

“People don’t just vanish.”

“No, they choose to disappear or are taken care of. The question we should really be asking is why?” Damon straightens his shoulders and leans back in his chair.

My friend reappeared from Scotland with his daughter and the woman who stitched him back together only days ago. It took three months of groveling for him to win Emma over after he smashed her heart to pieces, but it’s heartwarming to see their family together finally. They’ll now have their happy ending, all three of them.

Harrison and Connor are sitting, chatting quietly between themselves. Their voices raise a fraction as their debate becomes more heated. Hunter stands, then walks over to the squabbling men, laying a hand on each of their shoulders.

“Now, now, boys,” he says. “What would the two most mellow men in the room be arguing about that the rest of us don’t know?”

“Him,” Connor spits, wagging a finger in Harrison’s direction. “Him having information and not telling the rest of us.”

“I didn’t keep any information from you. I was doing my due diligence, ensuring all my facts were correct.” He straightens his shoulders and shoots my brother a look that offers no argument. “It’s called being a professional.”

“No, it’s being an arsehole. Here we all are, searching for that bitch of a doctor and her husband, and you’ve bloody found them.”

“I didn’t say I found them. I said I know where the money came from. There’s quite a difference. Emma wanted to double-check her findings before telling you all,” Harrison says, his tone relaxed.

“Emma did?” Damon interjects, his attention grabbed by the mention of his girlfriend's name.

“Do you know any other Emmas I work with?”

Damon bristles, clearly annoyed by the obvious fact Harrison pointed out. “I wasn’t aware she had been working.”

The two men stare at one another. They’ve had plenty of similar disagreements since Emma started at our law firm last year. She’s still in training but proving extremely useful within our business. She has a sharp eye for discrepancies in documentation and tracking down the truth when something doesn’t feel right.

After her split from Damon in January, it was Harrison who arranged for a six-month contract on a small cottage up in Scotland for her. He told her to go away and take some time to herself to regroup and focus on what she wants in the future. It doesn’t surprise me that she’s been working for him directly but under the radar. Sometimes, I think she would be a better detective than a lawyer, but having the skills of both makes her invaluable.

“Well, she has,” Harrison tells him. “Emma has been trawling through Josephine Rivera’s finances. Did you know their house was being foreclosed on last October?” he asks, turning to me.

I shrug. “No, why would I? My relationship with Josie is ad hoc, especially since she returned to her husband.” The information doesn’t surprise me; her husband has a reputation for bouncing between wealth and bankruptcy proceedings.

“Ah, right.”

“Waite, you’re really beginning to piss me off,” Hunter grumbles. “Stop being so fucking dramatic and tell us what Emma found out.” He pulls his trusty knife from his waistband and spins it between his fingers. “Who can I make into a piece of artwork?”

Harrison stands, then walks over to the window. He looks down at the city below. The sun is beginning to set, and the orange glow of evening shines behind the already-illuminated buildings.

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