Page 4 of Heartbeats Amidst Chaos: Part 1

It gave her an uncanny feeling of isolation. No one else had so much as poked their nose in the door of the room where she had been treating Elio. And now, the three occupants of the break room—people she knew by name and had shared multiple shifts with—were looking at her as if she were a stranger.

The muffled drone of a broadcast voice drew Rissa’s attention to the TV mounted in the corner of the room. Momentarily distracted from her coworkers’ cool reception, she stared in fascinated horror at the video of the Rybak Concert Hall, lit by the lurid flash of fire engine lights and the flicker of flames,smoke pouring from its doors and windows. Captions scrolled across the bottom of the screen and echoed the news anchor’s muted announcement.

The number of victims in this horrific bombing has not yet been released, the scrolling caption stated.According to current sources, while the explosion and subsequent panic have led to severe injuries and trauma, there have been no fatalities.

Reports indicate that the device was planted in a fountain in the center of the Rybak Hall foyer, a popular gathering place before and after concerts. However, whether by accident or on purpose, the bomb did not detonate until after almost everyone had moved into the auditorium for the concert.

“Hey,” Rissa said, turning back to her coworkers. “Have you heard if the city has been shut down because of the bombing?”

“It has,” a sullen nurse named Maria said without looking away from the TV. “They’re telling us to expect to stay on for at least one extra shift.”

“Oh, okay.” Rissa crossed the room and grabbed two bottles of water from the fridge, trying to ignore her uneasiness as the heavy silence settled back around her.

What is going on?

Stepping back into the hall, she paused just long enough to text Reagan back.

I’m fine. Got my own bad boy problems. Will call you when I can.

Chapter four

The blessed relief of the pain medications was beginning to wear off. Elio shifted as far as he could in the narrow hospital bed, feeling like a wolf with its paw in a trap.

If I could gnaw off one of my hands to get free, I think I might just do it, he thought.

But all he could do was lie there on his back, pain darting through him more sharply by the minute. He ruminated over what had gotten him into this predicament and how he was going to get out of it.

After Dr. Rissa Mahoney (according to her name tag) brought him water and finished treating his other injuries, she had, once again, left the room. That had been several hours ago, and she still hadn’t returned.

He thought of the troubled look in her blue eyes as she held the water bottle to his lips and watched him drink.

“What’s the matter?” he had asked as she screwed the cap back on the bottle. Her eyes darted to the officer glowering by the door. The doctor turned her gaze back to him, her dark, perfectly arched brows lifting in surprise.

“Nothing, I just—had a rather strange interaction with some of my colleagues,” she said after a moment.

Elio nodded. Realization dawned on him quickly from past experiences. Often, all it took for regular, law-abiding people to start treating him like a plague was the mention of his name or the part of town he hailed from.

“You’re spending too much time with me,” he guessed quietly, and Rissa’s expression of surprise was all he needed to know he was correct. “You should go help with the others,” he advised. The medications made him sleepy, slowing his speech and making it a struggle to stay focused.

He let his eyes roam back over the doctor’s body, imagining what she would look like in fitted jeans and a crop top—or a sexy bikini. He knew a good figure when he saw one, and Rissa Mahoney’s was way too good to be hidden away behind generic scrubs. He imagined slipping his fingers between the elastic waistband of her slim pants and her warm skin, then sliding them down over her smooth, toned thighs.

The doctor cleared her throat, and Elio yanked his gaze back to her face, noticing the flush that had risen in her neck and flooded her perfect features. Apparently, she had noticed him looking. He was too high on pain meds to feel at all guilty, but he managed to pull his attention back on what he had been trying to tell her.

“I’ll be fine for a bit,” he said slowly. “Go ahead.”

She pressed her full lips together and nodded. “That may be a good idea. Someone will be in to check on you soon.”

But no one had come. Not sooner. Not later.

Elio sighed, fighting the urge to yank at the handcuffs fastening him to the bed or groan aloud from the headache that was, once again, pounding through his skull. He glanced at the cop by the door, but the man had long since made himself comfortable in the one chair in the room and dozed off. There would be no help from that quarter.

Focus, Elio,he snapped at himself inwardly.You are a suspected bomber. And you’re going to be a lot worse than that unless you can figure some way out of this—soon.

Almost subconsciously, he already knew that he was working to get Dr. Mahoney on his side. Even telling her to go help with the other patients had been based on ulterior motives. She wouldn’t be much help to him if her coworkers suspected her of having sympathy for him.

He readily admitted to himself that he was attracted to her in a way he hadn’t been to anyone in a long time. There was something about her that caught his fascination and held it. Obviously, she was physically stunning, but there was an underlying strength, a stubborn force of character that made her stand out like a jewel among ordinary stones.

Beyond all that, he desperately needed someone on his side, and the virtuous doctor was his best bet. He recalled the words she had snapped at the detectives before shooing them out of the room like scolded children. “Innocent until proven guilty.” Unfortunately, it wouldn’t take much for law enforcement to determine that he was as guilty as sin.

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