Page 5 of Heartbeats Amidst Chaos: Part 1

In the narrow window between the medication wearing off and his pain returning full force, Elio’s mind felt the clearest it had since the explosion hurled him across the foyer of the concert hall and buried him in the rubble. How and why, he wondered, had the cops targeted him so quickly? Something told him there was more to it than just his name and whatever meager evidence allowed them to arrest him on-site.

Why did I agree to that one last job?Elio berated himself. If he hadn’t let his grandfather talk him into delivering that package to the fundraiser, he wouldn’t have been anywhere close when the bomb went off.

But Angelo Accardi was a hard man to resist. He was used to giving orders and having those orders obeyed even on pain of death. Of course, Elio had always been the problem grandchild, the one who had never wanted to be involved in the familybusiness. In their last argument, Angelo had turned that against him.

“This is your family, Elio!” the old man had cried, his voice lifting with passion. “Don’t you care about family? All I ask is that you doone thingto prove to me that you love your family—and you won’t even do that!”

“Why does it always have to come down to this, Nonno?” Elio had asked, his frustration building as he paced the kitchen of the big house, telling himself not to give in. “Why does it always have to be us against the world? This has nothing to do with whether or not I care about my family. It’s about the kind of life I want to live. This isn’t it!”

Angelo’s glare had been heavy with disappointment as he shook his head and looked at Elio like he had just betrayed him for thirty pieces of silver. Then, he had returned to his lunch of cheese and grapes and sausages, shrugging his massive, sloped shoulders.

“All I ask is this one thing,” he had said sadly. “It is so little.”

And of course, Elio had given in, yearning for his grandfather’s approval even after all these years.

Did Nonno know this was going to happen?he wondered now, his thoughts growing bleary with pain again.Surely not.

But his grandfather would know how to get him out of it.

Elio stilled, closing his eyes and compelling himself to focus on the plan of action that was slowly coming together in his bomb-addled brain.

His eyes were still closed when he heard the door open, and a man’s voice said, “Hey, Kern. Wake up, you slob. Time to switch.”

“Oh, what? Good,” the groggy voice of the guard at the door replied, and Elio heard his belt and shoes creaking as he rose from his chair. “Fuckin’ guard duty. How long have we got to keep this up? Do you know?”

“Nah,” the other cop said nasally. “But it won’t be long. As soon as we can get the hot doc to clear this asshole, it’s off to the lockup with him.”

Elio was surprised by the spike of jealousy he felt at hearing the admiration for Dr. Mahoney in the cop’s voice. Why was he feeling protective of a woman he hardly knew? Instant sexual attraction was one thing, but it was unlike him to attach himself strongly to anyone early on—and it wasn’t like he had any legitimate claim.

She’s not your girlfriend,he scolded himself. And then he almost laughed aloud at the idea. He was handcuffed to a hospital bed after all, almost certainly on his way to prison if he didn’t come up with a way to extricate himself.I’m probably not even her type.

There was a pause in the cops’ conversation when Elio sensed both men studying him to see if he was actually out of it. Then, the cop with the nasal voice continued in a slightly lower voice, “All the evidence is coming together as planned. And it’s going to stick to this pigeon like glue. No worries there.”

Elio forced himself to remain still, breathing evenly despite his rising pain as the men switched out and his new guard settled noisily into the chair by the door. His heartbeat quickened, each beat drumming adrenalin through his veins.

It appeared he would have no chance to clear himself.

Escape it was.

Chapter five

Rissa woke from her uneasy doze on the breakroom couch, just as tired as she was when she went to sleep. She moaned, rolling to a sitting position and pushing her hands back over her hair to smooth the tickling strands away from her face.

After tending to as many of the bombing victims who needed to see a doctor as she could—as well as playing nurse to many of them—she extracted a promise from Maria and Tomas, nurses who had just gotten off break, that they would check in on Elio. Then, she crashed and tried to get a couple of hours of sleep herself.

She squinted up at the clock—10:30 a.m. The first shift technically started over two hours ago, but with the city-wide lockdown, it was still all third-shift crew shuffling the floors and trading out with each other to catch a few winks before diving back into work.

Her thoughts returned to Elio. His sculpted chest and six-pack abs that glistened beneath her fingers as she sutured the gaping gash in his skin. His hands, large and skillful looking, restless as they worried the edges of the mattress and rattled the chains of his handcuffs.

She remembered the strange thrill his voice had given her as he asked, “What’s the matter?”

And she had told him—as if some mesmerizing force emanating from him made her unable to resist him. Warmth stirred between her legs as she thought of the way his eyes had lingered there in their slow, sultry perusal of her body. She realized with a shock that she was aroused.

Wait a minute. Did I dream about him? I did!

The fragmented fantasy her brain had thrown together for her enjoyment in a 90-minute nap on the breakroom couch came back to her in a rush. She had entered his room naked except for a lanyard around her neck, the chart clutched against her front—and her socks.

Gross but not as gross as being barefoot in a hospital. Thanks, I guess, dream brain.

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