Page 10 of Heartbeats Amidst Chaos: Part 1

Rissa glanced up, surprised. “The lockdown has been lifted?” she asked, and the man nodded gleefully.

“Yup. Time for this bird to be settled in the cold, dark jail cell he deserves.”

Elio let out a slight, humorless huff of laughter, and Rissa was surprised by the sinking feeling in her stomach. She should be glad. If the lockdown was over, that meant she would be heading home soon. She would leave behind all of the confused feelings and choices she had been forced to navigate over the past twenty hours, never needing to face them again.

She would be back to being her.

There was no good reason she should be experiencing the deep sensation of loss.

As the cop finished securing his handcuffs, Elio turned and took a limping step toward the door. Rissa stepped quickly forward. Drawing a quick breath to steady herself, she wrapped her arm around his waist, careful to avoid bumping his bruised side. “Lean on me,” she said quietly.

Elio glanced down at her, wearing an expression Rissa couldn’t decipher as he thanked her.

They exited the room and started down the hall, the cop leading, the handcuffed patient following—leaning heavily into Rissa’s shoulder, her arm around him—and the detectives bringing up the rear, speaking in low tones.

Rissa tried to ignore the glances and occasional glares cast their way as the other hospital residents gave them a wide berth. Theyreached the tiny office and Officer Hupp halted them at the door, removing Elio’s handcuffs once more with the warning, “Don’t try anything funny, big guy.” He patted his belt, weighted down with a stun gun, an actual gun, and a baton, as a reminder that he had firepower he wasn’t afraid to use.

A gust of hot, stuffy air hit Rissa in the face as she turned toward the open office door. This, she knew, was why the little room was rarely used anymore. Somehow, the air conditioner never seemed to reach it. It was no wonder Hupp and the detectives had decided to wait at the door.

Elio nodded in response to the cop’s warning. Then, he looked down at Rissa and said, “Coming?”

She slipped her arm around him once more and, this time, with his hands free, he put his arm across her shoulder, the weight of it warm and intimate. Rissa’s heart was beating double-time as she accompanied him to the desk with its dusty landline and unplugged desktop computer.

Officer Hupp closed the door behind them.

Chapter eight

“Elio?”

His grandfather’s voice was a familiar cocktail of irritation and concern as he answered his phone. Elio hesitated, glancing down at Rissa, who had stepped away slightly to give him the illusion of privacy. Until he could be sure of his plan of action, he needed her to continue to think he was calling his lawyer. Her sympathies could only be stretched so far, after all.

“Yeah, I’m in trouble,” he said after a moment.

“No shit,” Angelo spat out. “Where are you, boy? Why have we not heard a word from you since the explosion? We thought you might have been killed!”

“No—just arrested,” Elio said dryly.

There was a long pause. He could practically hear the wheels turning in his grandfather’s grizzled head.

“For what?” Angelo asked finally.

“I’m a suspect in the bombing,” Elio said. He couldn’t help the slightly cooler tone that crept into his voice. His grandfather, after all, was partly to blame for what happened. He sent Elio right into the middle of that shitstorm.

“Where are you?” Angelo asked after another long pause. Elio was used to this dynamic. Despite possessing a dangerous temper, Angelo rarely spoke without thinking things through once, twice, or even three times. Elio suspected it was one of the main characteristics, beyond his sheer force of character, that had kept him on top of the crime world and their associated business covers for going on fifty years now.

“Hospital,” Elio said. “But I’ll be leaving soon.” With his transfer imminent, his plan to escape had just been accelerated. He would just have to play it by ear.

He did not miss the side-eye Rissa cast in his direction. She was definitely listening, and she definitely didn’t approve of the idea of him checking out anytime soon. Maybe an argument between her and the detectives would give him the opportunity he needed to make his move—if she refused to sign whatever release they needed.

Or maybe he could take her with him.

Finally, a plan crystallized in his head. A hostage would allow him to walk right out of here—down the hall to the garage. From there, he would go on alone.

A cold trickle of regret marred the anticipation that began to fill his veins. He looked at Rissa once again, thinking of how much deeper her disapproval would be if she knew exactly how he intended to check out—and take her with him.

For one surreal, intense moment, he found himself wishing he could take her with him beyond his escape, that he could ask her to meet him for drinks when all of this had blown over. That he could invite her to his family’s traditional Easter dinner. If only he was just a regular guy, with a regular family, on a regular stopover in the emergency room.

He lost track of the long seconds he had stared into her eyes, watching the color rise in her even features and her chest begin to rise and fall more rapidly as the tension between them sizzled.

---