Page 15 of Rogue

“Your stitches are holding very nicely,” he says. “But you can take a look later, after I take you out for a drink.”

There’s no mistaking the real meaning in his words. And despite myself, despite being up for over twenty-five hours, despite the world being all fuzzy and wobbly, I really like the idea of getting naked with him later. It’s that Latin charm he exudes. Hard to fight.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I say. So much for letting him down easy.

“Come on, let me buy you a drink,” he says. “As a thank you for saving my life if nothing else.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t go so far as saying I saved your life,” I say. “Your wound wasn’t fatal.”

“Maybe that’s not all I meant,” he says, his eyes still exuding desire, but looking a little surprised now too. Like he didn’t want to say what he just did.

The wailing of sirens grows louder as two ambulances pull into the bay.

Shelly comes running out of the ER followed by a couple of other nurses, Howie and two more residents.

“A two-vehicle collision, Mac truck versus a minivan. Mom, dad, grandma and a minor. All critical,” she yells at me.

And the world is just a black swirling mess in front of my eyes again.

“You all right?” Rogue asks, studying my face very closely with his soft, beautiful eyes.

“I gotta take this,” I tell him. “I gotta help.”

“Do you?” he says and releases my arm. “You look like you need to sit down.”

I can’t answer. All I can do is shrug and let my legs automatically take me to the first of the arriving ambulances.

“I’ll be here when you’re done,” he calls after me.

And I’m really, really happy to hear that.

After working in emergency rooms for going on three years, very few traumas still faze me. But traffic accidents such as the one Shelly just described always will. Because I lost my family this way. My mom and dad, my little brother, my grandma. All the family I had.

And the thought of Rogue being here when I’m done with this trauma, to smile at me, and ask me out, tell me he wants me, andlook at me like I’m the only woman he sees, is the only thing that is lifting me up as the paramedics pull out the grandma and start rattling off her vitals.

It makes no sense. I don’t even know him. I don’t even want to get to know him. But I can’t deny it either.

7

Rogue

I definitely intended to be smoother in my choice of words when I spoke to Melody again. Instead, I disintegrated into a schoolboy the moment she fixed me with her deep blue eyes. They’re dark blue. The color of the ocean on a sunny spring day. Definitely one of my favorite colors. If not actually my favorite.

And analyzing the exact shade of her eyes is something the school boy me would do too. If I’m not careful I might start composing a poem about them. I should stop. Especially since she shot me down. But what woman wouldn’t after I came on stronger than a hormone-crazed teenager?

Her rejection just makes me want to try harder.

Or maybe that’s because of the pain that flooded her eyes when they brought in those traffic accident victims. It was a deep sort of pain. The kind that no amount of sun or fun or time can ever erase. I’m no stranger to that kind of pain. I see it all the time. Not just in my eyes, but in the eyes of everyone in my MC.

Like, for example, in Lotus’ eyes. Who I failed to protect even though she’s one of our most vulnerable charges. I left her in the ER waiting area while I went to hit on Melody, but now I’m back.She’s finally stopped shaking, but her wrist is now the color of plums and has swollen to three times its normal size. The bruise stretching across the left side of her face is ripening. Soon that will be the color of plums too.

The ER waiting room is packed and smells of sweat, blood, piss and alcohol. The door opening from time to time doesn’t make it any better, since the stench of downtown in the evening is even worse. We could be here waiting for hours still. I haven’t seen a doctor pass by reception in a while, which probably means they’re all tied up with that traffic accident.

“This is taking so long,” I mutter and stand up to go bang on the glass wall that separates the waiting area from the ER proper, but Lotus lays her hand on my arm to stop me.

“We can just go back home, Rogue,” she says. “I’ll be fine. I don’t even feel so bad.”

She’s said this a bunch of times already, so I just shake my head.

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