Page 17 of Piece You Saved

I grip his hips and nudge him back. “We should go find out when we’re allowed to see Aden.”

“And then?” His eyes search mine.

When I know Aden will be okay, I need to figure out how to end this before Rylan kills someone else I care about. Even if that means going back to him.

Kade’s hands tighten around my hips. “Angel?”

“I—”

A piercing alarm cuts through what would have been a barefaced lie; one Kade would have seen right through.

I glance at the door. “What’s going on?”

An intercom crackles briefly.“Paging Dr. Schaffer. Code blue on the fifth floor. Paging Dr. Schaffer. Code blue on the fifth floor.”The intercom crackles again as the woman—probably a nurse—hangs up.

And then I hear it. Rapid footsteps squeak on the polished white hallway floor.

Some internal sense compels me to turn to the card sitting innocently on the navy sheet beside my left thigh.

Dr. Harley Schaffer: Cardiothoracic Surgeon.

I’m still staring at the card as I try to work out what code blue means. “Kade. You don’t think…” I can’t bring myself to finish the thought that already has my heart spiking, so I glance up at him instead.

He’s peering down at the card too, a faint line between his dark brows. “Come on.” He scoops up the card, pockets it, and after gripping my right hand tight in his, pulls me off the edge of the bed and toward the door, keeping my body tucked behind him.

“You don’t think—”

“Stay behind me, angel,” he interrupts. “No matter what.”

It could be trouble.

More than that, Aden could be in trouble.

Walking quickly to the door, he swings it open and peers out, looking both ways, but stops short of stepping into the hallway, so I run right into the back of him.

“Kade? What is it? What’s happening?” I try to step around him, but he refuses to budge. “Kade, let me out. What’s going on?”

Two nurses sprint past us, a flash of bright scrubs and dark, swinging ponytails, down the hallway where Aden’s room is. My heart, already racing, launches into full-blown panic. I’d thought a medical emergency would be code red, but what if code blue means dead?

Please let me be wrong.

“Is it Aden? What is it?” My voice rises an octave higher, almost matching the level of my growing panic. At this point, I’d shove Kade out into the hallway if I thought it would move him.

And then Dariel is there, standing just outside, his expression as bland as it always is.

“You in control?” Kade says, still holding me back in the room.

Dariel glances at me. “Where is—”

“Jane!”

I jump, startled because that sounded like Harley.

This time, when I push past Kade, he doesn’t stop me. I step into the hallway and turn down it. Harley is standing outside an open room, back in rubber gloves. He lets two sprinting nurses slip past him, and his eyes lock with mine. “Don’t go anywhere. I need to see you.”

And that’s when I understand code blue means this is the worst kind of emergency. The kind where someone might die. He disappears into the room beside him and closes the door.

Aden’s room.

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