Aldo Instinct took over, and I dove sideways. The intruder’s gun cracked again. Again. Again. My feet hit the glossy hardwood behind the bed, and my knees folded. Dropping me down behind the makeshift barricade. Safe—for now. The bullets shattered the wall behind me. White plastered sprayed th
Layla Someone was screaming. High-pitched, frantic. Unending. Someone was screaming like they were being torn apart alive. Chased by the hounds of hell. Plummeting to their doom. Screaming like the world was ending. A woman? Was a woman screaming? For a moment, my mother’s face swam before my
Aldo My feet pounded soft earth, boots sinking into rain-softened dirt. Cool night whipped my face, cut the breath in my lungs into sharp bursts as I raced across the sprawling estate. Faster than I’d maybe ever sprinted before. I was running out of time. Ahead, a silver shimmer marked the lake t
Layla He was safe. Alive. Wrapped in my arms. Breathing, warm, little heart thudding against my palm. Alive, safe, here. “Eli. Eli.” Panic still clutched my throat in a brutal vice, choking out the sobs, the words built up in my chest. “I thought … I thought they …” My words came out in shatte
But before I could ask, a sharp cry cut through the quiet like the aforementioned knife. An unfamiliar man in a black suit staggered to his knees in the sand, clutching his side. Crimson blood seeped through his fingers. The sight of that blood drove back everything else. I was a doctor first and
Aldo Even hours after Layla’s rescue, the men couldn’t stop talking about how calmly she’d handled the situation. How, with a man bleeding out on a beach, two men dead behind her, the scent of gunpowder still heavy in the air, she’d knelt in the sand and stitched a bullet wound. “She’s calmer than
I recognized her immediately. Maria Moretti—wife of the don of the Moretti clan. “Goddamn.” I breathed. As much as I’d known Marco was no good, as much as I’d wanted to prove him the piece of shit I knew he was, this was beyond anything I could have imagined. “He doesn't just have ties to the fam
Layla I kept seeing Aldo’s face: as I grabbed coffee from the abandoned kitchen the next morning; as I slid behind the wheel of my car to head to work; as I rode the elevator up to the emergency surgery wing. The grim determination in that expression was either honesty, or the look of a man who’d
Maybe that’s what made the next words tumble from my lips. “Have we met before?” Ethan’s dark brow furrowed, and his words came out softly. “Why do you ask?” “You just …” I chewed my lower lip, trying to find the right words. “You remind me of someone.” “Do I?” The lines of Ethan’s face smoothed
Layla I’d barely stepped back inside the front doors of the hospital before I was returned to the demanding pace of medical life—hadn’t even made it back to my office. “Incoming! Stab victim, male, mid-thirties!” a nurse called, her voice sharp with urgency. In no time at all, I was gloved and ma
Dammit! It wasn’t a shortcut; it was a dead end. My heart plummeted. “No.” The footsteps grew louder, slowing as my follower approached. I turned around, that brick wall to my back, to face the hooded stalker. My hands clenched into fists at my sides. Weeks of self-defense training wouldn’t go to
Layla The hospital’s signature fluorescent lights hummed in my ears as I completed my final round before my dinner break. It was late—far too late for dinner for anyone but a healthcare worker—and most of the staff had gone home. The quiet hours gave me time to think. I wasn’t sure if that was a
“You’d really do that?” she asked, and my chest clenched tighter at the sound of hope in her voice. “Yeah,” I murmured. “I would.” For a long moment, she said nothing. Just studied my face, like maybe she was searching out lies. But this night had been only truths. Relieving ones. Painful ones.
Aldo The light and music of the ball faded behind us as we strolled from the manor. Our footsteps crunched lightly against the flagstones, and the cool night air kissed my cheeks in a welcome respite from the stifling perfumes and colognes and potpourris of the ballroom. A gentle wind wove its fi
I knew what it was to be driven by ambition. I knew what it was to work hard, every day, trying to fill the emptiness in your chest. Only to wonder if you’d be hollow forever. I knew what it was to get the things you wanted, to grow and achieve and prosper, and still lie away in bed at night. That
Layla I found solace out on the rear balcony, in a quiet corner of the night. Free of Marco’s smile and Aldo’s steadfast presence, I felt suddenly shaky, my chest too tight. The champagne in my fingers did little to calm me. The cool air caressed my skin, a welcome reprieve from the suffocating te
The floor was almost entirely filled with guests dressed to make my new attire feel shabby. I lingered along the fringes of the room, tongue-tied, overwhelmed, and outclassed. How long was I supposed to stay here? Maybe I could walk around, nod and smile, and be on my way? “You look beautiful.” Al