Eli’s smirk widened as he backed toward the ballroom doors, his movements deliberate, taunting.
“The paramedics are four minutes out,” a woman in the crowd called out.
Four minutes. Without knowing what poison was in her system, those four minutes could be the difference between life and death.
I started to rise, but Dr. Vaughn’s hand shot out, gripping my arm.
“Where are you going?” he asked with an edge of horror.
“I need to know what he gave her.”
“And you think he’ll just tell you? If you’re right, he’s dangerous, possibly armed, and he just poisoned someone in a room full of witnesses. What do you think happens when you corner him?”
“And what if he hurts other people tonight?” Admittedly, that fell far second to saving Tessa’s life, but it was there. “If I can identify the poison before we reach the ER?—”
“The police are on their way,” Dr. Vaughn pressed.
“Keep her in recovery position,” I said, already rising. “When the paramedics arrive, tell them suspected poisoning, onset within minutes of ingestion. Symptoms suggesting neurotoxin.”
“Blake.” Dr. Vaughn’s voice darkened. He wasn’t used to someone not obeying him, evidently. “You walk out that door, you can forget about chief of emergency medicine.”
His intentions were good. I knew that. He wanted to protect me from what he saw as a dangerous mistake. And maybe protect himself too. After all, a prominent doctor at his hospital couldn’t be caught assaulting someone who might be innocent.That’s why he tried using what he thought was my weakness against me. But he’d miscalculated.
I met his eyes. “Then I forget about it.”
As I sprinted toward the doors, one thought hammered in my head: this was exactly what Eli wanted. He’d orchestrated this whole scene. The dramatic collapse, the lingering smirk, making sure I saw him leave.
He was separating me from Tessa.
And I was letting him.
What choice did I have?
To save her, I’d gladly give my life.
69
BLAKE
I jogged toward the vestibule where Eli had vanished, my pulse spiking through my eardrums. Confronting him wasn’t a choice; it was a necessity. The bastard might not confess what he’d given her, but he might have something on him: a vial, a pill bottle, hell, even a receipt that could point us toward the poison slowly killing her. Every second we spent in the ER playing diagnostic roulette with a thousand possible toxins could be the difference between life and death.
Time wasn’t just ticking away; it was bleeding out like a severed artery.
But if I had any hope of saving Tess, I needed to be smart here. Clinical. Precise. Eli was obviously baiting me into a trap, and while I’d gladly share whatever hellish fate he had planned if she didn’t make it—while every fiber of my being ached to hunt him down and beat him until his pulse flatlined—right now, her survival hinged on this deadly confrontation.
So, at the last second, I pivoted left and slipped down a long hallway, approaching the vestibule from the opposite direction Eli expected.
Predictably, the coward was crouched behind the doorway he expected me to walk through, his body angled to watch thatentrance. As I crept closer, my attention locked on to his right hand and the syringe it gripped.
Fresh, boiling hot rage clouded my vision as the pieces snapped into place. That lying bastard had played the concerned friend, pacing the halls outside her hospital room, pushing doctors to figure this out, acting devastated as her condition deteriorated. All while knowing he’d caused this. Snapshots of her suffering flashed through my mind: her body trembling as she retched on the bathroom floor, those haunting dark circles beneath her eyes, the way her cheekbones had grown sharp as her strength ebbed away until, at times, she wanted to give up the fight. And through it all, he’d stood there, pretending to care, probably savoring every moment of the hell he’d created.
Just past the open doorway, a handful of people gathered their belongings, preparing to leave, preparing to create a brand-new problem. If they chosethisside exit over the front door, they’d walk straight into Eli’s path. I had no idea what depths of depravity Eli would sink to, what mistakes his desperation might drive him to make. Or how many chemicals he might have on him.
One wrong move, and this could turn into a mass casualty incident.
An ambulance siren wailed in the distance while panicked voices from the crowd gathering around Tessa masked my footsteps as I advanced toward Eli.
Three feet behind him, my heart slammed against my ribs. I’d been in fights before, but never one where someone I loved would die if I failed.
