“Thomas Winters.Sixty-seven.Another cardiac patient.”
Gabe closed his eyes.“Stop.”
“Martin Chen.Olivia Davis.I can continue if you need more reminders?”
Each name was a knife twisting in his gut.He’d lost patients.People whose faces visited him in dreams.
“Their deaths weren’t your fault, were they, Gabe?Just like Melissa Carpenter wasn’t your fault?Just that unfortunate business with the ketamine?Such a convenient excuse for blundering your way through a procedure you should have been able to do in your sleep.Oh, wait, you were practically asleep at the wheel, weren’t you?”
Melissa Carpenter.Her case had nearly destroyed him.The operation he’d performed while unknowingly drugged by a disgruntled former colleague.The patient who’d died on his table, with his hands deep inside her abdominal cavity.
“A thorough investigation cleared me.The surgical board of the hospital cleared me, as did the Medical Board of California.”He practically spat out the words, ones he’d said far too many times since that fateful night Melissa Carpenter died.The words sounded hollow even to his own ears.
“Yet here you are, hiding in a backwater town, married to a local girl, playing country doctor.Think the local yokels would look at you like their medical savior if they knew how many patients you killed in California?”
Gabe’s blood ran cold.“Leave my wife out of this.”
The voice chuckled.“Ah yes, the lovely Nica Boudreau.Or should I say, Nica Summers?Boudreau-Summers?Has she taken your name?Tell me, does her family know about your elopement?Tsk, tsk, Dr.Summers.Too ashamed of what they might think, so you had to marry in secret?Then again, did your precious Nica know she was marrying damaged goods?”A distorted chuckle emerged from the phone, and Gabe breathed through the dread coiling deep in his gut.
His fingers tightened around the phone until his knuckles turned white.“How do you know about Nica and me?”They’d been so careful, all through their meetings in College Station and ever since they’d been together in Shiloh Springs.If this person knew…knew they’d kept it secret…it could spell disaster.
“In our lovely technological age, Gabriel, there’s really nothing that is hidden that can’t be known.Do you know how easy it is to watch someone even from thousands of miles away?With a few taps on a keyboard, I can find out anything I need to know.And I know the truth about you, my dear Gabriel.I think the world should know it too.I wonder what your new patients would think if they knew about Melissa Carpenter?Or the rest of the poor unfortunate souls who placed their lives in your hands?”
“Is there a reason you’re calling, other than to taunt me?What do you want?”Gabe repeated, forcing the words through clenched teeth.
“You’ll find out soon enough.Just wanted you to know I’m watching.Sleep well, Dr.Summers.”
The line went dead.
Gabe stood motionless in the dark bathroom, the phone clutched in his hand.Heard Nica’s soft breathing through the door, could picture her curled on her side of the bed, trusting and vulnerable.
Coming to Shiloh Springs hadn’t been to escape his past, at least not the only reason.He’d been ready to settle in one place, instead of being a nomad, moving from city to city, trying to escape the ghosts of his past.Shiloh Springs had seemed like the perfect place to start again, to rebuild his life and his career.To prove to himself that he was still a good doctor, despite everything.In California, before the nearly career-ending debacle with Dr.Richardson, Gabe’s star had been on the rise.When there were difficult or tricky cases, he was the first cardiothoracic surgeon they called.Now, he rarely performed any surgery more difficult than an appendectomy.
Meeting Nica had been unexpected—falling in love with her, even more so.He’d tried hard to stay away from her.The age difference played a part, he admitted, but it wasn’t so large as to be insurmountable.The fact he was their family physician, had helped take care of her father when he had a heart attack, had been another factor to keep himself on a strictly family friend basis.But when he’d ended up in College Station, she’d been one of the first people he’d seen, and he kept finding reasons to run into her.It had been no accident that he’d seen her around town, because he’d found out where she liked to go.His Nica wasn’t a big party girl, instead mostly joining her friends for a single glass of wine before heading back to her apartment just off the college campus.
Their hasty, secret wedding three months ago had been impulsive, but neither wanted to wait.They’d planned to tell her family after her graduation, but outside things snowballed with family members, and the time never seemed right.
Now this phantom from his past was threatening everything.
The phone in his hand vibrated again.A text message this time.
Maybe the local Shiloh Springs paper would be interested in the attached?
Gabe opened the attachment and found a photo of his and Nica’s private wedding ceremony in the courthouse in Brazos County.The only picture they had from their wedding, taken by the officiant after the service.It wasn’t the best quality photo, taken with a cell phone, but he couldn’t help wondering how the caller had gotten a copy, since as far as he knew, the only one was on his phone.If their secret was exposed before they talked to Douglas and Ms.Patti, not only would it cause the entire Boudreau family to despise him, but the knowledge of Nica eloping would break Ms.Patti’s heart.Especially if she heard it from somebody other than Nica and Gabe.He didn’t even want to imagine the fallout that would cause.
Dawn found him in the small kitchen, a cup of cold coffee forgotten on the granite island in front of him.He still hadn’t decided what to do—except to tell Nica about the early morning call.No more secrets.That had been his promise, and he meant to keep it.
“Gabe?”Nica’s voice was thick with sleep as she stepped into the kitchen, wrapped in his discarded flannel shirt.“You’re up early.Did the hospital call?”
He turned to face her, drinking in the sight, tousled hair, sleepy eyes, bare legs.His wife.The one good thing he couldn’t bear losing.
“Couldn’t sleep.”He forced a smile.“What are you doing up so early?”
She leaned into him, and he wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in her hair, inhaling the vanilla scent of her shampoo.
“I woke up and you weren’t in bed with me.I missed you.”she murmured against his chest.“You worried about Mrs.Lassiter?”
“Something like that.”The lie tasted bitter.
