ChapterTwelve
Juno and Obe had looked at her in surprise when Ebony told them she was taking them straight from the airport to Atlas’s home. “I’m kind of staying there,” she said, coloring bright red, and saw Juno and Obe grin at each other, understanding. “It’s early days,” she told them, admitting her feelings for Atlas, “But I’m so excited. You’ll love him, and hisfamily.”
Her brother and his wife looked suitably impressed as the limousine drove them to the mansion, but as soon as they arrived, they were greeted by an excited Fino. Mateo grinned at them both. “So good to meet both of you, please, do comein.”
After a lunch of steak sandwiches and champagne – luckily, Ebony had never liked champagne, so Obe didn’t notice her not drinking – Mateo showed them the grounds. He and Obe strode ahead, talking as Juno held back and looped her arm through Ebony’s. “So, you came to sing, and fell for theboss?”
Ebony chuckled. “I know, so cliché, right? But, Juno, when you meet Atlas, you’ll know why. He’sincredible.”
Juno nodded towards Mateo. “If he’s anything like that one –gorgeous,by the way – then I completelyunderstand.”
Ebony nodded. “I hope Livia won’t think I’m being unprofessional, it’s just…I’ve never, ever felt this way. It was like instant chemistry, youknow?”
Juno grinned. “I do know. It was like that between your brother andme.”
The thought of Juno and Obe doing half of what she and Atlas had been doing made Ebony turn bright red. “Didn’t hear that,” she teased her friend, whosmirked.
“There’s a whole lot ofthatto hear,” Juno said mischievously, and Ebony groaned and buried her face in her friend’sshoulder.
“Didn’t. Hear.That.”
They walked on, noticing that the light was fading. Mateo and Obe were far ahead of them now, almost hidden by a copse of trees that were heavy with snow. Fino ran back toward them, grinning. “I’m going back to the house to switch on the Christmaslights.”
“Okay, be careful,Fino.”
The boy scrambled past them toward the house, just as Mateo and Obe came back into view, waving atthem.
Afterwards, Ebony would try to make sense of what happened next, but still, she could not comprehend. As she turned to see Fino going into the house, a loud noise echoed across the grounds. For a moment everything froze, and then, to her horror, she realized what the soundwas.
A gunshot. As she looked around, the next thing she saw was a body falling. Then there were people screaming and a body on the ground, bleeding. So muchbleeding.
Blue wentto check on his patients for the third time, not quite believing how well the surgery had gone. All of them were responding well – one had a slightly elevated blood pressure, but that was to be expected. He chatted with a couple who were awake, but then handed over to his second-in-command,Bill.
“Go get some sleep with that lovely wife of yours,” Bill told him and Bluegrinned.
“Sleep wasn’t what I had in mind, but I like your thinking. Thanks,Bill.”
Blue went to the attendings staff room to find Romy, but seeing it empty, checked the on-call room again, then the cafeteria. Romy wasnowhere.
Going back to the surgical floor, he stopped a nurse. “Hey, have you seen Dr.Sasse?”
“Not for a while. She was going down to the lab last time I sawher.”
“Thanks.”
As he headed toward the stairwell, a very pale man who Blue recognized as one of his patient’s husbands, burst through the door. “Please, can you help? I think she’s beenstabbed.”
“Who?” Blue rushed towardshim.
“I don’t know, I think a nurse, or a doctor, or someone, a young woman…she’s on the floor in the corridor, and there’s so much blood. I just foundher.”
His heart thumping, Blue followed the man, trying to quell the panic in his chest.It’s not her, it’s not her.But even before he reached the corridor, he knew itwasher. Romy. His Romy, laying in a pool of her own blood. Her scrub top was pushed up, multiple stab wounds in her belly, and her eyes were closed. She was so quiet, sopale.
He dropped to his knees beside her with a keening wail and felt for a pulse. Nothing. Blue roared out his pain. “No, no…someone help us…someone helpus...”
His scream could be heard throughout the hospital as people began to rush to theiraid.
Mateo’s expressionwas confused for the longest moment, then, as the blood began to bloom across his sweater, across his chest, understanding came into his eyes. Understanding and sorrow, along with a farewell. “Fino…” He gasped his son’s name as he touched the blood with his fingertips. “Son …sorry…”
