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Ascension Resurrection Emergency Room

Fifteen minutes later…

Kerrigan followed Cade through the hospital’s entrance, their steps fast and purposeful as they approached the expansive reception desk. He had to have broken every land speed record known to man to make it to the hospital in such a short amount of time…and without any cops trying to pull them over.

“We need help!” she hollered to anyone who would listen.

The intake nurse looked up, his eyes growing wide as saucers when he saw the woman lying limp in Cade’s arms.

He raced out from behind the desk. “What happened?”

“Attempted murder victim,” Kerrigan began rattling off what she knew. “We called it in on the way. Multiple stab wounds, and severe blood loss. Her pulse is barely there, and her breaths are slow and much too shallow.”

“Oh, shit. That’s her, right? The only known survivor of the Omega Killer?”

Word sure does travel fast.

“Where can we take her?” Cade growled.

Kerrigan glanced up at her date whose focus was solely on finding help for the woman still cradled in his arms. Her heart filled with appreciation for his urgency to get Julie the help she so desperately needed, as well as the way he’d bypassed the nurse’s irrelevant question.

“There was supposed to be a nurse here with a gurney, but…” The other man looked around, finally getting himself in check and focusing on what mattered. “You know what? Just follow me. They have a room ready for her, and I believe the doctor is in there now. Come on.”

He used his hospital I.D. to access the automatic doors leading to the secured patient area. Kerrigan paused, letting Cade and the nurse go through first so he could get Julie to a bed as quickly as possible.

A woman with dark skin and kind eyes greeted them the second they stepped foot through the doors. “I’m Cathy, the charge nurse. We’ve got her set up in two.” She pointed toward a room to her and Cade’s left. “Dr. Walsh and his team have been briefed, and they’re prepped and ready to go.”

Dr. Walsh?

No. It couldn’t be…

Kerrigan and Cade followed Cathy into the private space labeled Trauma Room 2 . Her stomach tightened when she saw her ex waiting by the bed. Navy blue scrubs. White coat. And a look on his face that said he’d been expecting her.

“Hey, Kerr. I gotta say, I wouldn’t believe it if I wasn’t seeing it with my own eyes.”

“Brayden?” She stared back at him, not bothering to hide her surprise. “What are you doing here?”

“I renegotiated my contract to nix the non-compete clause so I can work in other area hospitals. I didn’t exactly make it public, but I fill in here on occasion.”

While she processed that bit of information, Cade carefully laid the poor woman down onto the thin, white mattress. Blood still seeped from the numerous cuts that had been viciously made in her otherwise flawless skin.

Kerrigan had been so worried they were going to lose her on the drive here, but Julie Mays had proven herself to be one hell of a fighter. The tortured woman had made it this far, which was a miracle in and of itself. If she could just hang in there long enough for the medical team to get her stable enough for surgery, there was a chance she might actually pull through.

But some of the wounds were deep. Really deep. And while they didn’t seem to have struck anything vital, Kerrigan knew if Brayden couldn’t get the bleeding stopped soon, Julie would be dead within the hour, regardless.

Please, God. Please, don’t let this one die.

“Her name is Julie.” Cade let the others know. “Julie Mays.”

Brayden’s eyes narrowed slightly as they landed on the man standing to Kerrigan’s left.

“This is Cade. He was with me when I found her.”

Her ex held Cade’s stare a few seconds longer before turning his attention back to her. “Labagh Woods?” Brayden frowned. “What the hell were you guys doing all the way out there?”

Ignoring the immaterial question, she told him, “We found her lying in the grass by the trees. She regained consciousness long enough to tell me her name, but then she passed out again from either blood loss or the pain. My guess is both. She’s been unresponsive ever since.”

Brayden used his gloved hands to check the response of Julie’s pupils with his pen light. “Margo, get me Julie fifty of fentanyl,” he ordered one of his nurses. To no one in particular, he stated, “There’s a lot of blood, and some of these wounds are pretty deep, but I’m not seeing any signs of evisceration. We won’t know for sure until we get her into surgery. In the meantime, I need x-rays—chest and abdomen—and an echo of the heart.”

“I can help,” Kerrigan stepped past Cade on her way to the mounted box of disposable gloves.

But Brayden shut her down in an instant.

“Actually, you can’t.” His empathetic gaze momentarily slid to hers. “You don’t have privileges here.”

Shit. Technically that was true, but?—

“We found her, Brayden. I held her hand in the car the entire way here.” She was still covered in the other woman’s blood. “Please. Let me at least?—”

“I’m sorry, Kerr, but you know how this works. You don’t have to go out to the waiting room, but I do need you to clear the room while I work on my patient.”

My patient.

If she didn’t know any better, she would’ve sworn he’d put a slight emphasis on the word “my”. Even so, Kerrigan didn’t argue. Julie needed her doctor’s full attention, not a pissing contest between them.

“We’ll be right outside.” She finally gave in.

Both she and Cade turned and exited the room.

“I’m going to go out on a limb and say you know that guy?” he teased.

His attempt at lightening the mood meant more to her than he’d ever know.

“Dr. Brayden Walsh.” She blew out a weary breath. Resting her back against the small portion of the wall dividing Julie’s room and the one next door, she added, “He works with me at the University Med, and we…used to date.”

Kerrigan wasn’t sure why she’d shared that last part with him. It wasn’t as if her past made a difference in their current situation. It certainly had no bearing on the reason they were here.

But Cade took it in stride, as he seemed to do most things.

Flashing her a quick, sideways grin, he said, “I thought I picked up on something more going on between you two.”

“Trust me, there’s nothing going on between me and Brayden. There hasn’t been for almost a year.”

“Why’d you two end things?”

“ I ended it.” She turned her head to better face him. “When I found him mid-thrust with one of the hospital’s interns.”

Cade’s brows shot up into two twin arches before a look of fury on her behalf darkened his intense stare. “He cheated on you?” He looked back toward the room they’d recently exited. “What a dick.”

Kerrigan huffed out a humorless laugh. “That’s one way to put it. Unfortunately he’s also a brilliant doctor the hospital quote ‘couldn’t afford to lose’.”

“Let me guess. They fired the intern but let him keep his job.”

“Bingo.” She rewarded him with a tiny smile.

She glanced down and saw the crimson stains on her skin and the front of her dress. Dried and sticky, it had collected beneath her short nails, filling the crooks of the skin covering her knuckles.

A macabre reminder of the violence Julie Mays had suffered at the hands of a killer.

“Why don’t you go wash up?” Cade suggested. “I’ll stay put in case Dr. Dick comes back out with an update.”

The apropos nickname almost made her smile, but she was too lost in the blood to respond.

Moving so he was standing right in front of her Cade rested a comforting hand atop one of her rain-dampened sleeves. “Go on, sweetheart. You can clean up first, and when you get back, I’ll go do the same. I promise I’ll come get you if there’s any news.”

A rush of emotion struck so fast and hard that she was unable to prevent a single tear from falling. “Okay,” Kerrigan whispered as she brushed the moisture away. “We passed a restroom on the way in. I won’t be long.”

His softened gaze held hers a moment longer before he whispered back, “I’ll be here.”

Minutes later, she’d washed away her remaining tears and as much of the blood from her hands and arms as she could. There was still some there, buried deep beneath the beds of her nails. It would take a shower and good scrubbing with the nail brush she kept at home to be rid of it completely.

Until then…

Kerrigan finished rinsing the remaining suds from her hands before grabbing three paper towels from the mounted dispenser on the wall next to the metal-framed mirror. Her efforts to dry them were half-assed at best, but she’d already been away longer than she’d have liked.

She returned to the E.R. to find Cade still standing outside Julie’s room. As promised, he didn’t appear to have moved so much as an inch.

His eyes seemed to light up when he spotted her walking toward him, and Kerrigan felt a sliver of guilt for the pleasure that brought her. This wasn’t the time, and it most definitely wasn’t the place.

But that still didn’t keep her mind from replaying every detail of that first amazing kiss.

Later, Kerrigan. You can think about that later.

“Better?” Cade’s low rumble reached her ears as she stopped close to where he stood.

“A little.” She nodded. “Not as good as a shower, but it’ll do for now.”

“If you don’t want to wait here alone, I can hold off?—”

“No,” Kerrigan interrupted. “I’m good. Really. Go wash your hands.” She took in the dried blood covering his entire front.

So much blood. So much evil. She couldn’t imagine what made a person do such horrible things to another human being.

He put a hand to her shoulder and pressed his lips to her forehead. “Come get me if you need anything.”

She closed her eyes, relishing in the sweet comfort he’d so willingly offered. “I’m good.” Her gaze lifted back up to his. “Really. Take your time.”

“Be back in a flash.”

Cade winked before turning and walking away. Less than two minutes later, the door to Julie’s room opened, and Brayden stepped out.

Her heart kicked against her ribs as Kerrigan tried like hell to read the expression on his face. “How is she?” she asked, praying it was good news.

“She’s stable, for now. We’re moving her to surgery to repair the damage the deeper wounds caused. I’m not sure how the hell she managed to survive, but so far, she’s still hanging on.”

“Oh, thank God.” She nearly deflated with relief.

“She’s not out of the woods yet, Kerr,” Brayden shared. “That poor woman was put through hell.”

“I know.” She’d seen the proof of that with her own two eyes. “Will you do me a favor and keep me posted on her progress? I know I’m not family, but?—”

“Of course. If you want, I can come by after shift.” He rushed to add, “Not for anything other than an update, I promise. I just thought, given today’s events, you might want to hear it in person.”

“A phone call is fine,” she told him.

Though she wasn’t sure, Kerrigan thought she saw an inkling of disappointment cross over his baby-blue stare. But then Brayden blinked, and just like that, it was gone.

“I’ll call you as soon as I know something, then.”

“Thank you. I really appreciate it.”

He gave her a parting nod before turning and walking away. She barely had time to catch her breath from that awkward conversation before a man’s loud, angry voice sounded from the emergency room entrance.

“Where is she?”

She turned to see two men marching purposefully toward them. It was impossible to miss the badges hanging from identical chains around each of their necks.

About damn time.

“I want to speak to the woman who found the stabbing victim,” the older of the two men practically growled. When his narrowed eyes landed on Kerrigan, he demanded, “Was it you?”

“It was.” She refused to be intimidated by this man or his nasty attitude. “I’m Dr. Kerrigan Rawlins. My…friend and I were the ones who found Julie Mays.”

Kerrigan held out a hand and waited. He glanced down but didn’t so much as try to shake her hand.

Okay, then…

“Sergeant Bowen. This is Detective Morales.” His tone was curt. “So you’re the one who announced to the world the woman you found was one of the Omega Killer’s victims?”

She lowered her hand back to her side and pulled in a deep, calming breath. “I didn’t announce it to anyone, Sergeant. I told the nine-one-one operator what I knew. That’s all.”

“Well, Dr. Rawlins,” he spat out her name as if it were a curse word. “My phone hasn’t stopped ringing, and I’ve got a slew of reporters outside demanding I give them the name of the only person known to survive the asshole’s killing spree. And you really expect me to believe you aren’t responsible for any of that?”

“That’s exactly what I expect because it’s the truth.” She stood her ground. “My question to you is, why haven’t you bothered to ask about the patient?”

“How is she?” Detective Morales next to him stood dutifully at the other man’s side.

Tall. Olive skin. Dark, almost black hair. Not exactly handsome, but not bad looking, either. And there was a look of genuine concern shining behind the man’s dark stare.

“She’s in surgery,” she told him, appreciating the fact that at least one of them seemed to care.

“Walk us through what happened.”

The snarky order came from the man in charge. Part of her—a very, very big part—wanted to tell Sergeant Asshole precisely where he could stick his questions.

But this wasn’t about her or the man’s nasty attitude. This was about Julie…and finding the man who’d come damn close to killing her.

“My friend and I—there he is now.” She spotted Cade heading their way. “Anyway, we were having a picnic at Labagh Woods. It started to rain, so we ran into a small shelter near there. Once inside, I saw what I believed to be a body lying in the grass near the tree line.”

“She ever conscious?” When Kerrigan nodded, he asked, “What did she say? Anything useful like what the guy looked like? Any details that may help give us a lead?”

“She told us her name and said the word ‘flat’. Other than that, she just kept begging us to help.”

The two law enforcement officials shared a confused look before returning their focus back to her.

“Flat?” Bowen tilted his head slightly to the side. “You have any idea what she meant by that?”

“No.”

Cade returned to her side, joining right in on the conversation. “Cade Ellis.” He offered the cantankerous sergeant a hand.

Kerrigan breathed a silent sigh of relief, still surprised by how the man’s mere presence eased some of the tension racing along her spine. Then, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, she felt him rest a comforting hand against her lower back.

Unlike with her, the man in charge took Cade’s offer to shake without hesitation. “Sergeant Bowen.”

She barely held back the urge to roll her eyes at the misogynistic jerk.

“Detective Vince Morales.” The other man greeted Cade, as well. “Dr. Rawlins said you were with her when she spotted the victim?”

“I was.” Cade nodded. After corroborating her story, he gave added credence by sharing the name of his employer. “And in the spirit of transparency, I’m an operative for R.I.S.C.’s Delta Team. I’m assuming you’ve heard of it.”

“I have.” Recognition shone in the man’s stoic gaze, but if he was impressed by the revelation, the hardened sergeant didn’t show it.

“Delta Team? That’s cool.” Morales smiled. “From what I’ve heard, you guys do great work. Hey, wasn’t your team largely responsible for stopping the attack on O’Hare last summer?”

“We had some help with that, but yeah.” Cade nodded. “That was us.”

Kerrigan remembered that day as if it were yesterday. Of course, she remembered every day, but that one was different.

On that particular day, a group of terrorists nearly wiped O’Hare International Airport—and every person in and around it—off the map.

She could still hear the news anchor mentioning Delta Team as the key players who’d saved thousands of lives. Remembered the way her heart had leaped into her throat.

The fear she’d felt from knowing Cade had been right there, in the middle of that terrifying danger, was one of those moments in time she wished like hell she could somehow manage to forget.

“No offense, Mr. Ellis, but I don’t really give a damn who you work for. I’ve got some asshole running around my city slicing up women for the fun of it, and not a single fucking lead as to who it could be. The last thing I need are two amateur sleuths making a connection that isn’t even there.”

“It’s there.”

All three men turned their attention on her.

“Says you,” Bowen clipped. “I mean, other than her being cut up and stabbed, what makes you so sure this was one of the Omega Killer’s victims?”

“There’s a mark on her left thigh. It’s not the full Omega symbol. More like the killer was interrupted before he could finish the job.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

“Are you a forensic pathologist, Dr. Rawlins? Is that how you were able to positively match the marking to those left on his other victims? Or was it just a lucky guess?”

The tips of her neatly trimmed nails dug into her palms as her fists tightened at her sides. Seriously, what was this guy’s problem? Didn’t he see she was just trying to help?

“I recognized it from the news footage from the other day.” Kerrigan kept her tone even despite her urge to scream at the infuriating lawman. “It was brief, but the camera angle showed a partial image of Crystal DeWalt’s remains.”

Bowen’s sardonic laugh made her want to punch him square in his nose.

“ That’s what you’re basing this declaration on? You saw a half-a-second flash of an image on the T.V. screen?”

Kerrigan sighed, dreading the explanation she was about to give. It was the same defense she’d been forced to use countless times over the course of her thirty-three years.

It was also a personal revelation she’d had yet to make to Cade.

“I have Hyperthymesia, Sergeant, or HSMA for short.”

Cade’s curious stare caught her eye, but it was Morales who spoke up first.

“HSMA?” The young detective’s brow furrowed. “What’s that?”

“Highly superior autobiographical memory. In basic terms, I’m able to recall everything I’ve seen, heard, or experienced in great detail.”

“Like…forever?” His eyes grew wide. “Wow. That’s…damn.” He ran a hand over his clean-shaven jaw. “Sure wish I had a memory like that.”

She smiled sadly, stealing a quick glance in Cade’s direction. “You think that, until you do. Trust me, there are plenty of things from the past I wish I could forget.”

The loss of her patients. Her parents’ tragic deaths. Seeing a man she thought might be someone she could settle down with having sex with another woman.

So many memories locked away forever, never to be forgotten.

“So because you have this super memory, you think one of a dozen or more cuts on this newest victim is an exact match of the one you saw on the news?” Bowen’s skepticism was obvious.

“I know it was.”

The air grew thick with tension as the four of them stood in uncomfortable silence. When Bowen spoke up again, Kerrigan foolishly thought he might inquire more about her unique ability or why she was so very certain the man who’d done this to Julie Mays was the same one who’d killed all those other women.

Instead he seemed to become even more agitated by her well-meaning involvement in the case.

“I’m putting the both of you on notice right fucking now. You have until nine o’clock in the morning to go down to the precinct and give your official statements. After that, you say nothing to no one. Not your friends, your family, and you damn sure don’t talk to any goddamn reporters. You got it?”

“Excuse me?” Kerrigan flinched, confused by his hammered order.

“You heard me. I so much as catch wind of a rumor that either of you have been running your mouths to the press or anyone else about what happened today, I’ll slap the cuffs on you so fast you won’t know what hit you.”

Cade had apparently reached his limit because he took a step forward, rested his hands low on his hips, and put himself on the cusp of the other man’s personal space.

“You’re seriously threatening to arrest us after we saved that woman’s life?” His intense gaze held steady with the other man’s.

Bowen didn’t back down so much as an inch. “You bet your ass I’ll arrest you. I’m telling you both right now; I don’t want to hear so much as whisper about what you saw to anyone outside me or my team.”

“Easy, there, Sergeant.” Cade rumbled the warning. “You might want to take it down a notch or two and remember we’re all on the same side, here.”

“You’re not on anything, Mr. Ellis.” Bowen stared the two of them down. “You kept the vic alive this long, but this is as far as the two of you go. My team and I will take it from here.”

Shock reverberated through Kerrigan’s system as she watched the angry man storm off toward Cathy, who’d been watching the tense scene from the safety of her desk. As Bowen demanded to talk to the doctor in charge of Julie’s care, his partner—or whatever he was—attempted to smooth the ruffles left in his rage-filled wake.

“Sorry about that.” Regret filled the kind man’s face. “Sarge’s a good guy and the best cop I’ve ever worked with. But sometimes, his passion for the job can come off as him being?—”

“An asshole?” Cade didn’t mince words.

Despite the situation, Kerrigan’s lips twitched with the urge to smile.

Detective Morales, however, had no such concerns.

“I was gonna say tough, but uh…yeah.” The other man chuckled with a nod. “I suppose your way works, too.” His face pulled down into a more serious expression. “You know, Sarge may not show it, and I damn sure know he ain’t gonna say it, but…he appreciates what y’all did here today, and so do I. That poor woman is only alive right now because of the two of you.”

Kerrigan offered the man a ghost of a smile. “That’s kind of you to say, Detective. But we don’t want or need the credit. We just want you and your people to catch this sick son of a bitch before he can hurt anyone else.”

“I get it.” Morales dipped his chin with an understanding gaze. “And trust me, we’re doing everything we can to find him. Hell, my own wife barely leaves the house anymore. Whole city’s on edge, if you want to know the truth.”

She slid a quick glance to Julie’s currently empty room and nodded. “After seeing what that monster’s capable of, I can understand why.”

A few seconds of silence passed before Detective Morales spoke up again.

“I should get going before it’s my ass that’s on the chopping block.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out two business cards. “I know he said to come to the station in the morning, but just in case you remember something before then…something you saw or heard at the time you found the victim?—”

“Julie,” Kerrigan interrupted. “Her name is Julie.”

The other man appeared chagrined. “You’re right. Sorry. Sometimes it makes the job easier if I don’t think of them as…” A quick shake of his head. “Anyway, if you think of anything that could be of importance, no matter how small, give me a call. Doesn’t matter what time. Otherwise, I guess I might see you in the morning when you stop by to give your statements.”

She and Cade took the cards before Cade offered the man his hand.

“Thanks, Detective.” They shook. “And good luck.”

“Good meeting you both.”

He gave a parting tip of his head before stepping around them and going in search of his cranky boss.

“Well, that was fun.” Cade turned to her, his smile a touch of humor mixed with sadness. Placing his hands gently on her shoulders, he asked, “Did you want to wait for Julie to get out of surgery, or…”

Kerrigan gave a slight shake of her head. “It could be another few hours before Julie’s out of surgery, depending on how severe the internal damage is. And Brayden promised to call with an update as soon as possible, so it’s fine. We can go.”

His entrancing gaze held hers a moment longer before he slid one of his hands to the small of her back. “Come on, sweetheart.” Cade gently turned them both toward the emergency department’s exit. “Let’s get you home.”

Home.

Was that what her house was? It had walls and windows. More rooms than she knew what to do with. But no. It didn’t feel much like a home, but rather the place where she laid her head.

“Okay, so I have to ask.” Cade shot her a sideways glance as they left the hospital in search of his car. “Can you really remember like…everything?”

“Pretty much. Why? You gonna toss me a specific date and ask me what the weather was like? What I was wearing or who I was with?”

“You can really do that.”

It was a statement more than a question.

“Yep. That’s me.”

“That’s…extremely disappointing.”

Kerrigan stopped mid-stride, her arm stretching as Cade’s continued steps nearly pulled her forward. “I’m sorry, did you just say?—”

“Disappointing. Yep. Sure did.”

Most people called it cool or awesome. Impressive or even a miracle. But in all her years, no one had ever—not even once—called her supposed gift disappointing.

“I don’t…I have no idea how to respond to that.”

Cade chuckled, turning his body so that he was facing her once again. “Come on, Doc. Look at it from my perspective. If you never forget anything, as the guy in this relationship, I’m screwed.”

She wasn’t sure which surprised her more. That he was the first person in the history of her existence to not be impressed by her ability or that he’d just said they were in a relationship.

“Why are you screwed?”

“Because that means you’ll never be able to forget all the times I fuck up, which means I’ll have no defense. Hence…I’m screwed.”

She wondered how, given the day they’d just had and where they were currently standing, she could be laughing. But she was.

And the answer to her unspoken question was literally staring her right in the face. It was him. Cade. No matter what the situation was, the man always seemed to know what to say.

Maybe Gemma was right. Maybe it’s time to put myself out there again. To have fun. To…live.

Today was yet another reminder of how short—and cruel—life could sometimes be. So yeah. She was done avoiding life outside her hospital walls. Starting now, Kerrigan was ready to live.

“Let me see if I’m understanding you correctly. You’re disappointed because you won’t be able to win an argument based on what the two of us remember?”

“Exactly.”

“I see.” She glanced away, pretending to give serious thought to his obvious tease. “I’d say that’s a valid concern, but…”

“But?”

She kept hold of his hand and started walking again. “Let’s be honest, Cade. When it comes to arguments between couples, do the men ever really win?”

The deep rumble of his laugh rolled through her, and suddenly, Kerrigan couldn’t wait for him to take her home.