Page 9 of Desperate Justice

“I’m sorry for missing your entrance and yourbaile de sorpresa.”

“Oh, it was so cool, Uncle Rafey! Everyone loved it. You should have seen the dance moves we did! But don’t worry, it’s on YouTube and TikTok.”

A lump formed in his throat.This is my life, watching my goddaughter grow up on a video instead of in real time.

“Princesa, you look beautiful. You outshine everyone here.”

She grinned at him.

“I want you to stay that way, hon. You know there’s all sorts of things that an unsuspecting teenager can get into...”

His niece looked up with an eye roll. “Is this the lecture about dangerous guys, drinking or drugs?”

Rafe sighed. “Drugs.”

“Bad bust today, huh?”

“We found some stuff,” he said vaguely.

“I’m a big girl, Uncle Rafey. I know all the street drugs, and I’d never even take a whiff of pot. I’m the least of your worries.”

She gestured to Elena on the sidelines. “Now, Tita, she’s the one we need to worry about. She doesn’t look well. I told Mama and Papi, but they said she’s tired from all the party preparation.”

Instead of dismissing her concerns as Julia and Ronnie were doing now, Rafe studied his grandmother. True, her color, even in the dim light, looked off.

But Elena sat down and seemed to regain her composure. Rafe made a decision.

“Let’s dance near her so she doesn’t suspect we’re keeping an eye on her. You know Tita. She’ll deny everything, but if we dance close by, we can monitor her.”

“Yes!”

Sofia put her hand on his shoulder and another on his waist. Emotion filled him. He remembered a family event, not too long ago, where she danced on his shoes because he towered over her. Now in stylish heels and with her mother’s statuesque height, she barely had to crane her neck to look up at him.

They waltzed to a lively tune, sticking to the edge of the dance floor.

Elena rose, waved at them. “Eat something, Rafey, when you’re finished.”

Before he could answer, she took two steps forward and gasped.

He ran forward, his heart hammering in his chest.

“Tita!” Sofia screamed.

He caught his grandmother in his arms as she collapsed.

CHAPTER 4

Friday night in Miami’s busiest trauma hospital usually meant anything from broken bones to upset stomachs to gunshot wounds. Tonight was unusually quiet, but Allison knew things changed in minutes.

Seconds.

Never say theQword. Because after you did, all heck would break loose.

Any minute, an ambulance would screech into the bay carrying a moaning person extracted from a mangled car, or a mother with a screaming child who slammed his hand in a door. Never mind the times a guy brought in a girlfriend who had something inserted into a body cavity the good Lord never intended to house that object.

She’d treated nearly everything in her years as a trauma nurse.

But the last thing she expected to see tonight was Rafe, running into the ER through the ambulance bay, carrying an elderly woman in his arms.