Page 76 of Severed By Vengeance

“It’s fine. I know this is a big deal for you, and I’d rather not be a distraction.” Before I could object, he cut me off. “If you’re up for it, call me when you’re done. No matter the time.”

“Oh, another sleepover?”

He laughed. “No batteries needed this time.”

“Promises, promises, Derek. You left me a note like some peace offering after I’d practically shoved my vagina in your face. Doesn’t exactly make a girl feel confident. And I don’t care how this makes me sound, but men don’t reject me.”

“That’s not how that went down, and I assure you that when you shove your pussy in my face, you won’t have a single goddamn doubt about where we stand.”

My whole body shuddered, and I gripped the wheel with one hand until my knuckles turned white.

“I’ll see you tonight, then,” I murmured, eyes fluttering closed again.

“Angel…” He trailed off into another stretch of maddening silence, as if he’d decided against whatever he was about to say. “Take care.”

I hadn’t realized I was holding my breath until the call ended. And it was a good thing I didn’t need prep time like Lex.

* * *

The heels of my boots clicked against the freshly waxed vinyl tile of the hospital’s forensic unit. Two officers and one armed security guard manned Belov’s room. I stopped at the nurses’ station to introduce myself and get a quick update on the man’s condition. He was two days out of surgery for a lacerated liver. Under any other circumstance, I would have felt remorseful, but Yuri Belov was scum. The blood on his hands, direct or indirect, was probably miles thick.

“Evangelina?”

I lifted my gaze to the familiar, feminine voice on the other side of the wide desk. Helena Adamos, the hospital’s clinical psychologist, greeted me with a riveting smile. I’d met her seven years ago when I was just a fresh-faced rookie. She and my dad developed a close friendship through the years, and I often wondered if he’d taken to her so quickly because she was the same age Frankie would have been if he’d been alive. There was a time when I toyed with the idea of my dad having romantic feelings for the young doctor. It wouldn’t have been too far-fetched. Leni, as everyone called her, was insanely beautiful. She was the daughter of a wealthy Greek financier whose mother was said to have been from a village in the Philippines.

“Hey, Leni!”

“Here for Belov?” I nodded. “Ah, so you’re theWarrior Princesshe’s been going on about.”

“Really?”

Leni rounded the desk until she was in front of me, a manila folder in her hand. I couldn’t help but stare as she approached, tall and regal, like she was working a runway. Her caramel hair was pulled back into a sleek bun.

“He’s been talking and behaving a little erratically, so they called me in to evaluate his mental competency. Only two days post-op, he really should be resting, but he’s insistent on talking to you.” She flipped through some notes, shaking her head as she pulled two sheets and handed them to me.

“I guess knifing a man and sending him into emergency surgery is a turn-on these days.”

A grin crooked the side of her mouth. “My kind of woman.”

Before I could ask what she’d meant, not taking Leni for the violent type, the elevator down the hall dinged and slid open. Sam held two cups of coffee as he walked toward us.

My brows pulled together as I studied his tight expression and tensed body language.

“Sam?” I said, touching Leni’s wrist and grabbing her attention. As soon as her eyes fell on him, her shoulders stiffened, head sweeping the unit in what looked like a strangely calculated motion.

“Eva, are you armed?”

My focus never left Sam as I nodded. His eyes were wide and panicked, blue irises blurred behind a wall of tears.

Something was wrong. Those pinpricks from earlier now stabbed at every fight-or-flight instinct I possessed. Reaching into my waistband, I unholstered my gun, ordering the young nurse at the counter to hide under her desk.

“Leni, take cover. Get back there with her.”

“Eva, I think we’re about to have company.”

“Leni. Now!”

Why wasn’t she moving?