Chapter Two

Erin

“Female, early thirties, gunshot wound to the abdomen.”

“Thanks,” I said to the EMT as I took over bagging the patient. “Doc! Gunshot wound.”

Dr. Adele Thomas hurried over. “She’s a bleeder. Pull three units of O negative.”

“Right away.”

Shit! Where were all the orderlies? I’d have to do it myself. I scampered down the hall to the small refrigeration unit in the ER. Red gold, the docs called it. Other people’s blood saved lives every day. I’d seen it perform miracles. As a nurse, I donated as often as I could.

No O neg. Not a huge surprise. O negative was the universal donor. We used a lot of it in the ER when a patient’s life was at stake and we didn’t have time to do a blood panel. We had O positive, but I couldn’t take the chance. What if the patient was Rh negative? I had to go out of the ER to the University Hospital blood bank down the hallway.

The main hospital was just north of the French Quarter and was never quiet at night. I hoped I could get the blood and return quickly.

The door to the refrigerated blood bank was wide open. Not overly unusual, though no one but the ER staff would be grabbing blood in the middle of the night.

I walked in cautiously—

“Aauuhh!”

The high-pitched scream had come from me.

In a flash, a hand was clamped over my mouth.

A bloody hand.

“Easy,” a low voice said. “I won’t hurt you, but you can’t scream again. Do you understand me?”

My heart thundered, and my skin, already chilled from the cool temperature, turned icy. My breath came in rapid pants as blood from his hands oozed between my lips. Metal. Blech. I darted my gaze around the large unit. Blood. Everywhere. Bags had been ripped open, and blood dripped from the walls, pooling on the tiled floor.

Fear raced through me. Fear…and something else. Something I couldn’t identify. An invisible warmth was trying to relax me, almost like my mother’s kiss on my forehead when I was a child.

I fought against it and screamed again, this time muffled against his hand.

He clamped onto me more tightly. “Damn it! Why isn’t it working?”

Why wasn’t what working?

“You can’t scream again. I don’t want to harm you.”

I had no choice but to believe him. I was at his mercy. His strength was apparent as I tried to maneuver against him.

I wasn’t going to get away.

He brushed his cheek against my neck and inhaled. “What are you? You smell like…truffles. Black truffles. Black coffee. Dark chocolate. Hints of blackberry. Tin. Copper.”

“Mmm,” I said against his hand. His strange words, any other time, would have made me pause. Now? I was too frightened to give them any credence.

“Okay. I’m going to take my hand away. Don’t scream.” Slowly he released his hand.

And I screamed.

Back went his hand. “Damn it! Now what are we going to do?” He inhaled again. “Cabernet Sauvignon. Fuck. Fuck, you smell so good.”

His hand was lower on my mouth this time, and I bit into the top of it as hard as I could.

“Ouch!” He tore his hand away from me.

I turned to run out the door, but he blocked my exit.

A man. A man with black hair tangled around a face stained with blood. Eyes as dark as strong coffee stared at me. Not in a menacing way. In a pleading way.

“You have to help me.”

Without meaning to, I reached toward him and touched his cheek. Something pulled at me, forced me to do it, yet I wanted to touch him, wanted to feel him beneath my fingertips.

He whisked my hand away. “Don’t,” he said. “I won’t be able to control myself.”

“C-Control yourself?” My hand tingled. Had to touch him.

His stubbly cheeks were covered in blood, some of it already drying into brown, and more of the red fluid rimmed his full lips.

Then, a voice. “Erin, Dr. Thomas needs that O neg!”

I pushed the man behind the door. “Don’t move!” I whispered urgently.

I quickly grabbed three bags of the necessary blood and ran out of the bank, handing them to Steve, one of the orderlies. “Here. Sorry.”

His eyes nearly popped out of his head. “Shit, Erin, what happened to you?”

“What do you mean?” I asked, willing my voice not to shake.

“Uh…well, you’ve got blood all over your face and hands.”

Crap. Think fast, Erin. “A couple bags exploded in the fridge. I need to get custodial down here stat.”

“I’ll do it. Doc needs you in the ER.”

Words forced themselves into my mind. Can’t leave him.

“Just take the blood to Dr. Thomas, Steve. Please. I’ll be there in a sec. I have to wash up, obviously.”

“Okay. Sure. I’ll get custodial on this as soon as I can.” He walked away quickly with the O neg.

I walked cautiously back into the blood bank. The man looked even wilder now. But he didn’t frighten me. What had originated as fear had morphed into something else—something I couldn’t name. Something that sent prickles all through me but kept me on high alert. Something that warmed my core, made me feel…lusty, yet oddly protective.

“Listen,” I said to him. “Someone’s coming down to clean up. You need to get out of here.”

“Still hungry,” he said huskily.

“I’ll find you some food, okay? But right now I need you out of here or you’re going to get arrested. You broke into our blood bank, and now you’re a mess. Did you think you’d find food in here?”

He didn’t respond, just glared at me with those gorgeous and expressive dark eyes. How a man whose face was stained with red gold could look so enticing disturbed me more than a little.

“I need to get back up to the ER. We’ve got a gunshot victim, and the doctor needs me.”

I pulled him out of the bank and down the hallway to the restrooms. Not too many people came down here during the night shift, thank God. I opened the door to the men’s room and pushed him inside. “Clean up,” I said, “and then stay out of sight until I come find you. My shift is over in two hours. I’m Erin, by the way.”

I scurried into the ladies’ room and faced myself in the mirror.

Lord. I looked like I’d just engaged in some heavy cannibalism. No wonder Steve had freaked. I washed my hands and face as best I could and then went to the locker room for some clean scrubs. I trashed the ones I’d been wearing.

Then I hurried back to the ER.

“Where the hell have you been?” Dr. Thomas demanded.

“Sorry. A problem in the blood bank. Didn’t Steve tell you?”

“Yes, but he didn’t tell me why you were dealing with that when you should be up here. We’ve had two new cases come in while you were gone. I’ve got the surgical chief resident on the gunshot victim. I need you in room eight. A baby with croup. Prepare a nebulizer treatment and get in there.”

“Yes, Doctor.”

Though she could be harsh at times, I liked Dr. Thomas. She was my favorite of the four ER docs I worked with on the night shift. My least favorite was Dr. Zabrina Bonneville. She was brilliant, but she lacked bedside manner not only with her patients but with staff as well.

I prepared the neb treatment and rushed to room eight. The poor baby was on his mother’s lap, barking like a seal. Yup. That was croup. Parents tended to get over-worried about the common cough.

“I’m Erin,” I said, holding out my hand.

“Cathy Murphy,” the woman said, “and this is Brian.”

“Hi there, Brian.” I smiled at the cute baby, red in the face from his cough. I turned back to his mother. “I know how worried you must be, but croup is rarely serious. We’re going to have him feeling better in no time.” I asked Cathy my litany of questions and got the right dosage prepared for Brian. Within ten minutes, he was breathing Albuterol from the oxygen mask.

“I’ll be back to check on you in fifteen minutes. In the meantime, if you have any trouble, just push the red button on the intercom and someone will be right with you.”

As I left room eight, more EMTs rushed in. “Male, late twenties. Unconscious. Found naked in the street. Possibly homeless. BP a little low, other vitals fine. His eyes are open, but we can’t wake him up.”

“Let’s get him into room four right away,” I said. “Looks like an OD to me. We’ll need to run a drug panel. I’ll get the doc—” I gasped.

The unconscious man on the gurney had grabbed my wrist.