“Go get our man, Roxie,” he whispers in my ear, doubling the courage surging through my veins. “Bring him home to his babies.”
Home.Such a simple word but oh-so-accurate to describe our unique pairing.
“Stop here,” I request to Smith. He’s far enough back the security guards on the front entrance of the hospital won’t see the head of surgery clambering out the back of a rusty old van. It would look mighty suspicious if Dr. Jae rocked up to work in a shit-box when Isaac Holt pays her millions per year to head his privately funded hospital.
When Smith does as requested, I return his stare in the rearview mirror. “I’ll meet you at the docks.”
He can’t guide my steps today. The Bureau left nothing to chance. If Dimitri’s team wants to break him out, they have to go against the full force of the Bureau without any radio equipment.
I’m willing.
Are you?
Confident a thirty-four-year-old medical prodigy would have confidence by the bucketloads, I walk straight for the front entrance of the hospital without the slightest wobble to my stride.
It’s hard to keep my expression stonewalled when I dash right past security without having my credentials scrutinized. Regretfully, the rookie agents manning the elevator that goes to the floor Dimitri is a patient at aren’t as eager to let me slide by. They stop me by gripping the arm I spent two hours rubbing self-tanning lotion into this morning. Dr. Jae ‘supposedly’ return from a holiday at the Caribbean early for an undisclosed patient. Since there’s no way my morning-sickness-primed pregnancy glow could compete with her beautiful sun-kissed skin, I got inventive. “This floor is off limits to anyone but the surgical team.”
“I’m well aware of that.” If Smith could hear me now, he’d be rolling his eyes. Dr. Jae’s accent is as unique as his, and I did a shit job reenacting it. “I’m the head of surgery, and late for my rounds.” I click my fingers at them like they’re bellboys and my Chanel bags were just dumped at their feet. “So be a good lad and hit the buzzer, will you.”
Knucklehead number two peers at me as if he thinks I’m cute. The man on his left response is nowhere near as friendly. “Identification card and license.”
While grumbling how I’ll have his badge if one of my patients dies because he delayed my arrival, I hand him the identification he requested. You didn’t really think we’d be so stupid not to consider all obstacles we could face before implementing our ruse, did you? Even my eyes have Dr. Jae’s beautiful oval shaping. It’s amazing how different someone can look when they learn how to contour.
“Have a pleasant day, Dr…”
I steal his words by snatching Dr. Jae’s stolen identification cards out of his hand. I act as if I’m pissed he wasted my time where, in reality, I’m doing everything in my power to stop him from seeing the relief darting through my eyes. Dr. Jae is a knockout. I am not. I was certain our ruse would fail the instant Rocco suggested for me to pretend I am her.
The drawbacks of being popular is showcased in the worst light when I make my way down the corridor of the surgical unit of Ravenshoe Private Hospital. Most people I pass greet me politely, but the instant I reply, their pleasantries switch to suspicion. Even though they don’t approach me, I’m confident rumors will circle the water cooler by the end of today that Dr. Jae’s Caribbean holiday was a guise for a facelift in Thailand.
“Chop, chop, get to work!” I snap out, preferring they think I’m a bitch than unmask me in front of two men standing guard at a door partway down.
Since the Feds are keeping Dimitri’s admission under wraps, I wasn’t aware which room was his until now. They may be plain-clothed, but I can sniff out an agent even better than Rocco.
After snatching up a random patient chart from a door halfway down, I increase the length of my strides. Henry Gottle runs his entity like a captain. If I’m one second late, his ship will sail without Dimitri, our children, and me aboard. I can’t let that happen. This is my chance to prove to Dimitri he chose right when he spared my life all those years ago.
Our children own his heart, but only I have the key to unlock it.
I thrust Dr. Jae’s identification card under the guard’s nose when he attempts to stop my entrance into Dimitri’s room. “This patient’s file shows he had an integral dissection of the bowel during surgery. If we don’t immediately operate, he will die.”
I have no idea what I just said, and neither do the guards.
Although they’re confused, they stand their ground. “We’ve been instructed not to let the patient out of our sight.”
“Who said he was leaving your sight?” I immediately fire back. “You’re going to help me get him to theater.”
“Don’t you have orderlies for that?”
Ignoring nincompoop number one’s question, I step between the men whose shoulders sit higher than my head before pushing through Dimitri’s door.
I don’t know whether I should laugh or cheer for joy when Dimitri’s heavily accented voice booms into my ears a nanosecond later. “If you’re here to offer meanothersponge bath, I’m going to tell you what I told the nurse before you. I’m. Not. Fucking. Interested.”
He’s such a surly bastard. I love that about him.
“Perhaps you should tell them what your wife will do to them if they’re caught even suggesting such atrocious things.”
Since I’m still in role, I almost burn at the stake when Dimitri’s eyes lift from his handcuffed hand to my face. He looks set to siphon the blood from my veins. He isn’t angry about my suggestion. It’s acknowledging that he has a wife that sees his anger boiling over.
His eyes don’t even make it to my face before it dawns on him who I am. He knows my body as intimately as I do his. He’d never mistake it.
