Page 17 of Hades

“Outside of someone seducing his secretary and making copies of keys, I got nothing,” I say, making something up on the spot that doesn’t sound half unreasonable.

“I wish it were that easy. His secretary is gay, and as far as I know, none of our brothers swing that way,” Reaper mutters, almost sounding disappointed.

Trigger comes in then, handing Reaper his ringing phone.

Reaper leans back in his chair and frowns at the screen, making me tense.

“Evelyn, everything okay?” he asks as he answers.

I feel my body go taut.

What now? And why does Evelyn always find herself in the thick of it?

“I’m on my way,” he says before hanging up.

I stand as he does.

“I hate to cut this short, but my sister needs me,” he says.

“If you don’t mind. I’d like to tag along.”

Reaper studies me for a beat before he nods.

“Let’s go.”

Evelyn

“We have a twenty-three-year-old white female, badly beaten. She was found unconscious on the sidewalk on the Strip,” one of the EMTs says.

“Do you have a name?” I ask as I approach.

The EMT shakes their head. “No, and no purse or wallet was on her.”

“Thank you, we will take it from here,” I say as we jump into action.

When we get into the trauma bay, I shine a light into her eyes, checking her pupils. “Hi, I’m Dr. Kingston. Can you tell me your name?”

“Melanie,” she whimpers.

“Hi, Melanie, we’re going to take great care of you, okay?”

When Preston steps forward to put the blood pressure cuff on her arm, she flinches. He looks over at me with wide eyes.

“Beverly, how about you get her hooked up? Preston, could you grab the insulin strips? With how shaky she is, she might be diabetic,” I throw out, making shit up on the fly.

Preston nods, reading between the lines.

Whoever hurt this woman was a man.

Preston makes himself busy, and Marie watches my head nurse for the day closely, giving her guidance.

Beverly steps away from the other side of the bed, giving me room to try and talk to her privately.

“I’ll be right back. I’m going to go grab some more supplies to clean up that pretty face of yours,” Beverly says before leaving.

“We are going to take you up for imaging to make sure you don’t have any internal bleeding or anything we can’t see, okay?” I say, drawing her attention back to me.

Melanie nods, tears falling down her cheeks.