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“You’re not going to be safe after tonight.”
I narrow my eyes. “Is that a threat?”
“No. Can we talk about this somewhere private?” he reiterates.
Sighing, I see the other nurses, a couple of orderlies, and an intern all watching me.
“Let’s go,” I say, leading the way to the small conference room we were in the last time we spoke.
Once alone, I face him. “Okay, let’s have it. Why won’t I be safe after tonight?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
“Excuse me?”
“All you need to know is that some dangerous people are looking for you. When they realize you can identify Cutter, they won’t stop until you’re dead.”
“Is that supposed to scare me?”
“Lady, it should.”
“That’s what the police are for.”
“You think you can trust them? Ryan didn’t trust them enough to share his private work.”
“Didn’t trust you enough either,” I dispute.
“Trust me, it wasn’t fear. It was protection.”
“Why would they come after me?” I ask, fear humming in my body like a well-used harmonica.
“Because Cutter, the guy who attacked Ryan, had to tell the men that sent him that he didn’t carry out the mission. I can also guarantee you that he was asked why and had to say you stopped him. They will look for you to tie up any loose ends after tonight if they haven’t been watching you already.”
“Watching me?”
He nods. “Work, home, Sprouts, the house in Oak View you visit. They’ll have no problem getting to what matters most to you. Your family...until they can take you out. The men who want to kill my brother have trained their sights on you, and they can get that information just as easily as I could. You take the same routes, and your routine never changes unless your shift changes. Even then, you take the same routes everywhere you go.”
“How do you know this? You’ve been following me?” I ask in disbelief as a cold finger of fear taps at the base of my spine.
He nods. “Sometimes me. Sometimes my brothers. Difference between me and Víboras, I want to protect you. They want you dead.”
“Are you saying this to scare me?” I hiss.
“I don’t fucking get off on that. Simone, we don’t see eye to eye, but I don’t want anything to happen to you. Obviously, you care about my brother, which tells me he cares about you too. Just want you safe, that’s all.”
His jaw ticks, and I wonder about the truth of that statement.
“How do you propose to do that?”
“You’ll have to leave the hospital.”
Anger rises in me. I just went through this same damn argument with Dr. Lennox.
“I’m not leaving my job. I have patients to take care of and protect. I—”
“Will be doing a disservice to your patients if you come up dead. Because when they find you have no doubt, they don’t plan to do shit to you but kill you...after they violate you. That’s how they operate. Those are the facts.”
“Why did you freak out on me?”
