“However, you now have a problem.”
“No, you have the problem.” Travis wasn’t going to take shit from this bastard, as if he worked for them. They had a business arrangement, as Travis liked to think of it. “You take care of it.”
Silence. But Travis was not going to be bullied.
“I will remind you, Mr. Hart, that you chose this method. You thought it would give you a what, a bump in the polls? I told you that it was too complex, too many things could go wrong, that simple is always better.”
“Don’t lecture me.”
“I will also remind you that you’re the one with the most to lose. I believe you have become paranoid, and we need to let things settle down before we pursue another method. Next time, however, I will not be taking your advice.”
“Once this is done, there won’t be a next time.”
“I certainly hope your house is clean. Because if it’s not, next time it may be you who are in the wrong place at that wrong time.”
Hart fumed. “And I will remind you that we have a mutually beneficial arrangement. But if anything happens to me, the same will happen to you.”
“Do not threaten me.”
“It’s not a threat. You forget who I am.”
Silence. Again.
“I will never forget who you are, Mr. Hart. And I shouldn’t have to remind you that what I know about you will destroy you. If you live that long.”
Chapter Four
Alex had been sitting on a gurney in the emergency room for over an hour when she decided that going to the pharmacy and buying the biggest Band-Aid they had, then hitting the liquor store for her favorite tequila, would be just as effective as stitches. She would kill someone if she had to wait for the doctor any longer. There were people far sicker than her, people with heart attacks and strokes and broken bones. She was fine.
She stood up and pushed open the drape that separated her from the rest of the emergency area and almost walked into Doctor Gabriel Storm.
“Oh, God, not you.”
He smiled. “I’m not God, but thank you.”
She rolled her eyes and sat back down. She knew better than to argue with Gabriel. He’d been her surgeon last summer when she’d been shot, but she’d known him longer, ever since her best friend, Detective Selena Black, moved in with him last year. She and Selena had gone through the police academy together and worked in the same division until Alex was transferred to North Command.
“I hate hospitals,” she said.
“I know.”
When she first arrived, they’d made her take off her shirt and gave her a gown, but she’d long since taken it off. She wore a sports bra which could hardly be called sexy. She’d been raised in a house of men, had been a cop for twelve years, and while she didn’t walk around naked, she had no false modesty.
Gabriel took off the bandage and inspected her wound. “The X-rays were clear—no bullet fragments. But this is a nasty hole. You lost a lot of blood, the paramedics said.”
“No more than I would have donated at the blood bank,” she said.
He smiled. He had that way about him—annoying, sexy, calming. She could see why Selena was in love with him.
A nurse came in with a tray. “You can leave it,” he told her.
“Don’t you want me to suture the wound, doctor?”
“I’ll do it.”
That surprised the nurse, but she put the tray down and left.
“If you have something to do, go do it. I’m fine.”
“There’s no place I’d rather be.”
She have him a wrinkled-nose smile. “You’re going to hurt me with that needle.”
He had a two needles, in fact. “This is an antibiotic.” Then he injected it into her arm.
“That wasn’t too bad.”
“This is a local anesthetic.” He injected it close to the gunshot wound and she jumped.
“Fuck!” she exclaimed. Every nerve ending in her arm—on her entire right side—burned.
“You’re a baby,” he said.
“Just get it over with,” she hissed through clenched teeth.
Every push and pull of the needle brought tears to her eyes, but she refused to cry.
“I banned the press,” Gabriel said, “but you might want to be careful when you leave.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. You saved a man’s life. It’s news.”
“It’s news because he’s a politician.”
“That to.”
“And they’re not interested in any of that. They’re interested in what happened last summer.”
Gabriel tensed.
“I’m fine,” she said.
“I know. I’m your doctor, remember?”
When she’d come in with a bullet in her back, Gabriel had been on duty. She didn’t know he’d saved her life until after the surgery. She’d always liked him—even though he could be very intense—but saving her life had bonded her to him like a brother.
“Don’t worry about me, Gabriel,” she said.
He clipped the stitches and put a loose bandage over the skin. “You should wear a sling, but I know you won’t so I won’t even give you one.”