The Devil's Bride by Contract

sound like static, and Emma Carter was already soaked

hands moved before her brain caught up - gloves snapped on, gauze presse

in three years at Mercy General.

dying. Rain and blood soaked through a suit that cost more than her monthly rent. No wallet. No ID. Just a si

was already moving beside her, scissors cutting fab

o me, C

lost a lot of blood, BP's sixty over forty and dropping." Emma's voice stayed level ev

aware for a man who should have been unconscious from blood loss alone. He looked a

asped, "let t

, her ear near his mouth.

and something about the grip - the desperation under the control - made her

lights

the hallway - gone in the same half-second, plunging Trauma Bay Two into a dar

Dr. Reyes said, but his vo

n't ki

do with hospital staff, nothing to do with police responding to a shooting. This was a rhythm she recognized from action movies

ept the hallway outside the bay, throwing long shadows across the floor. "We're looking

t. His pulse fluttered under her fingers, thin a

barely breath. "We need to han

the same instinctive way she knew a patient was crashing before the monit

le point of pressure in a room gone black, like he was trying

in the space between on

to Reyes, already unhooking the gurney's brake w

mm

, Da

as tucked into the shadow behind three hundred pounds of steel shelving and IV bags. Emma crouched beside him, one hand still pr

nto the bay. Passed over an

oice called out. "

e until the boots

eter now, something almost grateful. His breathing had gone shallow, dangerously shallow, and Emma knew w

nd, feeling warmth spread against her palm. "Whoever you

rely see them, just a glint of gray catching what l

ath ghosted against her ear, close enough that whatever cam

the fut

arter looked down at a stranger's blood soaking through her scrubs and understood, with a c

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f Chap