by Eden Rose
“Yes, with my husband.”
The ground below me shakes. Hell is letting me know it’s right below my feet to take me away for being jealous. “Of course. I will let you know when the surgeries are booked. Are you in a lot of pain at the moment?”
She shakes her head. “I don’t want to pass out from the drugs. I want to talk to Victor. See what he’s been up to.”
“Yes, we need to be careful with all the drugs you still have in your system. Do you feel queasy?” I ask her. I’m doing my best to avoid eye contact with Victor because he’s just breaking my heart right now. How did I fall so fast and so easily for him? I don’t understand it at all.
“Drugs?” Victor asks. “What happened to Amanda while she was taken from us?” The passion in his voice is a direct hit to my heart.
I avoid looking at him and focus on Amanda. “Would you like a moment to speak to Victor to discuss what happened?”
“I’m going to have to tell the cops tomorrow. I don’t want to keep reliving this nightmare!” She cries out.
Even crying, she’s gorgeous.
I don’t soothe her, I allow Victor to do so. I’m too messed up at this moment to be responsible for soothing her.
You took an oath, Calista! You took a fucking oath!
“No!” Victor calls out and puts his hand up to stop me from getting up. “You should be in here.”
“Why?” Amanda asks.
Yeah, why do you have to torture me so much right now? I didn’t do anything wrong besides fall in love with a hitman. Who’s married. I’m so going to hell.
“Because, Dr. Inzo is a female and she might be able to relate better to you.”
He’s killing me right now. Straight up killing me. I don’t know what else to say or do so I stand here looking flabbergasted. And then I wait for something more to happen, anything.
Amanda looks at me and then at Victor. “I don’t remember much besides the sting of the needle and the black bag pulled over my head. It happened so quickly after you and I got into the fight,” she says that to Victor. He places his hand over hers on her stomach. “They kept me in a locked room for most of the time and I didn’t get to leave the room for much of anything. The only time I got to leave is when they… Well, when they would…”
“It’s okay, Amanda. You can just tell us and we won’t ask you again,” Victor says.
The air inside my lungs expands almost choking me. Each time he’s sweet to her, it’s another drive of the knife in my heart.
“They would keep me pretty drugged up for it. I knew most of the time when they came in, they would bring in needles full of drugs.”
“Did they tell you why you were targeted?” Victor again asks. I’m just in here in case she has something to say about her medical history.
Who am I kidding? I’m in here for my morbid curiosity.
“Something about ransom and you finding some man by the name of Vincent.”
“What about the baby?”
She begins to cry big ugly tears. “I lost it.”
Victors eyes well up. “You lost the baby?”
“Yes!”
With Amanda sobbing and wincing now, I make my presence known. “I think you need to take that medicine now to calm down.”
“Amanda, you should take the drugs if the doctor says you should,” Victor interjects.
The doctor. The doctor! That’s all I am to him?
My heart rumbles in my chest wanting to explode.
“Fine,” she agrees.
“I will get the nurse in to top you off.”
I turn to leave the room before I say anything bad. I can’t be trusted around them right now and I feel awful.
Victor’s arm reaches out to grab me as I walk out of the room. “I need to talk to you right now.”
He waits until after Amanda has fallen asleep before actually acting as if he knows me. My heart aches in my chest. I know I need to have this conversation with him, but I can’t with my emotions being conflicted like this. To hear him say he’s going back to Amanda will kill me.
My blood runs hot and then cold all at the same time. My heart beat rises to a dangerous rhythm, but I stand there and stare at the man I’m in love with. A man that won’t ever be in love with me. A man that was never mine in the first place.
A borrowed man.
“I have to go do rounds.”
He grabs my arm while lifting himself out of the chair. “Pussycat, you are not pushing yourself away from me.”
“What are you talking about? I’m your wife’s doctor and the fact that I have to say wife is horrible.” My eyes sting from the tears threatening to fall from my eyes.
I’m determined to not fall apart in front of him. I’m determined to remain professional while Amanda is in my care even though my heart races and slows in my chest at the same time.
“No, baby. Stop! Everything is fine. Please don’t cry, baby.” Victor mumbles to me while pulling me into his chest. There’s no space between us as he holds me to his chest. “Don’t cry, baby. Let me get her situated.”
I shake my head. “She’s going to need round-the-clock help when she’s discharged. She’s going to have a long recovery, you don’t understand.”
“But-”
I cut him off. “I’m her doctor. Let me do my job.”
With that, I leave him in the room with his estranged wife. Even as I walk towards the nurse’s station, I know I’m going to shatter soon.
“What’s going on with Jane Doe?” One of the doctors asks. “Dr. Inzo, have you found out her name yet?”
The questioning is what did it. I run from behind the nurse’s station into the supply closet. Once the door is shut, I slide down the wall, hugging my knees to my chest. I rock slightly back and forth as the tears finally shed.
I know I have to get my shit together, but I don’t think I can as Amanda’s doctor. Just knowing she has a bond with Victor is enough to make me ill. The man has me completely and he’s going to pick her over me.
Even though I know that, it still makes me want the man.
Victor
K nowing Calista is this close to me and I can’t help her is killing me. What’s worse is I feel guilty for wanting to be with her instead of Amanda. Then I feel guilty for the vice versa.
There is no win here. I’m stuck in the middle and all I want is to find out who did this to Amanda and get back to Calista. Even after I kill these mother fuckers who kidnapped her, the damage has already been done. She will never be the same again.
It’s all my fault.
Growling at my own stupidity of feeling torn between the two women, I pull out my phone and call Sal. I know he’s going to be happy Amanda has been found just not about what happened to her. Once he finds this out he’s going to be pissed and fucking go to war with these assholes who did it to her.
“Victor, haven’t heard back from you in a couple of days. Have you found your target?” Sal answers into the phone.
I place my elbow on the armrest of the chair and take a deep breath before launching into everything. “Ready for this bull shit?”
“Do I need to be on a secured line?”
Contemplating the validity of his question, I decide we’re going to need to take a walk. There’s no way I can tell the boss what happened with Vincent and Amanda. “Meet me at the hospital in about twenty minutes,” I hang up the phone.
“Victor? Victor?” Amanda cries out from her sleep.
I lean over and brush the hair off her head. So much time has passed and I can’t even begin to undo what has been done to her. I will make the bastards pay for what they’ve done but it will never give her back the time we’ve missed.
“I’m sorry about the baby. Please, I’m so sorry.”
I nod my head. “What happened with the baby?”
Amanda whispers: “I lost it.”
Inside my heart, I feel something shift. I feel something crucial and vital shifting and now there’s no coming back. W
hoever took Amanda and my baby from me will have to pay.
Calista
M y heart breaks in my chest as I watch them in the room through the glass. I know there’s nothing I can do to make Victor want to be with me and yet I still feel in my heart he’s meant to be with me. I can’t help but feel resentment towards Amanda.
The woman who had it all with Victor and then left. The woman who’s going to get him back. I can’t compete with her.
Even as my heart cracks and shatters in my chest, I watch through the glass. Hoping for a sign from Victor to prove he has feelings for me even though I know they don’t exist.
“Cal! What the fuck are you doing?” Sheila asks from behind me.
I shake my head. “Just checking on the patient. Her name is Amanda.”
My friend’s eyebrows meet together in the middle. “You’re doing something else!” She stares into the room with a smile on her face like she got the secret. “Holy shit! Isn’t that your man in there?”
“He’s not my man,” I retort instantly feeling the stab. “Amanda’s his wife.”
“Plot twist!”
“I know,” I respond shaking myself out of falling apart.
“What was your daddy hottness doing here?”
I roll my eyes. “You’re such a slut. My mom and dad are going to be together forever. Keep it in your pants.”
She giggles. “I’m not a slut. It’s not my fault your dad is hotter than sin!”
“Whatever.”
“Keep it up and I might become your new step-mommy!”
“My step-monster, you mean.”
My stomach grumbles breaking up our bickering.
Sheila shoulder bumps me again. “You’re being fucking greedy. You have two hot men.”
I roll my eyes at her antics. “Jesus. You need a break to work out some stress?” I question and point to her hips. “You act like you’re hard up.”
She fans her face. “It's been like three days. I’m practically back to factory reset.”
I burst out laughing. “How the hell did you become a nurse? Why did this hospital even hire such a horn dog?”
“Can I come over to your parents’ house?”
I elbow her in the side. “I’m not watching you make eyes with my dad, slut!” I walk away from her as I hear my name on the PA system.
“Paging Dr. Inzo. Paging Dr. Inzo! Please come to the nurses’ station. Dr. Inzo, Dr. Inzo, please come to the nurses’ station.”
“What did you do this time?” Sheila yells to my back.
I flip her off. “Who knows. I probably pissed off one of the doctors already.”
Once I’m standing in front of the nurses’ station, I look over at Sheila who’s watching Victor through the glass as he leaves the hospital. “What do you have for me?” I question.
They hand me an envelope with beautiful script across it. The handwriting is absolutely gorgeous instantly making me jealous. The envelope is bulky with something in it that’s not supposed to be in it. I open it and see a set of keys.
What the actual hell?
*
I ’m pissy for the rest of my shift with the weight of the keys in my pocket. I can already tell just by the key fob they belong to an expensive car. An expensive car that I could afford but didn’t want yet.
“Please, my wife is pregnant!” Some man started yelling at Sheila. “She’s going to go in labor soon!”
Sheila looks over at me and I shrug. I’m not that kind of doctor. I wouldn’t know the first thing about delivering a baby. Plus, I’m too busy feeling sorry for myself.
I couldn’t imagine bringing a baby into this world right now. Plus, I would hate to feel like I’m second fiddle to Amanda with Vincent. Could you imagine what that would be like? Me pregnant and Vincent torn between the two of us?
His head would explode!
Wait, what day is it? Shouldn’t I have already had my period?
I scratch my head and round the corner to the nurses’ station to check out the calendar. Something doesn’t feel right.
There’s no way I can be pregnant.
Right?
Victor
M y gun is pressed to the head of one of the psychos who has blackmailed me into killing Pop. The butt of my gun is pushed against his temple so snuggly, I bet I could feel his heart beat through the gun barrel.
“Where is the other guy?” I demand.
Sal’s ransacking the warehouse where we found this one in front of me and I know there’s more than just him. They are going to wait until we least expect us before attacking.
“I, I, I, I don’t know what you are talking about!” He chokes out.
“You fucking liar. You set me up and you know it. How did you know Amanda was at the hospital?” I growl furiously.
“Hey, Vic! We found the jackpot!” Sal yells from the other side.
I look down at my prisoner and realize I have to take him with me. I don’t trust the bastard not to run from me once I turn my back. Or shove a knife in my ribs. “What did he find?” I question as I hoist him up.
He starts grumbling incoherently. “I don’t know! I swear.”
“The funny thing about people who have a gun to their head, they typically begin to tell the truth. Let’s see if my partner found something I want.”
I’m dragging him along down the hallway until I find Sal. He’s knee deep in a bunch of papers which are strewn all over the room. “Look what I found!”
Jamming my gun into his head a little more, I wait until I hear him screech. “I swear, I don’t know anything! Nothing. They don’t tell me anything.”
“Maybe you want to explain all of these pictures I found of my niece!”
“How did you find out about Amanda?” I roar at the man.
He shakes his head as if that will get me to stop yelling at him. “I don’t know anything.”
Taking the gun away from his head, I punch him in the face, hard. I feel his cheek bone shatter under my hand and I punch him again until his head rolls to the side. “You know something and you will fucking tell me.”
He starts to pray. “Dear God, forgive me for my sins…”
“God can’t help you right now. I’m your fucking God and you will tell me!”
“A man called a couple of weeks ago and wanted to know if we could find you. I’m so sorry, Victor!”
Sal’s standing in front of him with a snarl on his face. “And then what? Why not come to us?”
“He said he would kill my wife if I didn’t find you. He needed Pop dead and you are the only one who can do it.”
“Why kill Pop?” I demand.
“I don’t know!”
Sal’s glaring at me and I look up at him with my eyes squinted. My blood is pumping through my veins and I can’t help but want to kill the guy in front of me. “He’s not going to tell us shit. We might as well whack him now and move on.”
I nod. “Yeah, that’s about right. This asshole’s a bottom feeder and doesn’t know shit.”
The guy kneeling in front of me begins to balk. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I can’t have them kill my wife.”
“What do they have on you?” I probe.
Whenever someone who is not in the business is worried about an innocent getting killed, they are being blackmailed. For what? There’s a ton of different reasons to blackmail someone. Everyone has that one person they would do anything for.
“I owe The Dice a hundred grand.”
I chuckle mirthlessly. “How did you get in the hole for a hundred grand?”
He begins to shake his head. “I can’t tell you. Please. You have to help me. I don’t know anything.”
Sal takes his gun and points it at his face. “You have five seconds to start talking. Each second you waste of my time, I shoot you.”
“I owe from gambling debt! Its gambling! I promise.”
“Was that so hard?” I respond. I squeeze the trigger watching him fall in front of me. I don’t give two shits that t
he kill is a little messy. I need it to make a point.
Calista
I’ve called Victor repeatedly for the past two hours and the man hasn’t answered his phone. How am I supposed to yell at him if he doesn’t answer his phone? Did I ask him to get me a new car?
