Heart Stop

by Radclyffe

  Sloan said, “It will be simple enough to check if all four of them are students at Schuyler. We’ll have that from class records and dorm assignments for you this morning.”

  “You know,” Sandy said, “they’re probably all coming into town to score. This kind of stuff isn’t all that easy to get.”

  “If it’s the Salvadorans,” Frye said, “they’re smart enough not to peddle the stuff on a college campus. Someone would turn them in. I think this is a street-corner deal, and it’s probably going down in Zamora’s territory.”

  “If they’re selling here,” Oscar said in his lazy drawl, “they are a lot dumber than we think. Or a lot smarter.”

  “I think you can go with smart,” Watts said darkly, “smart like a wolf pack smart.”

  “What I don’t get,” Jason said, “is what they gain by messing around in Zamora’s territory—besides a war.”

  “Could be the market is better in this part of town,” Frye said. “The kids they’re selling to might be uneasy going deep into Salvadoran territory for a night’s fun. This is close to Center City, and that probably feels like a safe zone to them.”

  Dell said, “And if things go bad, like this, MS-13 doesn’t have the problem on their turf. It’s in Zamora’s backyard. That’s a win-win for them.”

  “Seems to me they’re putting their hand in the wolf cage while holding a bloody steak,” Watts said. “They’re gonna get bit.”

  “The Salvadorans aren’t afraid to fight.” Frye scanned her team. “I don’t think they have any idea who they’re up against, and before things get very bad very fast, I want a positive ID on this girl of Sandy and Oscar’s, along with any association with these college boys from last night. Sandy, ride the ME for tox and drug screens. Let’s be sure we’re dealing with the same street drug. Everyone work your snitches and your CIs, and let’s get on top of this before we’ve got more deaths.”

  Frye turned to Carmody. “You want to play us what you’ve got?”

  “Sure.” She cued up the computer and played the file for everyone to hear.

  Sloan whistled softly. “Now, that’s what we’ve been waiting for. A drug connection or retribution against the Salvadorans from Zamora’s people can give us the hammer to use on the RICO case.”

  “Another piece,” Frye said, “but proving the act goes all the way to the top is the challenge. What we need is someone to turn. Start squeezing his lieutenants.”

  Watts rubbed his hands together. “This is going to be fun.”

  *

  A rail-thin doctor with salt-and-pepper hair and sharp blue eyes, wearing rumpled scrubs and a clean white lab coat, walked into the family lounge at a little before six a.m. and looked around. “Mrs. Greenly?”

  Penelope Greenly, a short, round woman with auburn curls just going gray, stood up quickly. “That’s me.”

  “I’m Dr. Villanueva. We spoke on the phone. Your husband did just fine. We placed several stents—small tubes—through areas of blockage in two of his coronary arteries to reestablish the blood flow to his heart muscle. Everything went very well and the follow-up studies so far look excellent.”

  Penelope let out a long sigh. “Thank you all so much for everything you’ve done.”

  “Not at all,” the cardiologist said. “He’ll be in the cardiac care unit for a day or two. If all goes well, he should be home soon after that.”

  “When can I see him?”

  “If you wait here, the nurse will call you once he’s settled.”

  She sank down onto the sofa as the cardiologist turned to go, and grasped Olivia’s hand. “Thank you, Dr. Price, and you too, Dr. Reynolds, for staying. Our daughter’s on a plane from LA. I don’t know what I would have done here all alone.”

  “Please, call me Olivia,” Olivia said. “I’m glad everything has gone so well. You should try to get some rest after you see him.”

  “Yes, yes, I will.” Penelope’s eyes clouded and she blinked away tears. “You know, we’ve been talking this past year about Howard retiring, traveling, now that our daughter is through college and settled. It seems to me this is a sign.”

  “I’m sure you’ll have plenty of time to talk that over.” Olivia squeezed her hand. “I’ll be available if you need me. Just call the office.”

  “Of course, thank you again.”

  Olivia and Jay left her waiting to see her husband. Outside in the hall, Jay murmured, “I guess you’re in charge now.”

  “Acting, I suppose, at least until the state health commissioner appoints an interim replacement.” Olivia pushed the elevator button. Morning shift hadn’t yet arrived, and night shift was just finishing up work in preparation for the changeover. The hall was empty.

  “You want the job, don’t you?” Jay leaned a shoulder against the wall while the numbers above the elevator counted down to their floor. She looked remarkably untired for having been up all night. She also looked remarkably attractive.

  Olivia suddenly felt very much awake, on every level. “I do. This isn’t the way I would’ve wanted to get it, though.”

  “No, who would? But if he does plan on retirement, you’re a perfect fit for the job.”

  Olivia regarded her curiously. “How do you know that?”

  “You’re smart, an excellent clinician, a good teacher, and you care about the office. You wouldn’t just be an administrator, but you’d be good at that part. Sounds like an ideal chief to me.”

  Olivia laughed. “Well, you’re certainly good for my ego.”

  The elevator came and Jay held the doors open. The elevator was as empty as the hall. When Olivia brushed by her, she caught a hint of spice. How could she smell good after a whole night awake? That didn’t even seem fair.

  Jay followed her in as the door slid closed. Her gaze traveled over Olivia’s face, dark and intense. “You know, I’d sort of like to be good for quite a few other things.”

  In two minutes they’d reach the ground floor, the doors would open, and they’d no longer be alone. In two minutes she’d be safe from the ache in her depths turning quickly to hunger. She could risk two minutes, couldn’t she?

  “You already are.” Olivia gripped Jay’s shirt in both hands and backed her against the elevator wall. She kissed her, not even waiting for Jay’s lips to part before sucking her lip between her teeth, nipping hard enough to satisfy the need rising through her like a summer storm. God, God, she tasted good.

  Jay groaned, pulled her close.

  A faint bell penetrated the haze clouding Olivia’s brain and she broke away. Her lungs screamed for air. Her body screamed for more. She gasped in a breath, turned as the doors slid open, and stepped out. Staff waited to get on, and she held her mask in place.

  Jay caught up to her after a few steps. “Olivia—Liv…”

  Olivia stared straight ahead. “I need to call the office.”

  “Okay.”

  Olivia pushed outside, stopped, turned. “We need breakfast.”

  Jay nodded, the same dark look in her eyes. “Hasim?”

  Olivia shook her head. “No. My place.”

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Jay ordered her legs to move but nothing happened. Her body had suddenly gone on strike. One second Olivia was kissing her brains out, the next she’d strode out of the elevator and disappeared. Jay blinked. Good, not totally paralyzed. Maybe she’d imagined the kiss. Or dreamed it. Maybe she was actually still asleep upstairs in the waiting area. Hell, maybe she was still in a coma, because nothing quite like this had ever happened to her before. She’d been hit on, sure, and had women not too subtly let her know they’d be available for some friendly frolicking, but she’d never been handled before. Never had a woman just take what she wanted, and boy howdy, could Olivia make what she wanted crystal clear. Jay had thought she was a pretty fine kisser, but Olivia made her feel like a neophyte. Olivia’s kiss was like a forest fire, incinerating everything in its path. Jay ran her tongue over her lips, just to see if they were blistered. Intact,
but damn, her lips still tingled. Every muscle that wasn’t still paralyzed trembled.

  Jay looked down. Her shirt was half out of her pants and still bunched up from where Olivia had grabbed it. When she raised her head, a ring of curious faces peered in at her as people waited for her to exit. Okay. Not dreaming, then—although it would have been one hell of a dream—and hopefully not hallucinating. She clutched her cane in a white-knuckled fist. Definitely awake. And alone.

  Holy hell. One kiss or a hundred, she’d take whatever she could. But she wasn’t letting Olivia get away.

  The waiting hospital staff, intent on starting their day, finally decided she wasn’t getting out and crowded into the elevator. Jolted to life, Jay muttered, “Excuse me, sorry, coming out, sorry,” and, once free of the bottleneck, hurried as fast as she was able down the long corridor past the ER and out through the double doors to the parking lot. She’d made the same trip hundreds of times, only now she felt as if she were traversing a strange new land. Everything was familiar but just slightly out of focus. She passed people she knew, responded to several greetings, and barely noted who they were. She wasn’t certain she knew who she was. The only thing registering in her blood and her brain was the sizzling aftermath of Olivia’s kiss, a kiss that had thrown her so off balance she was struggling to catch up, to keep up, physically and mentally. Mostly, though, struggling to figure out what came next.

  By some miracle, Olivia’s SUV hadn’t been towed and still stood outside the ER, a warning note on the windshield but no ticket. Olivia pulled the limp paper, damp from morning dew, out from underneath her windshield, folded it one-handed without looking at it, and pushed it into the pocket of her coat.

  “Lucky,” Jay muttered.

  “Mmm. My lucky morning, I guess.” Olivia looked across the hood at Jay and smiled when she took in the half-dazed expression. Jay was undoubtedly used to sex on her terms, or at least sex on her timetable. Olivia really liked seeing Jay, usually so sexily self-assured, upended by a kiss. Her kiss. A kiss she had enjoyed far more than she’d imagined, and she had a very good imagination where Jay Reynolds was concerned. Olivia opened her door, paused. “Coming?”

  Olivia almost laughed when Jay bolted the short distance to the passenger side and jerked open the door. If she thought about what she’d done, what she was doing, she might reconsider, but she wasn’t going to think about anything for the next few minutes. She was just going to ride the wild storm of desire and exhilaration she’d kept chained in some dark corner for a very long time.

  By the time Jay settled into the passenger seat, Olivia had started the engine, switched her phone to voice control, and was already talking to Archie. As Olivia swung the SUV around the lot and out onto the street, Jay mentally tried out half a dozen openings, none of which seemed exactly what she wanted. I’ve never been kissed like that before and I’d really like you to do it again. What exactly did that mean? What comes next? Is breakfast a euphemism for sex, because if it’s a choice between food and kisses, I’ll happily starve?

  She’d never been left in a place where she didn’t know the next move before. She wondered if this was what Olivia’s Go opponent experienced when they received an email with some unexpected move they had no idea how to counter, something not written in their playbook, a challenge that left them scrambling for a plan.

  “I have no plan,” she murmured.

  Olivia glanced at her, a half smile that said she knew just what Jay was thinking. That smile played hell with Jay’s hormones all over again, and she was back to thinking about the next kiss—when, how, how soon? Since Olivia was all business again, talking to Archie, Jay had no chance to ask and was left twitching with pent-up arousal.

  Archie’s voice came over the speaker. “How’s Dr. Greenly? Is it true he arrested?”

  “Dr. Greenly is in the CCU. He’s stable,” Olivia replied. “Until further notice, I’ll cover for him. Anyone who needs me should call my cell. You and the rest of the team from last night should sign out to Markham and Osaka. They can handle finishing the posts. I’ll be in later today.”

  Archie said, “Thanks, Dr. Price. Looks like they’re all pretty straightforward. The answers are going to come from tox on these three.”

  “I agree,” Olivia said. “Please let everyone know there will be a mandatory meeting of the entire staff this afternoon at four. In the meantime, you and Darrell should take a break.”

  Olivia signed off, turned down the narrow alley to the parking lot, and slid the SUV into her regular space. She switched off the engine and turned to Jay. “What about you? Do you need a break?”

  Jay released her seat belt and swiveled to meet Olivia’s gaze. “I’m used to being up all night.”

  “Yes, but you might be a little out of practice.”

  At a lot of things, looks like. “I’m good.” I’m practically destroyed, but hey, I’m good besides dying for you to please do that again.

  “You mentioned something about a plan,” Olivia said softly, every word sliding under Jay’s skin and teasing her like feathers skimming her most sensitive spots. “What kind of plan were you thinking about?”

  “You.” Jay’s voice broke and she swallowed dryly. “Ah, I don’t know what’s happening.”

  “Don’t you.” Olivia relaxed in her seat, looking as if she had all day and nothing more pressing to do than chat. “You mentioned a plan. Do you usually have one where women are concerned?”

  “I suppose not consciously,” Jay said, still floundering through a strange sea of disorienting sensation. “I suppose I don’t think about it all that much. Usually when things come up, it’s just a matter of opportunity. But I—”

  “Opportunity, I like that idea.” Olivia pulled out her keys, pushed open her door, and stepped out. “I suggest you not worry about a plan. Let’s go inside and see what opportunities arise.”

  “Right,” Jay said, still wondering if she’d walked into an alternate reality. “Right.”

  Hurriedly, she got out and walked down the alley beside Olivia as if this were an ordinary morning and not one that had turned her inside out before coffee. By some miracle, the sun was up, the sky was clear, and the coming day promised to be warm. Olivia’s street was one of the few in Center City still lined with mature trees, and their branches were covered with buds on the verge of bursting open. When had everything changed?

  “It’s spring.”

  Olivia smiled. “It is. My favorite season.”

  “Mine too,” Jay murmured.

  “Here we are.” Olivia led Jay up the broad stone steps of the brownstone, unlocked the door, and held it for Jay to precede her.

  The foyer was wide and deep, extending a third of the length of the first floor, ending in a wide staircase with a gently curving banister and delicately carved spindles. An oriental runner covered the gleaming hardwood. A set of open French doors with wavy glass panes on her left led to a sitting room with a fireplace, a high-backed dark blue velvet sofa, two matching wingback chairs, a low coffee table with a stone inlaid top, and a massive marble fireplace with mahogany mantel. Another ornate area rug covered most of the floor. The original woodwork, paneled doors, and wainscoting gleamed in rich mahogany and walnut.

  If Jay’s mind hadn’t been overloaded with questions about just how Olivia defined opportunity, she would have taken more time to admire her surroundings. But this was no ordinary morning, and no way could she muster up her best guest manners. She stopped abruptly.

  Olivia took one step past her before turning back, a question in her eyes.

  “How hungry are you?” Jay asked.

  “Very.” The way Olivia looked at her, as if food was the farthest thought from her mind, burned the last shred of Jay’s restraint.

  Need as hot as a furnace flared deep within and scorched away caution. Jay said, “I’d rather another kiss than coffee, and that ought to tell you how much I want the kiss.”

  “You don’t say.” Olivia took a step toward her,
and for some strange reason, Jay backed up.

  Olivia laughed. “Scared?”

  Discovering she liked being stalked, Jay took another step backward. “Maybe. Should I be?”

  “You know what?” Olivia’s eyes danced as she slowly advanced. “I think so.”

  Jay put a hand out, found the smooth banister, knew she was close to the bottom step. Holding Olivia’s gaze, holding the dare, she backed up again. Come and get me.

  Olivia took another step toward her.

  The rounded top of the newel post rose beneath Jay’s palm, and she swiveled around until she felt the bottom stair behind her foot. She lifted a foot, stepped up, a head taller than Olivia now. Olivia advanced, crowding her, Olivia’s breath on her throat, then her mouth glancing so fleetingly over hers Jay might have imagined it. Except her body registered the touch, and she gasped. Another careful step up, and again, Olivia followed. She wasn’t going to make it to the top before the blood rushing into the furnace in her depths left her too weak to walk.

  “If you go upstairs,” Olivia said softly, “the only place to go is the bedroom.”

  “No place to hide, then.”

  Jay took a step, Olivia followed. “None.”

  “Then consider me caught.”

  Olivia stepped up beside her, took her hand, and tugged Jay around to face upward. “Come with me.”

  Olivia led her up the rest of the stairs and through an open doorway halfway down a hallway covered with ivory flowered wallpaper above more dark hardwood floors. Olivia touched a light switch and a chandelier came to life in the center of the high ceiling. At one end of the large room, early morning sunlight cut a pale swath across the far end of a four-poster bed with a stack of pillows piled against the carved headboard. Another fireplace adorned the small sitting area at the opposite end of the room.

  Olivia released her hand and moved a few feet away. “Last chance.”

  Jay shook her head, unbuttoned her shirt, and let it fall open over the tight black silk tank she wore beneath. Olivia made a low humming sound in her throat.