by K. M. Hodge
The assistant left them in the capable hands of HR. It took all of five minutes to have their pictures taken and their information entered into the system. They were now officially the new kids on the block at St. Rita’s Hospital.
A bubble of worry began to form in Zane’s gut. What would the staff think of someone so young leading the department? Would Julie be happy working in the lab and the ER? Would she tire of him after a while and move on? His anxiety reared its ugly head and stole away his joy.
Julie reached for his hand and gave it a squeeze again, bringing him out of his head for a moment. “Hey, where were you just now?”
“Um... thinking.”
“What about?”
“Do you want to work here? I mean... is that what you want to be doing?”
She sighed and touched his cheek. “Zane, this place is incredible. Your work is fascinating and I can’t wait to work on it with you.”
She tugged his hand, bringing him down to kiss her, and he happily obliged. The stiffness left his shoulders and he breathed a little easier. They’d just met but, damn if she wasn’t good for him, which made him wonder if she wasn’t too good to be true.
Julie broke away from the kiss and stepped back. “Well, now that we got all that nonsense out of the way, Dr. Ride, shall we get to work?”
Zane smiled and let out a contented sigh. “Yes, Dr. Richards, let’s.” He squeezed her hand and tugged her close. “So brain transplantation, huh?”
***
Church Hill Neighborhood
Richmond, Virginia
June 27, 2026
7:00 PM
~~~
Tonight would be the night. A thrilling sensation shot through Scott as he played out the first murder in his mind. His heart pounded against his chest, making him feel alive for the first time in a long time.
He walked down the quiet streets dressed in black. The weight of his backpack pulled on his shoulders and the harness for his knife rubbed against his thigh with each step.
A group of kids playing basketball in the street stopped what they were doing as he walked past.
He glared at them in irritation, but kept going. He needed to stay focused on the task at hand.
He turned the corner onto the Forester’s street, and stopped in his tracks when he noticed that the place crawled with security.
Charles’s men, no doubt.
MacAvoy always seemed to be one step ahead of him.
How did he know I would go after Ellie first?
***
La Madeline
Richmond, Virginia
June 27, 2026
8:00 PM
~~~
Manny’s hands shook as he checked the time and smoothed out his suit and tie. He wanted to look his best, a tall order for an old, balding guy like himself. Normally, he would pick her up before going out, but this time she’d requested meeting him at the restaurant instead. The new rules and customs of dating required an adjustment in his apparently old-fashioned thinking.
A breeze brushed across his hot cheeks as the door to the restaurant opened, sweeping her inside. His breath caught in his throat. Maybe he needed to count his lucky stars, swallow his pride, and drop this whole “exclusive” business. The thought of losing her...
Mari sauntered over to him. Her jet black hair sat piled on top of her head in a messy bun. The snug white dress clung to her glowing brown skin in all the right places.
His gaze raked across her body, noticing her red lips matched her blood-red stilettos. Damn. The blood drained from his head and his mouth went dry. All he could think about was calling off dinner and taking her back to her place, where he could decorate her floor with their clothes.
“You look....” The synapses in his mind fired on all cylinders, overloading him. “You look beautiful.”
She gave him a genuine smile and kissed him on the cheek. “You don’t look so bad yourself.”
She slipped her arm into the crook of his, and a small tremor rippled through him as they joined the long line of people waiting to be seated by the hostess. “How’ve you been?”
Mari’s lower lip trembled and she looked away from him. “Okay, I guess.”
Manny chewed over what she’d said and how she’d said it. Something had changed. Did she want to end their relationship for good? Or did something happen on the job? He knew how committed she was to the department.
“Mari, what’s wrong?” His chest tightened as he held his breath.
She choked back a sob and then her voice came out in a whisper. “I slept with someone else last night.”
The thought of her with another man caused Manny’s breath to quicken to the point of hyperventilation.
“I’m so sorry. I was drunk and upset about our fight.”
His legs wobbled and he braced his hands on his thighs as he tried to catch his breath. His left arm tightened and tingled. Then everything went blurry.
I’m having a heart attack!
He heard her voice call out his name as if from far away. Then his legs gave and he slumped to the floor.
“Call nine-one-one,” he choked out.
When he looked up at her, he had a momentary thought of how she looked like an angel, a vision all in white.
***
St. Rita’s Hospital
Danville, Virginia
June 27, 2026
8:20 PM
~~~
The knots in Zane’s back pulled as he tried to stretch. The plan had been to set up the lab only, but a bus running into a garbage truck had changed their plans for the night.
He snapped off the surgical gloves and the gown drenched in blood. “Time of death: 8:45.”
They had done everything they could for the ten-year-old boy with crush injuries.
“Why the fuck didn’t they do a field amputation?” His chest grew tight as his frustration levels rose. The boy died because of a bad call in the field.
Julie touched his shoulder. “I don’t know why they didn’t amputate then and there, but I do know that you did the best you could.”
He turned to meet her gaze, and the futility of their efforts reflected back at him through her glassy eyes. It helped to have her there to shoulder the loss together.
“This... this is why I started my project in the first place.” Zane sighed and rubbed his tired eyes. “I guess I’m a little out of practice in the field.”
“I can notify his parents myself,” she said.
“No, I’ll go with you.”
He squeezed and released her hand, and a weary smile fluttered across her drawn features. They walked down the hall towards the waiting room, and he played over in his mind the words he would say to the boy’s parents. This part of the job was one of the reasons that research appealed to him.
The doors to the ambulance bay opened with a flourish of commotion as EMTs wheeled in a new patient. One EMT started barking out the specifics. “Sixty-year-old male presents with crushing chest pain for the last hour, radiates down left arm, briefly lost consciousness, took three baby aspirin prior to our arrival. Patient’s initial vital signs were BP of 201 over 99, pulse 92 and regular, resps 24 and labored. He’s satting at 97% on room air, 100% now. EKG shows elevation inleads v1 and v2. 18-gauge IV with normal saline, 2 milligrams of moraine with relief of pain and oxygen at 2 liters via nasal cannula. BP is now 168 over 82.”
Julie gasped and jogged over to the stretcher, stopping them. “Daddy!”
Oh shit!
The teams exchanged looks.
Zane grabbed Julie by the shoulders and looked her straight in the eye. “Julie, I got this. You go talk to the boy’s family.”
“Zane, he’s my father. I’m not leaving his side.”
Zane stepped between her and her father’s stretcher. “You need to let us do our job. You know better than anyone that you can’t be in there. I need you to trust me. We’ll do everything we can to take care of your dad, okay?”
“You’ll tell me
as soon as you know anything?”
He nodded. “Absolutely.”
Julie nodded and pulled away from his grasp to turn back to her father. “Zane’s going to take good care of you, Daddy.” She bent and kissed Manny on the cheek.
“Julie....” Zane hoped he wouldn’t have to drag her away.
Thankfully, she stepped aside and let the team rush her father into the first trauma bay.
Zane paused behind to squeeze her shoulder one last time and then ran after the stretcher. When he entered the room, his own heart rate rose. Everyone waited for him to give the calls.
“Let’s get an EKG, CBC, CMP, CK, CKMB and Troponin.”
The nurses swarmed around the room in a controlled chaos that always left him in awe.
He put his stethoscope in his ears and took a quick listen. “Abnormal heart rhythm.” He pulled the stethoscope from his ears and hung it over his neck, glancing around the room. “Who’s the cardiologist on call tonight? Can someone give him a call?”
“Dr. Incompeto on call tonight,” said the lead nurse, whose name Zane couldn’t recall.
“Mr. Richards,” Zane said, “we’re going to take good care of you.”
Manny stared up at him with a frightened gaze.
Zane looked up and saw someone standing outside the trauma room window—a beautiful Hispanic woman in her early forties. Her cheeks were wet and mascara had streaked down her face. In her hand she held a pair of red stilettos. They must have been on a date or something when it happened. Zane motioned with his head to one of the nurses, who took the woman aside to talk to her.
Thank God for nurses.
While the tech set up the leads for the EKG machine, Zane leaned forward and held Manny’s hand. “I’ll stay right here with you, sir.”
Manny pulled at the oxygen mask. “Go be with Julie. She needs you more than I do right now.”
Zane put the mask back on his patient and then patted the poor man’s hand. He was probably right. He caught the eye of one of the techs. “Let me know the results when you have them.”
The tech nodded.
Zane tossed his gloves in the trash and headed out and down the hall. He found Julie standing by the staff coffee maker.
She ran into his arms and he held her tightly to him. “I’ve got you.”
***
Church Hill Neighborhood
Richmond, Virginia
June 27, 2026
9:00 PM
~~~
Ellie lay half asleep on her living room sofa watching old episodes of the X-Files when her smart watch pinged an incoming message from Mari. The mangled text was indecipherable.
Is she drunk? Ugh....
She pulled up the number and called her back, and her friend answered with an incoherent sob. Ellie sat up, bracing her arms on her knees. “Hey, hon, what’s wrong?”
“Manny’s... he’s... in the hospital.”
Ellie’s stomach bottomed out as her mind lagged behind.
How does she know him? “Manny?”
“We... were out to dinner and....” The rest of Mari’s words dissolved into incoherent sobs.
“Wait... you were out to dinner with Manny?” The pieces started to come together in Ellie’s mind—he must be the mystery man. “Never mind. What’s wrong?”
“They... they think he had a heart attack.”
Ellie jumped up, already looking for her shoes and keys. Years ago, when her mental health hung in the balance, Manny had saved her job and her face. She owed him. She couldn’t imagine a more wonderful man for Mari to be with.
“What hospital?”
***
Scott watched from his perch in the tree as she scampered around putting on shoes and grabbing her purse. He could see it all through his high-powered binoculars. She’d wiped her face repeatedly—probably tears—since she’d ended the call.
She hopped into one of those ridiculous self-driving cars that he abhorred.
Charles’s security goons followed close behind in an unmarked car that they drove themselves.
In her current state, Ellie might not even have noticed the men.
Only one of those jackass’s men stayed behind, and Scott could take him easy. The man looked as if he’d eaten one too many donuts in his day.
It didn’t take long, and the oaf started to drift off. His fat head fell back and his mouth hung open—asleep, or close to it.
With the coast clear, Scott jumped out of his perch in the tree.
Under cover of darkness, he slinked his way towards the backyard. He reached for the backdoor and jiggled the doorknob. Open.
Who leaves their doors unlocked in this day and age?
He didn’t waste any time. It didn’t take long to get everything the way he wanted it. Perfect. Everything in his life had led up to that moment.
***
St. Rita’s Hospital
Danville, Virginia
June 27, 2026
10:00 PM
~~~
Zane shot a text to his mother to tell her about Mr. Richards, because Jason would want to know. The two men seemed tight.
The door to the break room opened a crack, and a cute nurse poked her head into the darkened room, where Zane took quiet refuge on a beat up couch.
“Dr. Ride?”
He squinted against the bright hall light. “Yeah?”
“You’re needed. We got a call about a three-car pileup....”
The nurse continued to drone on about the patients and their stats, but the exhaustion and stress from the last few days had begun to take a toll on him. The job, while awesome, also came with a major catch. The staffing in the ER, and most of the other departments for that matter, were skeletal. He would be lucky if he got a few minutes sleep tonight.
“I’ll be right out there. Just give me a minute.” He groaned as he sat up, and shuffled over to the coffee machine. He drank down a lukewarm cup of the sludge and headed back out on the floor.
Time to save lives, yadda-yadda.
On his way, he got an incoming text from Julie asking when he could get away.
Never!
Instead, he typed that he would check in on her dad after he dealt with the incoming trauma, whenever that would be.
Julie: Thank you for taking care of my dad.
He quickly texted back.
Just doing my job.
The EMT’s came crashing through the door with a large screaming man on the gurney.
And to think I missed this?
He laughed to himself and scratched the stubble on his cheek and chin. “Wha-da-ya got for me?”
***
Charles MacAvoy’s Estate
Danville, Virginia
June 27, 2026
10:00 PM
~~~
Sally sat partially submerged on the pool steps, soaking her tired body in the heated water. Despite the long and stressful day, sleep remained elusive. The kidney failure left her feeling exhausted from even the simplest exertion, and her choice to make love to Jason had left her hollow and worn. She knew it was asking her body for more than it was capable, but how could she not be with him after all this time?
The clock above the pool read 9:00 PM. Jason had fallen asleep at the early hour of 8:00, but he would worry if he woke up now and found her missing.
She climbed out of the pool, dried off her hair, and wrapped the canary yellow towel around her. The dimly lit lawn lights led the way to the pool house, where she slipped out of her wet bikini and into a tank top and running shorts. The blue notification light of her smart watch blinked back at her with a new message.
Zane: Mr. Richards came into the hospital with a heart attack. Julie and I are going to stay at the hospital tonight.
Sally gasped and clutched her hand to her own beating heart. Could this be Scott’s doing? He’d told her on the beach that morning she stopped him from killing Zane that he was going to hurt everyone who had ever helped her. Maybe now he was making due on his threat.
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She dragged her tired body back up to the bedroom she shared with Jason. By the time she got there, she was panting and grasping at the wall for support.
Jason jumped out of bed, wide-eyed. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
“M-Manny’s been admitted to St. Rita’s.” She clutched at her chest and tried to catch her breath. “He’s had a heart attack.”
Jason’s face paled. “What?”
“Zane texted me that he and Julie are at the hospital.”
Jason snatched his pants up from the floor and slipped them on. “Is he okay?”
“Come on, we can take one of Charles’ cars.”
Sally grabbed the wall beside her as her wobbly legs made it hard for her to stay upright.
“Are you going to be okay?”
“Yeah. Just tired.”
Jason rubbed the bristled hair on his chin. He didn’t seem to believe her.
Not that she’d given him any reason to ever trust anything she said. The truth was she had to be okay. Everything depended on her.
Chapter 7
St. Rita’s Hospital
Danville, Virginia
June 28, 2026
Midnight
~~~
Jason rubbed his dry eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. The forced air in the room left his sinuses and eyes feeling like the Sahara Desert. It didn’t help that the brightly-colored plastic chairs lining the waiting room wall made his lower back scream. Come morning, he would count himself lucky if he was able to walk upright.
Just like Charles to skimp on the chairs.
He shifted in the seat and tried to get more comfortable, but Sally’s head rested on his shoulder, cutting off circulation to his arm. A little lack of blood flow was nothing compared to not having her by his side though.
Mari sat across from him with her bright red shoes in her lap and mascara streaked down her cheeks from her swollen red eyes. She crossed and tucked her slender ankles underneath her chair.
Jason tried to look away, but couldn’t. What do you say at a time like this? He didn’t know. After several awkward attempts to say something, anything, he gave up. His gift for words never seemed to be available to him when he needed it most.
“Hey.” Zane sank down into the chair beside Mari. He looked every bit the part of a doctor burning his candle at both ends—the dark circles around his eyes made him appear older.
