by Gina Kincade
Rosie D’Angelo can heal with her hands. She became a paramedic so she could save people’s lives in the field, yet this gift has cost her friendships and lost her partners. When Jack arrives cracking blonde jokes and wearing cowboy boots, Rosie is determined to resist his overtures. She’s afraid if Jack knew what she could do, he would turn against her. Despite wanting to keep things strictly professional, Rosie can’t help but fall for him.
When their blossoming love affair is threatened by a ghost who wants her murdered body found and a killer determined to cover his bloody tracks, Jack and Rosie must use their paranormal secrets to save themselves – and each other.
Burn Deep by Elianne Adams
For Cortney, signing on the dotted line was a no brainer. All she had to do was agree to spend a month getting to know a phoenix shifter—if she was a suitable match—and her student loans were paid. With one in fifty thousand odds, it was a risk she was willing to take. She hadn’t counted on being that one in fifty thousand, or on Draven being so sexy. Resisting his charms wouldn’t be easy, but at the end of the month, she would walk away. Debt free.
When one of Draven’s young phoenixes ends up dead in a hospital emergency room, Draven has to act fast. Otherwise, human lives will go up in flames—literally. A rising phoenix isn’t harmful to their kind, but to humans it is deadly. But when a spitfire of a nurse steps in and refuses to let him through, his whole world changes. Any other day, nothing would have stopped him, but the longer she’s in his presence, the brighter her aura shines. She’s not only a suitable mate—she’s his.
Operation Twilight by Josie Jax
Their undying love could be the death of them…
OR nurse Wylee Quartermaine knows she should be saving lives, but instead, she’s adding to the horror and carnage of the zombie outbreak. With the apocalypse now in motion, people are dying all over Twilight Cove, Georgia, not once, but twice—and the second time is by her hand.
When Wylee is infected at the height of the mayhem, her hot surgeon lover and fiancé Dr. Gabriel Phoenix risks his life to save her, even in the face of doom. It’s a race against time and an unknown plague in this action-packed zombie paranormal urban fantasy romance.
Sexual Healing by Izzy Szyn
Paramedic Zoe Whitaker was set to become engaged until "they" came back. Lycan Werepire Doctors Brent Taylor and Liam Barnes have come back to Saginaw Heights for one reason only -- to claim Zoe for their mate.
Boxed Set Organized and Compiled by Gina Kincade
Saving Reese by Penelope Silva
Chapter One - Delilah
“Dr. Moreno! Dr. Moreno, we need you in five,” the charge nurse called down the corridor.
I looked down at the steaming cup of coffee in my hand. “So much for trying to take a five-minute break.” “Ah, the perils of being a rock star emergency room doctor. Poor you. It must be so hard for you to count all your cash by yourself. Here; I’ll hold your money while you run to save lives,” Tami, our resident snarky charge nurse, teased as she poured herself a second cup of the coffee I made for myself.
I ran down the corridor toward the fervor. The charge nurse pointed to a man lying prone on a gurney, surrounded by support staff and paramedics.
One of the paramedics said, “Thirty-five-year-old male with abdominal cramping lower right quadrant, low-grade fever, and nausea.”
The man on the gurney shifted, clutching his stomach, beads of sweat dampening his face and neck. He made eye contact with me before his eyes rolled back into their sockets and his body began to tremble violently.
“He’s seizing!” I yelled. “Get him onto his side.”
Ten seconds later, his seizure came to an abrupt halt. My team and I jumped into assessment mode. As I pulled his eyelids open and shined my light on them, I said, “I’m Dr. Moreno. Can you tell me your name, sir?”
His pupils were dilated and nonreactive to light. “Isaac. Dr. Isaac Brooks,” he answered in between gasps. “Do you know where you are, Dr. Brooks?” I asked. “Can you follow my light?”
“The hospital,” he answered, following my directions.
“Do you have a history of seizures, Dr. Brooks?” I asked. To the nurse, I said, “We need a full panel, an EEG, and a CT.”
“What’s happening?” Dr. Brooks asked, his voice breathy. “I… I… It’s not right. What they are doing isn’t…” he started as his fingers clenched and his body erupted in violent spasms.
“He’s seizing again!” I yelled to alert the team. “What the hell is going on?” To the paramedics, “Did anyone come with him? We need his medical history.”
The female paramedic answered, “He was at work. I think a couple of his coworkers followed behind us.”
When no one moved, I screamed, “Get one of them! I need to know what’s going on. Put them in one of the family rooms.”
Dr. Brooks’ body relaxed again, but his pallor had turned grayer than before and beads of sweat now covered his body.
Under my breath, I mumbled, “What is this? What am I looking at here?”
The team of nurses scrambled to connect him to the monitors, while I started another assessment.
“Dr. Brooks, we’re going to run some tests. Do you have a history of seizures?” I asked, just as his body went limp.
We fought to stabilize him, but after thirty minutes of employing every tool in our arsenal, Dr. Brooks was gone.
“Time of death 2:37 a.m.” Removing my gloves, I offered a silent apology to the doctor.
“What happened in there?” my colleague, Dr. Amber Knight, asked as she exited another patient’s room. Emotion welled in my throat. “I don’t know. I don’t know what the hell happened.”
“Don’t beat yourself up. It happens,” Amber offered, but it didn’t provide much comfort to me. Nothing anyone ever said could provide ample comfort when someone lost their life, especially so young.
“Dr. Moreno,” a nurse called out. “Dr. Brooks’ coworkers are in the conference room. What do you want me to tell them?”
I hated this part of the job. “Don’t say anything to the coworkers yet. We need to notify the family. Are they here? We need a history on Dr. Brooks. What was he doing before this happened? Why did they call for an ambulance? Did he say anything to anyone? Alcohol? Drugs?”
“Was it a work accident?” Amber asked.
“I have no idea what it was. I don’t know where he worked. I don’t know anything about him. The guy just got here. Prompt Ambulance brought him in less than an hour ago. He presented with abdominal pain, low-grade fever and nausea. I didn’t even get a chance to talk to him before he started seizing,” I explained as I fought to control my shaking hands.
“Wow. Was he conscious when he came in?” Amber peeked down the corridor toward the room Dr. Brooks was in. “How old was he?”
Gulping down the lump in my throat, I took notice of the time. I still had a little more than five hours until I could call it a day and get out of there, but I had the funny feeling, leaving would be easier said than done.
“He was thirty-five-years-old. I have to go deal with this. We never had a chance to grab some labs. Who is in pathology tonight?” I never dealt with the people in pathology. They were their own breed. Their boss, in particular, was a whole other species as far as I was concerned.
Amber crinkled up her nose and shuffled her feet like a penguin. “Jordan. Good old Dr. Jordan and he’s in a mood. I ran into him up on third earlier. He’s not having a good night.”
“He’s not the only one,” I said as I turned to go back to Dr. Brooks’ room. “Here goes everything.”
“Dr. Moreno, I got ahold of his family. They are on their way. I didn’t tell them, though,” the charge nurse informed me.
“Let me know when they arrive.” I peeked inside the room. Dr. Brooks’ body lay covered on the table, cleaned and ready for viewing. I called out to the staff, “Can we move him into a private room, please?”
A nurse jumped up from b
ehind the staff desk and sprang to duty. “I’m on it.”
“She’s on it,” I groaned as I moved closer to the doctor. “I’m so sorry about this. I wish I understood what was going on with you.”
“Speaking to the dead now?” Dr. Jordan, the hospital pathologist said as he stepped into the room.
They couldn’t pay me enough to work with the likes of this strange fellow. “No, just thinking out loud.” I sighed. “This is Dr. Brooks. I don’t know what kind of doctor he was, but nonetheless, he was one of us. He presented with nausea, abdominal pain, and a low-grade fever. We weren’t able to get much of a history on him. He was transported by the guys at Prompt, so they may be able to answer some questions for you. I haven’t had a chance to speak with them yet. He’s thirty-five-years-old. His coworkers are in the family conference room. His family is on the way. I wish I could give you more, but things happened so quickly; we never had a chance to get any information or call for labs.”
Dr. Jordan wrinkled up his long hook nose as he stepped closer to the deceased. “I can get samples. That won’t be a problem. Did he speak to you? Was he awake when he arrived?”
I nodded. “Yes, but his breathing was labored. He was under obvious duress, but like I said, I never had a chance to get any information.”
He moved closer to him again, shuffling his feet as he moved forward. “When can I have him?”
“The family is on the way. I suspect they’ll want to see him before you can take any labs,” I answered, fascinated by his eagerness to get his hands on Dr. Brooks.
“It’s been a long night for you,” he said.
“That’s par for the course around here. I just wish I knew what I was dealing with. Sorry I called you down here so soon, but I thought I’d give you a heads up. I’ll have to check with his family before you can run any tests. I’ll give you a ring as soon as I know,” I said.
He sniffed. “Do you smell that?”
“The stale hospital smell? Yeah, I smell it. I live and breathe it. No matter what I do, I can’t get it off me,” I groaned.
“No, there’s something else. Where did he work? He smells like chemicals. My dad used to work at a refinery. That’s kind of what he smells like,” he said, leaning closer to the body. “Smell it.”
I wondered what it would have been like to live a normal life and not have to investigate funky body odors. The smell was a combination of oil and something I didn’t recognize.
“What do you think it is? Where did he work?” Dr. Jordan asked.
I shrugged. “I have no idea. I’ll have to check. What are you thinking?”
Dr. Jordan moved back, his feet shuffling across the floor. “I don’t know really. In this business, it’s not uncommon to get some residual odors from our workplaces, but unless you’re a field doctor or working in the trenches of a third-world country, how many of us come home with putrid chemicals on our person? Was he a smoker?”
I couldn’t focus. Giving Dr. Brooks’ family the horrible news weighed on my mind. It was the worst part of my job. Thankfully, I didn’t have to do it often.
“Let me know what the family says. I’ll be around for several more hours,” Dr. Jordan said.
“Will do. Thanks.” I waited until he stepped out of the room before I took another minute with my patient. “What happened to you, Dr. Brooks?”
I need to do something. I’m not going to solve anything by standing here talking to a corpse.
“I talked to his coworkers. They said he was fine when he got to work last night,” Tami said. “Also, we can move him to a room in ICU. They have a couple of empty beds.”
“Let’s do that. The family will need their privacy,” I said as I left the room. “Page me when they get here.”
It was business as usual on the floor. The revolving door of the slightly impaired to the fully impaired never stopped. On some nights, the chaos brought with it a certain comfort. It took me out of my head and into another world, but other nights, it was all I could do to maintain some semblance of control.
“You’re doing it again,” Amber squeezed in behind me and propped up on the desktop next to me.
“What? What am I doing? Killing patients?” I groaned, struggling with the heaviness of an unexplained loss.
“Stop pouting. No, I mean, you’re thinking too hard again. For all you know your patient had an underlying condition or caught some nasty virus. Whatever it was, I’m sure you had no part in his demise. C’mon, how long have you and I been in the trenches together? Stuff happens.” She jumped off the counter and helped herself to a stash of chocolate candies the staff kept in a desk drawer.
“I’ve been here since the dawn of time. That’s what it feels like anyway,” I groaned.
She wrinkled up her nose again. “Watch out; looks like someone is in trouble.” She motioned for a group of well-dressed men and women who had entered the area. “What are they; morticians?”
“The family I suppose. Wish me luck.” I pulled my hair back off my face. “Do I look presentable?”
“Don’t tempt me; I just might want to take a bite out of you. Damn, what I wouldn’t give to have your figure! I don’t care what you say; you must do thousands of squats a day to get that ass!”
“You’re ridiculous,” I whispered as the brooding group approached.
“We’re here for Dr. Brooks.” A gray-eyed man offered me his business card. “We’re attorneys for the Levy Corporation. Dr. Brooks is a member of our business family. May we see him?”
My breath caught. Why were his attorneys here? “I’m sorry, but we’re waiting for his family to arrive.”
“We are his family,” the man said, motioning to the others behind him.
“You’re blood relatives?” Yeah, and I was born yesterday in a tree house.” I wasn’t in the mood to debate with liars in suits.
The corners of his full lips quirked up. “Again, we’re corporate attorneys. He’s like family to us.”
Amber mumbled, “Yeah, that’s not going to work.”
A little louder than I would have liked, I said, “I’m sorry, but a work relationship isn’t going to suffice. We should wait for the family.”
The man leaned down on the countertop. “Are you sure? What’s the harm in having a chat with him?”
His low tone sent chills through my weary limbs. “Mr. Brooks is being moved to ICU. There will be no visitors other than family, sir.”
“Reese.” Offering his hand, he said, “I’m Reese Alexander.”
His business card was still in my hand. “I can see that, Mr. Alexander, but that doesn’t change anything. The policy is only two visitors at a time in ICU. Those visitors have to be family members. True family members. Since he’s not there yet, you’ll have to wait for his actual family to arrive.”
He straightened his back, towering over me by at least a foot. “Okay, Doctor. We’re sorry to have bothered you.” He nodded to the others. “Let’s be on our way, then. We’ll get this all straightened out at the office.”
I couldn’t help myself. I had to know why they’d made the trip in the middle of the night. “Excuse me; why would attorneys get all gussied up to make a trip to the emergency room in the middle of the night? Do you sleep in your three-piece suits?”
Reese turned around, a wide smile on his face. “We at Levy Corporation truly care about our fellow employees.”
“Isn’t that special?” I let my sarcasm slip out.
He sauntered away from his cohorts, moving toward me. “Might I make a suggestion?”
I got the feeling he wasn’t looking for permission to continue. “Will it be helpful?”
He smiled again, leaning within spitting distance of my face. “How much longer are you going to pretend Dr. Brooks is still alive?”
I hadn’t realized Amber was still standing there until I heard her gasp. “I’ll be back,” she said as she scampered away.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I answered him.
His sly grin was replaced by pursed lips, a hint of emotion welling in his gorgeous eyes. “I’m right, aren’t I? Dr. Brooks is dead? Where is he? I need to see him.”
I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing he was right, but at the same time, I wondered why he and his comrades made a special trip to see the doctor. “Have a good night, Mr. Alexander.”
A slight exhale of air hit my forehead. “You too, Dr. Moreno,” he replied, eyeing my name badge. “You too.”
Chapter Two – Reese
“He’s dead!” Stephen Levy, CEO of Levy Corporation, screamed.
I nodded. “Yes, sir, he’s dead. I’m sorry.”
“How did this happen?” Stephen banged his fist on the top of the conference table, jostling the cups full of coffee that sat in front of my coworkers.
“I’m sure they’ll find out in the autopsy,” I answered. “In the meantime, how would you like to proceed?”
He plopped down into a seat, spraying sweat from his damp forehead into the air. “Where are the files? Please tell me one of you thought ahead and got rid of the paper trail.”
Figures he’d be more worried about his own ass than about how his decisions cost someone their life.
One of my coworkers answered. “We took care of it. There won’t be any problems; I can promise you that.”
No, she couldn’t. There were no guarantees in our world. Someone would expose Levy Corporation for what it was. I just hoped when it happened, I wouldn’t get caught in the crosshairs.
Stephen scanned the room, an angry scowl for each of us. “Get out. Everyone out.”
