Standing next to an empty gurney, his spine is straight. His face contorts into a calm, lethal neutrality I’ve only ever seen on the surgeons I met. The ones who’ve never lost a patient.
The man, who I assume is the mafia boss, marches up to Cormac. “She’s pregnant.” An Irish brogue rolls thick off the man’s tongue when he speaks. “And she’s bleeding.”
I hear the same murmuring accents from the guards who followed the handsome mob boss into the waiting area.
The woman’s eyes flick over Voss and Mercer, assessing. Then her gaze lands on me. The floor shifts beneath my feet for some reason. Like destiny is pulling me in that direction.
Cormac brings me next to him. “This is my student. She’ll be assisting.”
Only me. Not Voss and Mercer, who suddenly look like furniture. And a little furious.
The woman nods once, accepting it. Trusting him and me without question. That lands harder than it should. Another thing to get used to as a doctor. And not addicted to. How people put their lives in your hands. Literally.
Inside the treatment room, everything snaps into motion and blurs at the same time. I find an apron for thewoman’s X-rays. Taking them, I find out her name is Ava, and her husband is Griffin.
Minutes later, I pull up the scans on the workstation to review them.
“She ruptured her spleen,” I say, showing Cormac the X-ray. “I think that’s where the blood is coming from.”
To my surprise, Cormac brushes his shoulder close to mine. Our eyes meet, and he looks proud that I called it.
“Cormac!” the mob boss breaks the tension. “What…what do we do for that?”
“Surgery,” Cormac says, clearing his throat. “Scarlett, order a transport to Mercy. I’ll call a renal surgeon I know.”
“I haven’t been to a doctor yet,” Ava says, sounding guilty. “For the pregnancy.”
“Tell them that, too, Scarlett,” Cormac orders me in a velvety, husky tone.
I nod and move to the phone near the entrance of the treatment room. There are transport companies on speed dial, and I choose the first one. After I provide the codes required for care as well as my cell phone number, I immediately get a text confirmation that a transport is on its way.
When I get back, Cormac has the ultrasound machine pushed next to the woman. He scans her stomach, his jaw flexing, watching the monitor. I realize this is the first time I’ve seen him fully in action. Not as a professor, but as a doctor. He’s not restrained. This is who he is when people are hurt and need his help.
“Scarlett, look at this?” he calls me over.
I blush, attacked with imposter syndrome. But I push that away and remind myself, I call the shots all the time on my ambulance emergencies.
I come up beside him and brush against him the way he did me. Something I’ve never done with a colleaguewhen it could be avoided.
With Ava’s immediate danger out of the way, she and Griffin seem more relaxed.
“Did you know I was at your sister’s wedding?” Ava says to Cormac.
His nose twitches. “I didn’t.”
Sister’s wedding. He has a sisteranda twin brother.
“I was inthisguy’s trunk.” Ava tugs playfully on her husband’s shirt. “But I still considered myself being there.”
Trunk?
“Okay,” I snicker. “You guys seem like a fun bunch.”
“Yes, we are, Scarlett,” Cormac says, raising his eyes to me.
The woman looks at my school badge. “Shouldn’t you be calling her Dr. Ford?”
“I haven’t passed my boards,” I inform her.