Chapter Nine: The Bullet Under His Ribs
Mara rode in the ambulance with one knee braced against the stretcher and both hands inside Roman’s blood.
The paramedic kept asking questions.
She answered none of them unless they mattered.
“Pressure?”
“Seventy over forty.”
“Two large-bore IVs.”
“Already.”
“Blood?”
“Running.”
Roman’s eyes were closed.
Too still again.
Mara hated stillness.
She pressed harder below his ribs.
The wound had torn along the surgical line. The old scar tissue had split under strain, and somewhere beneath muscle and blood, something had opened that should not have opened.
“Roman.”
No answer.
She leaned close.
“Do not make me cut this suit.”
His lashes moved.
Barely.
“This suit is Italian.”
“Then die politely.”
A breath left him.
Almost a laugh.
The paramedic looked between them and decided silence was safer.
Mara’s throat tightened.
She checked his pupils.
“Stay awake.”
Roman’s eyes opened.
Pain made them unfocused.
“You are angry.”
“I am always angry near you.”
“Good.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
His fingers shifted on the stretcher.
Searching.
She looked down.
His hand was trying to find hers.
She did not give it.
Not yet.
He accepted that too.
That quiet acceptance was beginning to ruin her.
The ambulance hit a turn.
Mara caught the rail with one hand and kept pressure with the other. Roman’s blood warmed her wrist.
Her scar burned beneath her collarbone.
“Why did you tell my father?”
Roman’s gaze sharpened with effort.
“Tell him what?”
“To make me hate you.”
His eyes closed.
The siren wailed above them.
Mara leaned closer.
“Answer me.”
“He already owned your choices.”
“Not all of them.”
“He had signed with Cross.”
“My father signs many things.”
“This was different.”
Roman swallowed.
Blood touched the corner of his mouth.
“Cross wanted you because you saw Selene.”
Mara froze.
The woman in the hallway.
The crying woman.
The sealed envelope.
Selene.
Her name returned like a body rising from water.
“Who was she?”
“A witness.”
“To what?”
“Cross trafficking routes.”
Mara’s hand pressed harder without meaning to.
Roman hissed.
She loosened.
“You knew?”
“I found out too late.”
“What happened to her?”
He looked at her.
That was answer enough.
Mara sat back.
The ambulance lights flashed red across his face.
Roman continued, each word costing him.
“Julian believed you could identify her.”
“I barely saw her.”
“Barely was enough.”
Mara remembered Julian at the gala seven years ago.
His soft smile.
His warning.
Roman won’t save you this time.
Her stomach turned.
“So you broke me for protection?”
Roman’s mouth tightened.
“I chose the cruelest tool.”
“That is not an answer.”
“It is the only honest one.”
The ambulance slowed.
Mercy General appeared through rain.
Doctors waited outside.
Mara stood before the doors opened.
Roman’s hand closed around her wrist.
Weak.
Fever-hot.
She looked down.
His thumb brushed the scar beneath her glove.
Not touching skin.
Just the memory of it.
“The bullet that hit you was meant for me.”
“I know.”
“No.”
His eyes held hers.
“The second one was meant for you.”
Mara went cold.
Roman’s grip failed.
The doors opened.
The team pulled him out.
Mara walked beside the stretcher until security blocked the hall.
“Dr. Veyne, you cannot operate.”
She turned.
The hospital chief stood there with three board members behind him.
His face was grave.
“You are emotionally compromised.”
Mara looked through the glass at Roman’s body rolling toward surgery.
Then at the men who had never once questioned her hands until the patient had power.
She removed her bloody gloves.
Slowly.
“You have no surgeon on call who can handle this repair.”
The chief swallowed.
“That may be true.”
“Then move.”
“We cannot allow it.”
Mara stepped closer.
Her voice dropped.
“If he dies because you blocked me, I will testify before every medical board in this country.”
No one spoke.
“Move.”
They moved.
Mara entered the operating room.
Roman’s monitors screamed.
The resident looked up.
“We’re losing him.”
Mara reached for the scalpel.
This time, her hands were steady.
This time, the wound that separated them was open beneath the light.
And this time, she refused to let it decide the ending.
