Mount Mercy

My eyes searched her face. What did you do? I wanted to rage at her. She shouldn’t have put her neck on the line for me!

But she just lifted her chin and stared back at me, resolute. The woman everyone overlooked, the one everyone underestimated. A few strands of copper hair hung down out of the front of her surgical cap, her soft lips pouted up at me in stubborn defiance and... fuck. I’ve never wanted to kiss someone so bad. My fingers actually throbbed: I knew now what her skin would feel like in my hand, knew how easy it would be to whip that cap off her head, unpin her hair and set her free. Tilt that chin up just a little and bring my lips down on hers….

But I couldn’t. I couldn’t do that to Chrissy and Rachel.

I shook my head at her. “You didn’t have to do that.”

She crossed her arms. Her slender forearm accidentally brushed my abs and we both pretended it hadn’t happened but I could feel my muscles tingling from the contact. “You saved me from that Colt guy,” she said.

Just the mention of her in danger made me come over all protective again. Someone wheeled a gurney in through the doors and the blast of cold air made her gasp. I wanted to grab her, pull her against me and shelter her with my warmth.

But I couldn’t. For her sake, I had to do the opposite. “Well, Beckett, I guess that makes us even,” I said, fighting to keep my voice level.

She looked up at me, confused. She could hear the finality in my voice.

I forced myself to stare back at her, stony-faced.

She nodded, turned and hurried off to the elevator without looking back.

When the doors closed, I watched the indicator climb all the way up to Surgery, my chest tight. This whole time, I’d been desperate to get her out of there, thinking she was wasted in the OR. Now I was glad she was up there where it was safe, where no one would pull a knife on her or make her lie and jeopardize her career.

She was back where she belonged, far away from me.

16

Amy

BACK UPSTAIRS, I got started on the first operation of the day, a routine appendectomy. Head down, Brahms plays over the speakers, I tried to get into the zone. But I kept snapping back to Corrigan telling me we were even. He’d said it like he was slamming a door shut. Why? Because I’d walked away the night before? Because he’d realized I didn’t want a one-night stand? It felt like more than that. There’d been real conflict in his eyes. And the way he’d punched that guy, to protect a child... there was more to him than anyone else was seeing.

But it didn’t matter. He’d made it clear that we were done.

“You okay?” muttered Krista.

I looked up, then looked at Adele and Lina. All of them were watching me. I realized my hands had slowed to a stop and I was just staring at the wound without seeing it. “Just figuring out my next move,” I lied.

But like I said, I’m a terrible liar. Krista caught my eye, worried.

I pushed all thoughts of Irish doctors out of my head and finally managed to get into the zone. An hour later, I finished and closed. “Good job,” I told everyone. Lina wheeled out the patient and—

An electronic scream split the air, so loud and so sudden it jolted right the way up my spine. Thank God I hadn’t been working on a patient. Adele, Krista and I stared at each other. What the hell’s that?!

It rose and fell: a klaxon. After ten seconds or so, it mercifully stopped. Then a woman’s voice, recorded and tinny. “All staff, report to the ER. This is not a drill.”

The three of us stared at each other, then joined the flood of people running down the stairs. “Have you ever—” I began.

Krista shook her head. “I never heard that before.”

We burst into the ER to find it rapidly filling up with people. Save for a few nurses who stayed behind to monitor critical patients, everyone who worked in the hospital was there.

Bartell started to speak, then paused and climbed up onto a table so his voice would reach the back of the crowd. I could see sweat beading on his forehead despite the cold. “A few minutes ago, the state issued a critical weather warning for this area. The blizzard that’s been hitting Denver is heading right for us. The road between us and Denver is already impassable.”

That was bad. We got most of our supplies from Denver. But that was only the beginning.

“With the amount of snow the storm’s bringing,” said Bartell, “all the roads out of Mount Mercy are going to be blocked within the next few hours. We’re going to be totally cut off. And the blizzard could last for days.”