Page 112 of Thin Lines (Donati Bloodlines 2)

Calisto got nothing.

It was only a minute before someone came out after himthrough the backdoor of the club. It took every ounce of willpower he had toact like everything that mattered to him wasn’t bleeding and unconscious in hisarms.

“Do you need a fucking Ativan?” the paramedic askedsharply.

Calisto blinked out of his daze, finding the paramedicwatching him. “N-no.”

“She’s got air. Her heart is beating. She’s got pupilresponse. She took one hell of a beating, man, but she’s going to be okay. Theblood loss came from that nasty cut on her head. Head wounds bleed the worst ofthem all. Whoever did this must have snapped her skull into the pavement acouple of times. It looks worse than it is.”

Calisto didn’t think so.

It was bad all over.

“She your wife or something?” the paramedic asked.

Calisto swallowed his denial.

He wished she were.

If Emma were his wife, this never would happened.

“Well?” the paramedic asked again.

“She’s everything to me,” Calisto said instead.

No one was around to hear him say that, either.

It was the truth.

He needed to say it to someone.

Calisto held the phone to his ear, listening to thecall ring through.

Again.

For the fifth time.

He wasn’t surprised when he got no answer.

Frustrated, he pulled the phone away from his ear andsmashed it into the closest wall. That just happened to be the white paintedcinderblock wall of the hospital hallway. He felt the plastic and glass breakinto pieces under the hit before it all tumbled from his hand to the ground.

Calisto didn’t even care.

What did it matter?

He could call another fifty times, and Affonso stillwouldn’t pick up. Where was he?

Calisto leaned against the wall, and rubbed at thetension heartache starting to form at the base of his skull. Affonso had beeninformed of Emma’s attack before the ambulance even arrived on scene, yet, theman hadn’t come to the hospital.

Thankfully, Emma was okay.

The beating looked worse than what it was. She hadn’tsuffered any fractures as first thought, and her blood loss had been less thanexpected. She woke up around three in the morning, asking for Calisto.

She didn’t even want her husband.

She asked for him.

Calisto had a man posted at her door. The nursesstation had been instructed not to let anyone else pass into her room unless hegave his consent.