Page 95 of Savage Saint

I brush a damp curl away from her temple, the only place she’s allowing me to reach, and place a kiss there. Bite back the urge to laugh. “Fine. You have forty minutes.”

No answer. Just a sleepy sound. I’m beginning to understand the difference between each of her sighs, and I interpret this one as her agreeing.

Fucking brat.

23

GENESIS

Walking into the hospital after a week off is something…

The good? I missed the hustle and energetic atmosphere. Thinking fast, helping people—giving Alvin an attitude or two because he still owes me. That, and I now know he talks smack behind my back.

Doc said so. Knew me because of the snack-stealing big mouth in the white coat.

The bad? The mediocre coffee and snack stealing. Maybe you can add better security?

I don’t blame the guard for not stepping in that night; I still remember the warning look in Santos’s eyes—his silent threat to him. Anthony was scared, but not telling a soul afterward?

It doesn’t sit well with me.

Crazy, and makes no sense since I spent last night with the man who borrowed me.

But I did, and there’s no denying that I’m falling for him. That I forgave him after seeing his reaction—the fear in his eyes—when I treated Trino. How good he’s been to me since.

How that first training session healed something in me that I’d been avoiding.

Santos doesn’t scare me, but what if it was someone else?

“Ready to jump in?” Katia asks from my left, pulling me back to the present. She’s working a double with me today before taking some PTO herself. Her boyfriend is flying them out for a short trip to the Bahamas. “I’ve got sixteen hours between me and freedom. I’m ready.”

“Yeah. I’m just…” I trail off, noticing a new guard at the station near the entrance. He’s younger, clean-cut, and wearing a very serious expression. “Who’s that?”

“Oh! That’s right. You missed everything last week.” Katia turns and points but never stops her stride. She walks backwards as the man in question nods at us. “That’s Julio. Anthony quit out of nowhere, said he was moving temporarily to New York to help his daughter care for her injured husband while she works. He worked construction and had an accident. Broken leg and ribs, nothing too serious, but she called for help, and he gave notice. The man was on a plane within seventy-two hours. Too fast, if you ask me.”

“Oh.” Because what else can I say? That he probably ran from seeing me? The woman he didn’t protect or help in any way?

I mean, yes, it worked out, but again, what if…?

“Come on, chica. We need to drop this off.” Katia hooks her arm through mine, pulling forward before I can sink deeper into my thoughts. Being here, forcing me to question things I haven’t wanted to, and I won’t deny the change from Anthony to Julio helps. Didn’t miss the gun on his holster either, something Anthony didn’t use. Said once it wasn’t needed at a hospital. “You can have your twenty-question session about Julio after we drop off lunch. I refuse to carry this bag around for the next sixteen hours.”

“One, that’s dramatic. And two, I have no interest there.”

“To match your response, I offer two of my own.” We walk past the current nurses on shift, and I wave at them before heading toward the staff room. “…this is heavy, and two, you were looking.”

I miss part of what she said but pretend otherwise. “It’s two containers, and no.”

“And snacks.”

“You never said that.” Snacks are high priority around here.

“I picked up your Takis and chocolate. Blueberry donuts for me.”

“Oh, thank you! I completely…” I trail off the moment she opens the door. I stop. I stare. Katia ignores my surprise and walks inside, heading straight toward the counter space next to the new, very large stainless-steel fridge. It even has an ice maker. “What the hell?”

This isn’t our lounge.

Okay, technically it is the same room, same layout, and same doorway, but that’s as far as the similarities go. I’ve walked through this door hundreds of times, and it’s never looked like this.