Chapter 1 - The Forbidden Door
Norah looked at the widening pool of blood beneath him.
Then she looked into the eyes of a man no one in the city dared challenge.
"If you fire," she said, "the recoil will finish tearing open your side."
The weapon lowered less than an inch.
Norah forced herself to take one step closer.
"And I am the only person in this house who isn't trying to steal your chair."
For the first time, fear entered Declan Hayes's eyes.
It was not fear of her, but the terrifying realization that she was absolutely right.
He let out a ragged breath and dropped the heavy pistol onto the white tile floor.
His head fell back against the metal leg of the surgical bed.
Norah did not waste a single second.
She stripped off her uniform apron and pressed it firmly against the torn flesh of his abdomen.
Declan hissed in agony, his entire body going rigid under her touch.
"Who are you?" he managed to choke out through gritted teeth.
"I am the woman who cleans up the messes your people leave behind," she replied coldly.
She reached up with her free hand and grabbed a roll of medical gauze from the stainless steel tray above them.
She knew she should be terrified of him, but survival had burned the panic out of her months ago.
"The bleeding is hitting an artery, which means whoever shot you used a hollow-point bullet," she stated flatly.
Declan stared at her with a mixture of suspicion and fading consciousness.
"You know entirely too much for a maid," he whispered.
"My father was an emergency room surgeon before your syndicate bought his hospital and ruined his career," she answered.
She ripped open a packet of sterilized combat sutures with her teeth.
She began to pack the wound, her hands moving with a frantic but practiced precision.
Declan gripped the edge of the metal bed frame so hard his knuckles turned completely white.
The color was rapidly draining from his face, leaving his skin the shade of wet ash.
"You are going to have to sew it shut before I bleed out," he rasped.
"I know," Norah said, threading the curved surgical needle.
She pierced his skin, ignoring his sharp intake of breath as she pulled the thick thread tight.
The storm outside raged on, hurling heavy sheets of rain against the reinforced glass window of the forbidden room.
She tied off the final knot just as a loud, metallic clink echoed from the hallway outside.
It was the distinct sound of the heavy elevator doors sliding open on the third floor.
Declan's eyes snapped wide open, flashing with a sudden, lethal energy.
May you like
"Nobody is allowed on this floor tonight," he warned softly.
Heavy, deliberate footsteps began making their way down the corridor toward the oak door.
