Midnight Heat (Black Phoenix Book 2) (23 page)

* * *

“Oh. My. God. Girlfriend, how is it you didn’t just melt into a puddle?”

“Who says I didn’t?”

Karmen grinned and Rebecca knew if she were to look in the mirror, she would find the same grin on her face. One she’d been wearing all shift. Dominic did that to her, made her smile.

He made her happy.

He’d told her she needed to do whatever made her happy and she planned to. Right after her shift was over. She planned to recreate their first time and take him in the back seat of the car. God, she hoped he brought the convertible.

Then when he was still drunk on pleasure, she was going to tell him just how much he meant to her.

“Holy hotness, Batman.”

She had no idea.

“Rebecca, you need to see this.”

Pulled out of her thoughts by Karmen’s shocked tone, Rebecca turned her head. And promptly swallowed her tongue. Holy hotness, indeed.

Eyes locked on his destination, Dominic strolled through the emergency department, oozing testosterone with every step. The lean, rangy body was encased in black, from head to toe. Black leather pants rode low on his hips, looking as if they’d been custom made just for him. Hell, they probably had. The leather hugged his thighs, cupped his sex, and shot her pulse into orbit.

On the upper half of his body he wore a button-front shirt, also appearing to be custom. Inky black, it reflected just enough light as he moved to showcase his broad shoulders, flat stomach, and muscular arms. A burst of heat snapped along her nerves.

Everything female in her stood up and took notice.

“Check out the roses,” Karmen said in awe.

“What?” Clutched in his hand were red roses. Lots of red roses. So many she wondered how she hadn’t seen them until now. Then she looked back at the man.

Gorgeous.

Rock star gorgeous.

And all hers.

“I hate you right now, you know that right?” Karmen whispered.

Rebecca laughed out loud. She couldn’t remember ever being this happy. She was in love and it was a glorious thing. Oh, she’d loved him for years, but that was before she’d seen him go out of his way to calm a friend’s fears, or the gentle way he held a child. Before she knew of his past; a past that could have destroyed him and instead molded and shaped him into the amazing, warmhearted man before her. The love she felt for him today was deeper, stronger and more powerful, and she couldn’t wait another minute to tell him.

“Dom,” she said softly and took a step in his direction as a sharp crack echoed off the walls.

Dominic smiled, then paled. His body jerked. His face lost all expression. The flowers fell to the floor.

A woman screamed. Karmen? She couldn’t tell, her ears were ringing. People scattered. Someone bumped into her with enough force she wobbled.

Dom sank to his knees amongst the roses, spread before him like an offering.

Rebecca pushed away from the nurse’s station, stepping closer as another shot rang out.

Another scream, this one hers. Then a voice filled with hatred sounded. “Someone has to stop you.”

The barrel of a pistol pressed against her temple; the metal hot enough to burn flesh. The acrid scent of sulfur stung her nose. Rebecca whimpered. She had to help him. Dominic. The man she loved with all her heart and soul. He was laying on the cold floor now, blood pooling around his body. “If you’re going to do it, do it. Shoot me. Otherwise, let me help him.”

“No. You need to know how it feels.”

Dom wasn’t moving. Neither was anyone else for that matter. People hid behind anything they could find, crouching on the floor with their arms protectively covering their heads. A quick glance assured her that Karmen was safe, having scrambled behind the nurse’s station. Knowing that allowed her to return her focus to Dominic. Was he breathing? She couldn’t tell. “I do. I know how it feels.”

“No, you don’t!” he snarled, his voice full of anger and pain. “But you will.”

“Don’t move!” An armed security guard hollered as he burst onto the scene. “Release Doctor Dahlman.”

Masters paid the guard no attention. “You don’t know how it feels, but you will.”

“Mr. Masters, drop the gun!” A second guard called out, as he, too, joined the fray.

The pool around Dominic grew. Frozen with fear, no one made a move to help him. Not one person.
The hell with this!
She took a step in his direction.

“Don’t!” Masters growled with a snap of his wrist that smacked the pistol against her temple with enough force to wring a cry of alarm from her. His voice dripped venom. “I’ve seen you with him. You’ll know how it feels soon enough. To watch helplessly as someone you love dies.”

He was losing blood at an alarming rate. His life, spilling out, enveloping the roses. She needed to slow his bleeding or this madman’s wish would come to pass.

Her mind only on Dominic, Rebecca dropped to her knees, going boneless to slip away from her attacker’s embrace.

A shot rang out.

She closed her eyes, bracing for the impact of the bullet, then continued to crawl when the pain didn’t come. “Dominic!” She moved her hands over him, searching for the bullet’s point of entry. His skin was cool to the touch. Spilled blood soaked the knees of her scrubs, its metallic scent driving away any lingering odor from the pistol firing. There, there was the wound. Frantic to staunch the flow, she removed her lab coat and pressed it against his abdomen.

His eyes snapped open, then slid back closed.

“Don’t you dare leave me. Not like this. ” She leaned over him, applying more pressure to the wound. “I love you. Do you hear me? I love you, Dominic.”

Suddenly, Nathan was at her side, pushing her hands out of the way, trying to take Dominic away from her. “Rebecca, get out of here. Let me do my job.”

She could barely see past the tears spilling from her eyes. Her hands were shaking, her breath coming in pants. “I can help you.”

“No, you can’t. You’re too emotional.” He began barking out orders—the same orders she should have been calling out. “Get out of my way, Rebecca!”

When she didn’t move quickly enough, he gave the order to have her removed.

Chapter Twenty

Rebecca sat in the doctor’s lounge, her eyes dry, gaze aimed at the floor. She was alone but for the ticking of the clock on the wall. She didn’t want to be alone. She’d changed into a clean pair of scrubs, washed Dom’s blood from her hands, but she could still smell it. Still feel the warm wetness as it saturated her lab coat.

As if her thought had conjured them, someone walked through the door. A pair of Doc Martens appeared in front of her, marked with a stain of blood. She closed her eyes, knowing whose blood it was as well as the identity of her visitor.

“Bec,” Karmen said softly, then handed her a bag with Dominic’s belongings.

Rebecca dumped the contents onto her lap: a wallet, cell phone, and keys. “Clothes?”

“They’re destroyed. I didn’t think you needed them just now.”

She didn’t. She really didn’t. She didn’t need ever see them again. His clothes or the roses he’d been carrying. The roses that last she’d seen them had been soaked with blood. Her stomach lurched, breathing hitched.

“Rebecca?”

She knew that tone. It was the same one she used when delivering news to someone who didn’t want to hear it. Bolstering her courage, she looked up.

And noticed something else in Karmen’s hand. A small black jeweler’s box.

“Bec, he also had this in his pocket.”

Shock clenched her hard in the gut. Her hands were shaking so badly, she had difficulty taking the box from Karmen. Her breath came shorter, faster as pain washed over her. It couldn’t be. Heart lodged securely in her throat, she opened the box.

And started to cry.

Huge gulping sobs that wracked her body, making it near impossible to remain on the chair. It was too much, it was just too much, and once the tears started, she couldn’t control them. “Dominic,” she whispered. “Oh, God, Dominic.”

Karmen sat next to her, pulling her close, holding her against her chest, her arms wrapped tightly around her. Offering gentle words of comfort that Rebecca didn’t understand. “It’s okay sweetheart, he’s going to be okay. He’s in the hands of the best trauma surgeon in the state right now. Dominic’s going to be okay.”

He was going to be okay
. He had to be. There was no other outcome acceptable because clutched in the palm of her hand, nestled in a black velvet jeweler’s box, was an emerald and diamond engagement ring.

“He’s going to be okay,” Karmen repeated.

Once she was able to breathe again, Rebecca closed the box. She swiped the tears off her cheeks and picked up his phone. With a deep breath to steady herself, she pressed a few buttons, and waited for the call to connect.

She didn’t have to wait long. “Isabeau, it’s Rebecca.”

* * *

People began arriving right away. Nick and Tracey, Alex and some girl, was it Karen? Rebecca got the impression even he wasn’t too certain. A man named Joe Campbell, a Bobby…something. Too worried about Dominic, her brain couldn’t hold onto the names. There were just too many of them.

When she received word that Dominic was out of surgery and in the surgical intensive care unit, they all moved upstairs where their numbers continued to grow until they filled all the chairs in the waiting area. All but two. The two reserved for Noah and Isabeau.

Having been in Tahoe, it took them longer to arrive. Knowing that after their race to get to the hospital the first place they would go was straight to Dominic, she had paved the way for them, letting the staff know they were his family.

The room abuzz behind her, Rebecca stood at the window looking out into the hallway. She watched the doors leading to S.I.C.U and chewed on her thumb. Isabeau came out first. Pale, blinking back tears, hand over her mouth she leaned against the wall. Then she straightened and walked into the waiting area.

“Isabeau, I’m—” her words were abruptly cut short when the other woman walked straight to her and wrapped her in an embrace. She held her, no accusations, no anger, just comfort.

Rebecca started to cry.

“He’s going to be okay,” Isabeau assured her.

Rebecca should have been the one offering reassurances, after all she was the doctor. She’d spoken with Nathan, read Dom’s chart, seen with her own eyes his vitals were good. He’d been shot in the abdomen resulting in a ruptured spleen with peritonitis. He was going to need lots of blood transfusions, but he was going to pull through.

“He’s tough,” Isabeau continued.

“He’s going to be fine.”

“Good,” she sighed. “Good.”

“I’m sorry.”

“What for?”

Rebecca pulled away. “It’s my fault. The shooting, it’s all my—”

“Stop it!” Isabeau ordered, taking her by the shoulders and looking into her face. “You can’t take responsibility for someone else’s actions. Especially someone who is unstable. Trust me; this is something I know a thing or two about.”

“I knew the man was angry, that he blamed me for the death of his son. I should have told Dom to stay away.” He stomach clenched. “I honestly never imagined this would happen.”

“I know you didn’t, how could you? Listen to me, Rebecca, if you had told him, you would have had a shadow. Instead of staying away, he would have spent every shift at your side.”

Rebecca grinned, imagining the gossip that would create.

“What happened to the man?”

“Hospital security was forced to shoot him, but he’ll live.” Rebecca took a moment to study the tiny woman in front of her. “You’re remarkably calm.”

“I know.” Something in her tone said she was as surprised by it as Rebecca. “Dominic is strong and he’s got you. He’ll pull through. Right?”

“Yes.” She’d make sure he did.

“Good because Noah,” Isabeau faced the door and waited. A few seconds later Noah stepped out, his face drawn and pale. “Noah needs to hear that. Excuse me.”

Isabeau walked out of the waiting room and straight into her husband’s arms, who held onto her like she was the only thing keeping him vertical. Hands fisted in the back of her shirt, he pressed his face to the top of her head.

Rebecca looked away, allowing them a moment of privacy.

* * *

“Jesus, Bec, we’re going to have to call security and get someone up here. Word of the party you’re having will spread through this place like wildfire and things are going to get hairy.”

Sprawled in the chair, head propped on her hand, eyes closed, Rebecca only grunted. She knew what Karmen was looking at—a room filled to bursting with musicians. Singers, drummers, guitarists, they filled every available space. Sharing stories about Dominic, cracking jokes. Singing.

That’s the part that startled her the most. The singing. Luggage had been carried in with a few of them and someone had broken out a guitar. Next thing she knew, there were three guitars being played and two people singing. Not for attention, as some might think, no, because music was something they all had in common and it appeared to calm them.

“Holy shit,” Karmen exclaimed, having another fan moment. She’d been having a lot of those. “That’s Joe Campbell!”

“I know, I was introduced.”

“Joe Campbell, Rebecca, from Blind Man’s Alibi.”

Rebecca nodded and opened her eyes. “Dominic performed with them once.”

“Sweetie, you really need to broaden your music knowledge. Your fiancée—”

She shivered at the word.

“—
discovered
Joe Campbell and introduced him to Black Phoenix’s record label. The rest is metal history.”

Rebecca looked to where Alex and Joe sat shoulder to shoulder, talking quietly. Joe started playing his guitar and Alex nodded, joining him by slapping his hands on his knees like he was playing his drums. “How do you know this stuff?”

“I follow their music. Blind Man’s Alibi has three albums, two of them platinum. That man right there is the epitome of Rock God—rich, uber-talented, and fucking hawt.”