light and the antiseptic

ush and several hours of unconsciousness. There was a bandage at

you're

two white pills. "Acute gastric bleeding. You're lucky your boyfriend got

ed. "My...

l night, you know. Sat right there"-she gestured at the chair beside

stranger who'd

sta

gone

. But he left this." The nurse

e wool. When Cora reached for it, the fabric was impossibly soft un

o phone numb

nd the ghost of a

someone, somehow-buzzed on the nightst

et. 9 AM. C

The d

ck a single w

-

ning against his car in a perfectly pressed navy suit, coffee in hand. He looked like he'd sle

ng out a paper cup. "I got

the cup. She

less than eight hours ago. Coffee, which any first-year medical stud

't wan

called you last nigh

st him into t

A bored clerk who stamped their divorce decree with the

, three years of m

hand on her elbow. "

Julian's passenger seat like a butterfly from a cocoon, all fluttering lashes and tremulous

tically dismantled her marriage and was now pe

flatly. "You've got what y

anufactured tears. "I didn't-that's not-J

shoulders in a gesture that was already automatic. "Thi

t, but not before Cora caught the f

with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "A f

was razor wire. "I'd rat

nd Cora saw something cold and calculating underneath. Then

ble to get a cab this time of day." Tiffany s

d her mout

. She ha

r. Deep. Smooth. Familiar in

es-had materialized at the curb like a panther stalking into dayligh

e. Leo had sent her a photo. *Yo

r was here

ed to see their faces. She just walked to the car, slid i

ned to thank

fr

Beaumont beh

stranger. The driver who'd almost

r voice fa

e, in the daylight, he was even more devastating. Dark hair, dark eyes, a jaw cut from granite. H

t her like he knew s

he a

not my b

es

ned fractional