Page 12 of Heartbeats Amidst Chaos: Part 1

“What’s going on?!” he snapped, his voice sounding slightly panicked. “I said no funny business!”

Elio immediately pulled back, and Rissa looked up, her professional mask falling quickly into place over her smooth face.

“He almost passed out,” she said. “I can’t allow this man to be moved until he has had a CT scan and an MRI. He could have an intracranial hematoma.”

“A what now?” Hupp asked, frowning. Elio relaxed slightly as the man’s fidgety hand moved farther away from his gun.

“A bleed between the brain and the skull,” Rissa replied. “If there is one, my patient may require surgical intervention.”

“Your patient, my prisoner,” the cop said sourly. “My superiors say it’s time to transfer him, so it’s time to transfer him.”

“We’ll see about that,” Rissa said sternly.

Elio forced himself not to smile. The woman certainly knew how to stick to her guns. He felt another pang of regret given how much she was trying to help him. Surely, she wouldn’t be able to fault him for helping himself, though, right? Once she’d had a little time to think it over. . .

“You can take that up with the detectives,” Hupp said stubbornly. “When we meet them at the police vehicle.”

“Get up,” he told Elio, holding up the handcuffs.

“When you’re ready,” Rissa said, shooting the man a glare.

It was as if the almost-kiss hadn’t even happened, Elio thought. But then he noticed her hand as she reached to brace herself against the desk. It was shaking slightly.

“I’m ready,” he said. She took his elbow, helping him stand. The cop gestured for him to turn around, and he complied, putting his hands behind him. He was facing Rissa, and their eyes met and held.

I’m sorry,he thought, feeling slightly sick to his stomach. He wasn’t sure if it was from almost passing out or from the anticipation of what he was about to do.

Chapter nine

Ican’t believe I almost let him kiss me,Rissa thought.And I wanted him to—so badly.

She was shaking with adrenalin as much as anything else. Elio’s sudden fainting spell had her worried. She was mentally running through the argument she would present to the detectives to get them to allow further testing before they transferred him when Elio—facing her as Officer Hupp fumbled with the handcuffs—suddenly stumbled again, backward into the police officer.

It all happened so fast that she barely registered what was happening as Elio stepped on the man’s foot. His weight fell onto him, causing Hupp to fall backward heavily, his arms windmilling to catch himself. Then, Elio was spinning, swiftly and precisely, thrusting his knee into the cop’s chest and knocking the breath out of him with a grunt. His hands were ablur as they drew the gun from Hupp’s belt, then unfastened the belt itself and tossed it across the room.

Elio was on his feet a half second later, whirling back toward Rissa. She found herself stumbling backward, her lips parted to cry out. But before the sound could escape her stunned vocal cords, his hand clapped over her mouth. He twisted around behind her, yanking her against him.

The cold metal of the gun pressed into the soft skin of her neck, and Rissa froze in the act of reaching up to pry his fingers from her jaw.

“Make one sound and I pull this trigger,” he said, his voice a low rumble that she could feel through her entire body. “Either killing you or that cop on the floor. Do you understand?”

Rissa nodded, shock flooding her body and leaving her numb.

This can’t be happening,she thought.I thought he was innocent. I believed him. How could I have been such a sap? It would almost serve me right if I died right here.

Elio dropped his hand from her mouth to wrap it tightly around her arms and middle, pinning her against his hard body. He shifted his other arm to cross her chest, placing the barrel of the gun against the soft place below her chin and pressing just hard enough to force her head slightly upward.

Shock gave way to terror, and Rissa’s eyes flooded with tears as Officer Hupp slowly sat up, still gasping for breath. His eyes were pinned on her and Elio.

“One more move without my say,” Elio said, “and both of you get a bullet in the head, one right after the other.” His voice was hard and cold, despite how hard Rissa could feel his heart beating against her back. “Nod to let me know you understand,” he said to the cop on the floor.

Hupp nodded, the rest of his body as still stone. Sweat trickled down his face, dripping into his collar.

In this stuffy, little abandoned office at the end of the hall, they might as well be in an entirely different world from the rest of the hospital personnel. With the detectives waiting at the car, no one was going to stumble upon them. Elio had chosen the perfect opportunity to make his move.

She could hear him breathing in her ear, quick and shallow, and feel the stubble of his jaw as it brushed her temple. She closed her eyes, wishing she could shut out everything that had happened after their almost kiss. What felt like a dream abruptly turned into a nightmare, and her emotions were struggling to catch up.

“Here’s what’s going to happen,” Elio said in that cold, hard voice. “We’re going to walk out that door just as we walked in. Rissa will help me, and I’ll keep the gun on her the whole time. You’ll walk in front of us,” he said to the cop, “and if you so much as move your mouth in anything other than a charming smileto any person we pass, you will be entirely responsible for the minimum of three deaths that will follow.”

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