Page 187 of Brutal Collateral

“Aye, thanks, doc.”

I turn to Ava, my heart still heavy with adrenaline and the weight of what we’d just gone through. “Just a few more minutes, baby.”

Ava bites her lip with a weak smile then doubles over with a sharp cry.

“Ava, what?”

She shifts in her seat and reaches between her legs. I gasp when her hand comes out, full of blood.

CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR

Ava

Griffin goes insanelyferal seeing the blood on my fingers, next, we’re racing to the teaching hospital where Cormac started in August as a professor. He’s waiting at the school’s emergency entrance with a gurney surrounded by what looks like a team of students.

Great, on-the-job training. One of them helps me onto the gurney and they wheel me into a treatment room.

Griffin pulls Cormac aside. “She’s pregnant. But she’s bleeding.”

Medical students take over, and I’m subjected to all kinds of X-rays with a leaded apron that smells funny. Cormac confirms I have three broken ribs.

A woman comes in with more results. “She ruptured her spleen.” She shows Cormac the X-ray. “I think that’s where the blood is coming from.”

Cormac stands obscenely close to this student, who I notice isverypretty. Andveryyoung. When he catches me staring, I give him a little wink.

He smirks back.

“Cormac!” Griffin huffs, holding my hand, sounding frantic. “What...what do we do for that?”

“Surgery,” Cormac says, deadpan. “Scarlett, order a transport to Mercy. I’ll call a renal surgeon I know.”

Ooooo. Scarlett. That’sa sexy name. And right there, I see the energy between her and Cormac. But he’s her professor.

Hmmm.

“I haven’t been to a doctor yet.” I clear my throat. “For that.”

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