Page 11 of Roman

Gabe gave a shrug and took his arm off Danny to face him. “Weird. Anyway, I went into the ER to check on a patient, but I didn’t see you. Your charge told me you were probably on your way back from break. I told her I was gonna steal you for ten minutes.”

Danny fought the urge to roll his eyes. Not only was it slightly humiliating for his older brother to go behind his back and “steal him” from his charge, but it was infuriating that Gabe insisted on catching up with him at work instead of just coming over for dinner every now and then like a normal brother.

He sighed. “And why did you need to steal me for ten minutes?”

Gabe paused to look him over critically, and Danny could feel him sizing up each sign of fatigue. For such an oblivious dope, his brother was annoyingly observant.

“You look like hell, Danny Boy. What are you doing working extra shifts when you can barely stay on two feet?”

And there he was again, babying him. As if Danny hadn’t been taking care of himself—and not just himself—since he was a teen.

Danny narrowed his eyes at his brother. “I’m fine.”

Gabe laughed. “There is no less true statement on this Earth than when someone says the wordsI’m fine.”

Danny hated having to defend his choices, but it was best to get this unnecessary brotherly check-in over with so he could get back to work. “I’m just doing a favor for Chloe, okay?” he lied.

There was no way he would tell Gabe about his financial struggles. Gabe didn’t know how their mother’s savings were gone already, spent on her doctor’s bills and specialist care. Or about the massive loans Danny had taken out for nursing school.

Danny knew Gabe was just starting to pay his own student loans back, finally making money as a doctor, and he wasn’t going to have his older brother bankrupt himself trying to fix everything.

Too little, too late, anyway, Danny thought, maybe a bit uncharitably. But where had all this brotherly concern been four years ago?

When Gabe just frowned at him, Danny decided to turn the tables. “I saw Mom this morning.”

Gabe wasn’t quite successful at controlling his flinch. “And did she recognize you?”

Danny shrugged and went for the throat. “Maybe seeing another familiar face besides just mine would be helpful.”

“You know it doesn’t work that way.” Gabe’s voice had gone carefully neutral, all consideration and teasing gone. And then, just like that, he was giving Danny’s shoulder a gentle squeeze and walking away.

Danny glanced at his phone. His brother hadn’t needed a full ten minutes after all. It had barely been three.

Thiswas why Gabe cornered him for brief moments at the hospital rather than coming over for a proper visit. To feel like he was checking in on Danny while at the same time controlling the interaction, able to walk away at any moment if Danny pushed him in a way he didn’t like.

So stop pushing him, he chided himself.You’ve been fine on your own for years now. You don’t need anyone else to take care of you.

But Mary hadn’t been wrong the other day—even if Danny didn’tneedit, sometimes it would be nice to have someone else to take care of him for a change, even for a moment.

It was four in the morning when Danny finally left the hospital. They’d cleared out the bays, either discharging patients or sending them to rooms on other floors, and Chloe had sent him away with one last grateful, “Thanks for coming in.”

He was dead on his feet, barely keeping his eyes open, crossing his arms tight around himself against the winter chill. His house was technically only a five-minute drive from the hospital, but Danny was legitimately concerned about making it there safely.

He was normally hyperaware walking out to his car. The ER could be a sketchy place, with patients getting impatient and emotional or coming off drugs in a bad way and occasionally getting violent. Statistically, it was the most likely place for a hospital employee to get assaulted, and Danny kept that awareness with him until he was safe at home. At least, usually he did.

But he was more exhausted than he’d even realized, and tonight he had his eyes on his feet more than his surroundings. His car was in a darkened corner on the roof of the parking lot, and Danny was almost to the door before he realized the light above it was shattered and that the darkness was intentional.

Before he could backtrack out of there, a wiry arm wrapped around his chest, and a knife was at his throat.

Fuck. Fudge. No, I was right—fuck.

“Give me your wallet,” a man snarled.

Annoyance broke through Danny’s fear for a brief moment. Really? After all the creeps he’d had to deal with, all the patients he’d been careful not to give his last name out to, when he was finally assaulted, it was for some basic-bitch mugging?

Still, he wasn’t going to play the hero. “It’s in my back pocket.”

Danny felt a hand dig into his pocket and remove the wallet before he was spun around with a rough grip on his arm to face his attacker, the knife still sitting at his throat.

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