Page 1 of Careless Whisper

CHAPTER 1

Reggie

“She’s not going to be in my OR,” Dr. Elias Graham said sharply, his tone as precise as a scalpel.

He didn’t even look at me when he spoke. Instead, his cold blue gaze was locked on Cindy Liu, the head of nursing, as if I weren’t standing right there in his office while he insulted me.

The son of a bitch hadn’t even asked me to take a seat.

A slow, controlled breath kept my pulse steady. I had spent years mastering the art of remaining composed under pressure, and I wasn’t about to let Elias Graham undo all that because he had his boxers in a twist.

“With all due respect, Dr. Graham.” Cindy adjusted the glasses perched on the bridge of her nose. “Reggie is one of the most skilled surgical nurses onthis team. She was handpicked for the cardiothoracic rotation because of her experience and expertise. Removing her would be a disservice to both the department and our patients.”

Elias exhaled sharply, crossing his arms. He finally deigned to turn his gaze on me, and the weight of his animus pressed against my ribcage like a vice.

Once, I’d loved this man. Held that beautiful face in my hands as I kissed him. Had held his hand as he’d gone through the grief of losing his patients. We’d been friends and lovers—but when he betrayed me, we became nothing…no, we became worse, we becameenemies.

“Trust me, Cindy, I’m doing both the department and our patients a favor by getting rid of her.”

I refused to flinch.

I also refused to speak.

If the hospital didn’t want me, so be it. I wasn’t going to beg for my job. I’d done that at Stratford Hospital in Boston and had gotten nothing for my efforts but a deep sense of shame that I still carried. I’d never go through that again, never put myself through the humiliation.

“Reggie has been a surgical nurse for almost a decade, Dr. Graham. She assisted in over two hundred cardiac procedures last year alone, including multiple Bentalls, CABGs, and heart transplants. Her record is spotless. So, unless you have a clinical reason for removing her from your OR…” She gave a casual one-shoulder shrug. “Because, Dr. Graham, this feels more like a personal issue than a professional one.” Cindy’s voice was flat. She wasn’t prone to hysterics or temper tantrums, which was why she was so good at what she did.

His jaw tensed, a flicker of an unreadable emotion crossing his face. Regret?No. Elias Graham didn’t do regret.

He hadn’t changed much, physically, at least.

He was still the beautiful-looking man he’d always been. Tall, broad shoulders, blue eyes…he could give Dr. McDreamy a run for his money.

Women always threw themselves at him even before they found out he was a surgeon.

I hadn’t.

Maybe that’s why he pursued me. Maybe that’s why we slipped into what felt like a relationship—an arrangement Elias was known to avoid. But when I needed him most, he cut me off like necrotic tissue. All it took was his ex, Dr. Maren Loring, walking through the door. Between the two of them, I lost my job and the man I thought I could count on.

FYI, losing the job hurt more.

Liar, liar, pants on fire!

“Cindy, let me be clear. I’ve worked with Nurse Sanchez in the past, and I won’t have her incompetence jeopardize my patients.”

Incompetence!

I’d heard that word before—five years ago, in a cold,fluorescent-lit conference room in Boston, when my world fell apart. Eli sat across from me and said nothing as Dr. Loring, his co-attending, threw me under the bus for a fatal mistake that had been hers.

I remembered everything.

The patient had been a 56-year-old male, status post-CABG—coronary artery bypass graft—on post-op day three. The early signs of cardiac tamponade—the rising CVP, the hypotension, the muffled heart sounds. I had paged the attending on call, Dr. Loring, immediately.

She had dismissed my concerns. Said it was mild post-op pericardial effusion, nothing urgent. “Stay in your lane, Nurse Sanchez. We’ll keep monitoring.”

We didn’t get the chance. Thirty minutes later, the patient coded. By the time they cracked his chest open in the OR, it was too late. The pericardial sac had filled with blood, compressing his heart until it could no longer pump.

It had been a preventable death.

---