CORY
Savannah, GA
Cory Foster drove too fast. He knew it, but he didn’t care. Ella was his focus.
After all the years of looking after her, he could tell in less than ten seconds—even over the phone—that she was freaking out.
He wouldn’t panic. He never did. He was calm, cool and collected—even in the midst of a firefight.
The apartment door slammed behind him, and the window shades rattled. He needed to find them a different apartment. It was one thing for him to live in a crappy place—he was hardly ever home—but his little sister should have better digs.
“Ella?” He paused to listen, bouncing on the balls of his feet.
She was in the bathroom.
He stalked down the hall and tapped on the bathroom door. “Ella. I’m here.” He used what she called his authoritarian voice. “You’d better tell me what’s so important you had to drag me off the firing range.”
“Oh, it hurts…”
Her moan set his teeth on edge. His hand went to the doorknob, and he almost turned it. “Ella, what’s happening?”
The only reply was muffled crying.
This was not good.
“I’m coming in,” he said.
“No!” It was a weak protest.
He turned the knob. “I’m not going to look.”
He cracked the door open.
There was a pair of underwear on the bathroom floor.
Bloody underwear.
He nearly gagged, and his heart rate jacked up. “Please tell me it’s that time of the month.”
No answer to that either. But even he knew that was too much blood for a monthly period.
He pushed the door open further. She was sitting on the toilet, naked from the waist down. Her head was down and her hands were fisted in her hair.
“Oh, my God, Ella.”
She looked up at him. Her blue eyes were wide with fear, her face streaked with tears. “I—I can’t stop bleeding.”
As he dropped to his knees beside her, the metallic smell of blood hit his nostrils. He was no stranger to blood, but this…
This was not a battlefield.
His voice sounded calm, even though he was feeling anything but. “Sweetheart, I’m going to take you to the E.R.”
MADDY
St. Joseph’s Hospital
Savannah, GA
Maddy’s shift had started less than an hour ago, and every exam room was full.
It was going to be one of those days.
“Exam Two.” Maria shoved a chart into Maddy’s hands. “Vaginal bleeding and pain in the lower back.”
“Can you check on the labs for—”
“I’m on it.” Maria turned back toward the nurses’ station as Maddy stepped behind the curtain of Exam Two.
“Hello. I’m Doctor Wright.” Her gaze zeroed in on a young woman—barely legal if she didn’t miss her guess—who had a firm grip on a man in military camouflage. “You’re Ella?”
“Ella Foster,” the soldier said. He was looking at her patient with a mixture Maddy had seen many times: worry, love… and guilt.
The boyfriend.
He looked up, and she was struck by how dark his eyes were. Brown. Or maybe a very dark green…
“She won’t stop bleeding.” Maddy heard the underlying fear in his voice. “What’s wrong with her?”
Maddy set the chart down. “I’ll do my best to find out.”
She pressed gently on the young woman’s abdomen as she asked the standard questions—how long and how much she’d been bleeding, when her last period was, etcetera.
She’d need to do a gynecological exam, but she was ninety percent sure that Ella Foster was having a miscarriage.
She met the young woman’s eyes and knew that she knew.
She turned to the soldier. “Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to wait in the family room,” she said.
“I will not!”
Maddy placed her hand on the man’s arm and lowered her voice. “I believe Ella is having a miscarriage.”
“A… what?”
Maddy waited for the inevitable understanding.
“You mean she’s…”
So her patient hadn’t told him.
His dark eyes went wide. “She’s pregnant?!”
“I believe so,” Maddy said. “We’ll need to do a complete exam and a blood test to confirm.”
The man went still, clearly stunned.
Ella started to cry. “Cory, I’m sorry. So sorry.”
Fury lit in his eyes. “Who did this to you?” He aimed his demand at the girl on the gurney.
Crap; this was not the boyfriend. Then who was he? And why did the nurses let him in?
The young woman shook her head.
“I swear to God, Ella, if he hurt you—”
Ella clutched at his hand. “No. No, it’s not like that. I thought… I thought he loved me.”
“So he’s—”
"He’s gone," Ella said.
His eyes went flat. “It’s Rolando, isn’t it?”
Ella stared at the sheet.
“You went with Rolando while I was gone, even though I told you not to!” The man’s fist hit the bed railing, and Maddy jumped. “I’m going to kill the bastard!”
Under that camouflage, she could sense the man’s raw physical power. The deepest part of her—where the memories still lived—wanted to recoil, but for the sake of her patient, she would not.
Maddy gripped the man’s arm. “Sir, I need you to step outside right now.”
The man glanced at her.
“Don’t make me call security,” she added.
Abruptly, he stepped back.
“I didn’t know I was pregnant,” Ella said. “Not until a few days ago, I swear.”
The man glanced back at Ella as Maddy steered him around the curtain.
“Who are you and what relationship are you to my patient?” she demanded.
“Cory Foster,” he said. “I’m her brother.”
Oh.
“Cory, your sister is going to be fine,” she said in her soothing-doctor voice. “I know it’s hard to see her in pain, but we’re going to take good care of her. I promise.”
His eyes wandered toward the curtain.
She placed her hand on his arm. “I need you to wait in the family room,” she said. “I’ll do a thorough exam and bring you an update as soon as I can.”
The fury had faded from his eyes, leaving what she could only describe as anguish.
“Ella will be fine.” She paused. “Will you?”
She held his gaze until she was sure he understood what she was asking.
He nodded briskly. “Yeah, Doc. I’ll behave.”
