The first man who tried to touch Chicago’s most feared mafia boss left the trauma room with two broken fingers.
PART 2
Vincent’s grip tightened around my wrist as another alarm screamed above us.
“I’m here,” I said.
“Keep looking at me.”
His gray eyes locked onto mine while I pressed gauze against the wound beneath his ribs.
Every muscle trembled, but he did not pull away.
Outside the glass, Caleb and the doctors watched.
“Tell me what you see,” I said.
Vincent swallowed.
“You.”
“Nothing else?”
“The ceiling.”
“My hand?”
His breathing faltered.
“Not fire.”
“That’s right.”
I kept my voice steady as the surgeon returned.
Vincent noticed him immediately.
“No one touches me except her.”
The surgeon nodded.
“With Nora maintaining pressure, I can operate.”
For the next hour, I stayed beside him through every incision, flash of panic, and plea not to leave.
When the final bullet dropped into the tray, his heartbeat stabilized.
Caleb exhaled like he had been holding his breath for years.
Vincent never released my wrist.
Later, in recovery, he woke while I adjusted his IV.
“You saved me,” he murmured.
“We all did.”
“No.”
His eyes shifted toward the window.
“They were afraid of me.”
“You were afraid too.”
That answer surprised him.
Then Melissa entered carrying dismissal papers.
She avoided my gaze.
“Administration says Nurse Bennett acted outside protocol.”
Caleb stepped forward.
“She kept him alive.”
Melissa’s voice hardened.
“She also exposed the hospital to liability.”
Vincent slowly sat upright.
“Then the hospital can explain its decision to every board member whose company depends on mine.”
Melissa went pale.
I told him I did not need protection, but he looked at me with quiet intensity.
“This is repayment.”
Before I could answer, Caleb placed a scorched photograph on the table.
It showed Vincent beside the woman who had betrayed him eleven years earlier.
My breath caught.
She had my eyes.
On the back, beneath a date from my childhood, someone had written my mother’s full name.
May you like
Vincent stared at me.
“Who are you, Nora?”
