Hidden Beauty (Beauty and the Beast Trilogy #2) - Amelia Wilde Page 0,3

in dried blood. Leo’s blood. There’s so much. Because Ronan shot him. Because he was shielding me. Because, because, because. I’ve followed the loop around a hundred times since I’ve been here in this waiting room, at the entrance to the Katherine Campbell Surgical Wing.

He got shot protecting me.

He could die from trying to save my life.

This waiting room is as far as they would let me go. I came here in the same ambulance as Leo, pushed into a jump seat by a paramedic who didn’t believe that none of the blood was mine. My throat is still raw from what happened when we got here.

I tried to stay with him. They kept saying things like family only and emergency surgery but no one wants to be the one to drag a woman in blood-soaked clothes out of the hospital. Security hasn’t been summoned to do it.

I won’t get up. Won’t wander over to the coffee machine, or use the bathroom sink to try and get the blood off my hands. I won’t give them the chance to catch me.

My options are limited. Look at my hands, which are stained with Leo’s blood. Or look at the rest of the waiting room, where there are a few other people avoiding eye contact. There were more when I got here. I’m not sure how long it’s been. Hours, at least.

I’m staring into the middle distance and trying not to think of gunshots when the doors to the waiting room burst open.

Black suits. All I can see are the black suits. Six men—no. Eight. Ten? A lot of men in dark suits come through the doors, moving fast. Security. I’ve seen men like this at Aunt Caroline’s, but always in the shadows. Never occupying a waiting room. That’s what they’re doing. The front two split off, each going different directions. The nurse behind the check-in desk stands up, and the men in black suits break apart their formation, and the woman in the center is—

Leo’s sister. This has to be Eva.

I know it without ever seeing a picture, because she looks just like him. Same eyes. Same dark hair. Same don’t-test-me glare. Her eyes are red from crying, but her chin is up and she’s definitely not weeping now. More men come in behind her. She’s like a president, or a queen. My soul shrinks. Out of anyone, she could make me leave. She could order me out.

She’s family. Family only.

The nurse behind the counter rushes out to meet her, this queen in a black wool coat. Eva’s hair shines in an elegant, perfect twist. She folds a leather portfolio against her chest like armor. “I want an immediate update on my brother’s status.”

Complete confidence. That’s how she says this. As if everyone here will know who her brother is. They might. They probably do. The nurse falters.

“I’m afraid we can’t release any information about patients here without—”

With a flick of her wrist, Eva turns the folio and pushes it, point first, into the woman’s chest. “I’m Eva Morelli, and you have my brother in surgery right now. The first thing you’re going to do is open the folder in your hands and see that I have power of attorney. The second thing you’re going to do is listen very carefully to everything I’m about to say.”

She pauses and folds her hands in front of her, absolutely regal. The nurse’s hands shake as she opens the leather cover and scans over the documents inside.

“The one on the right,” Eva prompts. The nurse’s eyes slide over to the other side of the folder. “Take it.”

Eva uses silence like Leo. The waiting room is crowded with her black-suited men. A woman across from me babbles demands for answers, her husband squawking too. But around Eva there’s nothing but icy quiet.

The nurse closes the folio and hands it back. Eva waits until the other woman looks her in the eye before she speaks again.

“When I’m finished, you’ll go back to your desk and change all of your records to correspond to this information. You won’t speak to anyone else about what you have read, or about my brother.”

“No. No, of course not.”

“Before you change your records, you’ll transfer every other patient to another floor.”

“Ma’am.” The nurse swallows. “We can’t do that.”

“You will do that. Do you know why?”

The doors leading into the wing swing open on a gust of hospital air and two men come out at high speed. One of them wears a