Tag: romantic suspense

“Wow, so intense,” Clover muttered, presumably to herself, as he closed the door behind her, locking her in.

Despite the seriousness of the situation the woman was full of sass. To look at her, listen to her, you might think she wasn’t affected by the danger she was in, but Freeze knew differently. She was afraid, she didn’t want to die, and she didn’t want to be hurt, but she was putting up a brave front to hold onto her sanity. He admired and respected her ability to keep it together.

He was going to need it to if he was going to get her out of here alive.

Freeze knew he wasn’t a good man, had never pretended to be one, but he wasn’t going to stand by and let the doctor be assaulted and murdered. Even he had his principles.

“Doctor ready?” one of the guys asked as he headed down to where Moreno’s son was waiting.

“Told her to get prepared,” he replied. In some ways these men were his brothers since they were all part of the Moreno brotherhood, in another they were nothing to him but pawns in a bigger game. He wasn’t here for the same reasons they were and that sometimes made if difficult for him to keep up his act.

It was getting harder and harder to separate this side of himself from the man he was when he left this place each morning.

“She’s hot, yeah? The doctor?” the guy asked, trailing along behind him.

“Yeah, hot,” Freeze muttered, surprised by the strong surge of protective energy he felt towards the doctor who had no idea what she’d gotten herself into.

“Think Moreno will let us all take a go at her before he kills her?”

That protective energy surged more, until Freeze had to curl his hands into fists so they didn’t curl around the man’s neck instead. Forcing nonchalance, he shrugged. “Maybe. Probably depends on whether she saves his son or not.”

Either way Dr. Ellis wasn’t walking out of here alive, but what she suffered first likely depended on the outcome of the surgery. Having seen first hand the shape Moreno’s son was in he doubted the young man, barely more than a boy, was saveable.

Still he hoped.

Because if the boy didn’t survive then he was going to have to make a choice, save the doctor’s life or stand by and let whatever happened to her happen so he didn’t jeopardise the entire reason he had joined the gang in the first place.

Did you really think this was going to end well? Clover asked herself.

The answer of course was a resounding no.

Of course it wasn’t going to end well. How it was going to end was more than likely with her death. Not how she had planned on dying. Not that she had a plan, but well, she just kind of assumed she would live well into her seventies at least, maybe even eighties, or possibly nineties, there were a few long lasters in her family line.

But shot dead at thirty-one, well that was not how she’d thought she would die.

Casting a surreptitious glance at the men around her, she hoped a quick death was all that would come to her. Men like this wouldn’t hesitate to use her body for their own pleasure first before disposing of her.

Real smart plan, Clover, she admonished herself. When would she learn and stop making these rash and impulsive decisions?

“Come on,” the man holding her arm said as though she had any choice in the matter, and led her around the group of men who had been waiting for them.

Of course there was a part of her that wanted to argue with him, wanted to tell him he didn’t have to drag her around like she was a dog on a leash, tell him that this whole thing was stupid, while she might be a great surgeon she usually operated with an entire team at her back and all the supplies she needed. But she wasn’t so stupid she was going to anger him on purpose.

The man was handsome enough, at least he would be if he didn’t have a gun pressed painfully against her back. He was tall, obviously spent hours a day working out if his muscles were anything to go by. He had dark hair and ice blue eyes, and his expression was as dangerous as she’d ever seen a person’s face look.

Clover shuddered as a crack in her armor let in a giant dose of fear. The fear was quickly replaced by surprise when she could have sworn she saw the big man flinch. It was almost imperceptible but she had a good eye for detail, it helped make her such a good surgeon, so she noticed it.

Didn’t understand it though.

She was led through an abandoned industrial estate, they stopped in front of a dimly lit room and she was shoved inside. It was a crude at best version of an operating room, dark, dirty, lacking the equipment she would need. Clover would have told the man just that but his cold eyes met hers.

“Get prepared, doc, because the life you have to save is the son of the leader of the Moreno gang. You let him die and its not going to go well for you. Moreno is a cruel man who enjoyed inflicting pain on those who cross him. Don’t fail, doc.”

With that ominous warning, the man turned his back on her, left the room, locking her inside, leaving her truly terrified as the reality of the newest mess she had gotten herself into sunk in.

Pressing the barrel of his weapon against the small of the doctor’s back didn’t feel good.

Not that Freeze had expected it to.

In his experience more often than not life sucked, but you did what you had to do, played with the hand you were dealt and tried to make the best of it.

Marching the Clover along with him and the three other gang members, Freeze actually hoped the cops showed up in time to stop them from kidnapping the doctor whose sassy mouth was going to get her killed. He had an ironclad get out of jail free card, and he couldn’t care less if the other guys got themselves in hot water, at least the doctor would be alive.

Although her outward composure never wavered, because Freeze was standing right behind her, one of his hands wrapped around her slender arm, he felt the fine tremors rippling through her and for the millionth time wondered how he’d gotten himself into this mess.

“Don’t do anything stupid,” he murmured in her ear as he guided her into the back seat of the stolen car, sliding in beside him.

Obviously taking it as a threat instead of a well intentioned warning, she threw him a glare and he found he couldn’t help but grin in return. White blond hair piled in a messy bun on top of her head, silvery gray eyes that sparked with annoyance, she was as stunning as she was crazy brave.

Too bad she was going to hate him by the time this was over.

The drive to the old industrial estate where his gang was hiding out was silent, not a single siren, and he knew the doctor’s fate was already sealed.

When they got there and he exited the car, bringing the sassy Dr Ellis with him, Freeze noticed half a dozen men standing there. The leader looked somewhat familiar, and as he realised who the man was his stomach dropped.

Clover’s fate had just gotten a whole lot worse.

No one had ever accused Clover Ellis of being rational. Or of making good decisions.

She had always been a wild child. Full of energy she had never quite managed to control, she’d lived her life to the fullest. Going into medicine had come as a shock to everyone in her life, family, friends, and teachers alike, but she’d always known it was her calling.

Clover was a fixer. It was what she did. Or tried to anyway.

Not sure she was going to be able to fix this very interesting and intense situation.

Understatement of the century, Clover, she admonished herself.

There wasn’t a chance in the universe that she could handle something of this magnitude. Give her a gushing gunshot wound and she could almost definitely save a life, but give her four men with guns and she was totally at a lost.

Still, fake it till you make it, that had been her mantra for a long time. It had served her well over the years and she had to hope it would help her now.

“You’re being ridiculous,” she snapped at the man who seemed to be in charge. Insulting a man holding a gun on your wasn’t smart, but neither was showing any weakness. Men like this preyed on weakness. “If you had just asked nicely, or better yet brought your injured friend with you to the hospital, I would have been happy to help. But this … waving guns at innocent people … that is stupid, and does not make me motivated to help.”

“Don’t care if you’re motivated or not, doc,” the man sneered at her. He was a gang member, she’d seen enough of them to pick them out a mile away, and she knew exactly why he hadn’t brought his injured friend in with him. Because the cops were after them.

“Well you should be if you want my help,” she informed him. As best as she could see she had two options. One she could stay here where undoubtedly the armed gang members would get antsy and start shooting innocent bystanders. Or two she could agree to go with them, pray they let her go once she saved their friend.

She already knew which option she was going to go with.

Giving a long suffering sigh, Clover ignored her colleagues who she could all but feel silently screaming at her not to do anything stupid. “Fine. We leave now, you don’t hurt anyone else, and I’ll go with you.”

The woman was going to get herself killed.

Doctor Clover Ellis was a force to be reckoned with. Despite the fact that there were four armed gunmen standing in the middle of the ER where she worked as a trauma surgeon she was cool, calm, and collected.

Strike that, she wasn’t just in control of herself but she looked annoyed about the intrusion to her day, and angry that her patients and their families were in danger.

Admirable, but equally as stupid.

Damn woman was going to get herself in more trouble than she knew.

What was worse was she knew it. Beneath the controlled facade he could see she was wondering now how was she gonna get herself out of this pickle? While guns in her hospital weren’t normal gunshot wounds definitely were. Right in the centre of one of the gang capitals of the country Dr. Ellis was an expert in treating them and saving lives.

Exactly why her own was now in danger.

And Freeze had no idea how he was going to get her out of it alive and in one piece.