Niyah grabbed Bella’s arm and pulled her in for a hug. “You’re welcome, and I’ll do everything I can to find out who did this.”
Bella relaxed into the hug and whispered. “I know you will, friend.”
When the women separated, Xander smiled. Their display of friendship was different than male expressions of friendship.
“I’m going back to my office,” Niyah told Bella. “Please call me when you know something.”
“I will,” Bella promised.
“Thanks, Doc,” Xander chimed.
With a nod and a smile, she bid him farewell and walked away. Unable to help himself, his eyes landed on her scrub-covered ass. The sway of her hips and the rotation of perfectly rounded cheeks would have hypnotized him had it not been for his sister-in-law’s elbow jabbing his ribs.
“Why are you not ashamed?” Bella scolded.
Xander tore his eyes from Niyah's beautiful rear and looked down at Bella with a raised brow. “And why should I be ashamed?”
Bella raised a hand to her hips. “Well, for one, you’re ogling my friend’s ass while your brother is fighting for his life.”
Xander waved off her comment and threw an arm over her shoulder. “I’m not worried about my brother. Soon, the only thing he’ll be fighting for is not having to pick out China patterns and color schemes for this overdone wedding of yours.”
“Excuse me?” Bella scoffed. “You can take that up with your mother. This isherwedding.”
Xander laughed because he knew what she had said was true. Their mother had hijacked Lucas and Bella’s wedding withno apologies whatsoever. “Come on, Sis. Let’s get some food in you.”
“I’m not hungry,” Bella grumbled.
Xander chuckled. “I thought you’d say that. So, I am more than prepared to pin you down and force feed you.”
When Bella resisted, he put her in a pretend headlock and pulled her back into the family waiting room. It was quiet and dark except for the dim lights from Jack and Lincoln’s cellular phones. Donatella tiptoed over and pulled Bella into a huddle. “What happened to Niyah?”
“She went back to the office,” Bella responded.
“Did she have anything?”
“Not much,” Bella responded with a deep sigh. “The shooter might be an Asian male with no ID and no one to claim his body.”
Donatella frowned. “Might be?”
“Well, I’m sure the fact that he has no face hinders a positive ID. But he had a lot of tattoos”
Donatella pushed her hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear as if the dark, silky strands were a burden. “What kind of tattoos?”
Bella shrugged. “Don’t know. She’s gonna send over some pictures. I’ll send them to you when I get them.”
“I’m not waiting,” Donatella announced. She walked across the room and grabbed her backpack from a chair. “I’ll let you know,” she told her sister. “I gotta get to the morgue,”
NIYAH LEE
Niyah washed her hands and slipped on a pair of gloves. She walked over to the table and stood next to Mario Limon, her intern. “What do you see, Dr. Limon?”
“Complete chaos,” he responded through a heavy breath.
“More specifically?” Niyah probed, prompting him to be serious.
“Sorry, Dr. Lee.” Mario raised a sheet of film to the light and studied the X-ray and then leaned over the body for a closer look. “I see a shattered frontal and nasal bone. A fractured orbital plate, with additional fractures to the zygomatic bone.”
Niyah tucked her hands under the descendant’s shoulders and rolled him over. “What do you see?” she asked.
