Page 76 of Deacon

20

Lila

I was in the supply closet looking for saline that should have been on the second shelf and somehow never was. The ER had a way of eating supplies like it resented organization, and after a shift of missing flushes, impatient patients, and rooms turning over faster than we could stock them, hunting down one bag of saline felt ordinary. The shift had been hard, but normal, and there was comfort in normal.

I found the bag shoved behind a bin of tubing and was reaching for another when Evan said my name from the doorway. His voice was controlled, which frightened me faster than yelling would have. Evan wore humor almost automatically, even on terrible days, but the brightness in his face had gone thin around the edges.

“What?” I asked, setting the saline down.

He stepped inside and pulled the door mostly closed behind him. “A woman just came into the ER. She went straight to security. She said she saw a pregnant woman being taken outside near the ER entrance.” He swallowed, then continued faster. “She said it was a doctor. A pregnant doctor. Some big man grabbed her and put a cloth over her mouth until she passed out.”

Cold moved through me before my mind caught up.

Blue.

There was only one pregnant doctor either of us cared enough about for Evan to look like this. He saw the realization hit and nodded once. “Yeah. We need to go to Deacon.”

He was right. If someone had taken Blue off hospital property in broad daylight, Deacon was the fastest way to the men who would tear apart half the state to find her. I grabbed the saline out of reflex, realized what I was doing, and shoved it back onto the shelf before following Evan into the hall.

The ER looked obscenely normal. A tech pushed a cart past us, a patient’s family member argued near the nurses’ station, monitors sounded from behind curtains, and nobody around us seemed to understand that something had just tilted sideways. As we reached the elevators, I asked, “No one stopped them?”

“The woman said it happened fast.” Evan hit the call button harder than necessary. “She was parking. She saw enough to know something was wrong, just not enough to stop it.”

We stepped into the elevator when the doors opened, and he punched the ICU floor. “What did security say?” I asked.

“That they were verifying.”

Which meant nobody had dismissed the report.

Evan clasped his hands in front of him, his thumbs working against each other while we waited. “She could be okay,” he said, staring at the metal doors. “She could’ve fought. She could’ve gotten loose. The woman could’ve gotten details wrong.” When I looked at him, his mouth tightened. “I know. I’m just trying not to start screaming in the elevator.”

I understood too well.

We moved quickly through the ICU once the doors opened. A prospect stood outside Deacon’s room with his phone in one hand, already angled toward the hall as if he had been preparing to go look for someone. His expression tightened when he saw our faces.

Deacon sat upright in bed when we entered, much straighter than a man with his injuries had any business sitting. His gaze moved from me to Evan and back again, sharp despite the pallor beneath his skin.

“Blue was taken,” Evan said before anyone bothered with greetings. “A woman came in saying she saw a pregnant doctor grabbed outside the entrance. It has to be Blue.”

Deacon’s jaw locked. “I know.”

I stopped. “What?”

The prospect stepped inside behind us and shut the door. “Ink called.”

“I was sending Bender to get you two when you came in,” Deacon said, one hand braced against the mattress. His voice carried the same controlled authority I imagined he used with the club, steady enough that I found myself leaning on it even while my stomach twisted. Before I could answer, the overhead speakers crackled. “Attention all staff. Code purple. Code purple. Security lockdown now in effect. All exterior doors secured. Restricted movement until further notice.”

Every hair along my arms lifted. Evan looked toward the door, ready to move even though none of us had anywhere useful to go, while Bender opened it and called toward the elevators, “Rivet.” A broad-shouldered prospect appeared almost immediately, his attention already sweeping the hall. Bender jerked his chin toward Deacon’s room. “No one gets in unless we clear it.” Rivet gave a short nod. “Got it.”

Evan glanced at me. “Well. This is reassuring in an extremely illegal sort of way.” The joke barely covered what was happening in his face. Deacon looked between us and said, “Door shuts, it stays shut unless it’s one of ours or a nurse I recognize.” I started, “Deacon, they can’t just...” but his eyes held mine. “They can. And they are.”

Hospital security arrived within minutes. One officer tried to push the door farther open, but Bender took the space before he could enter. “Those men outside need to move. Now.”

“No.” Bender barely moved as the officer’s expression hardened. “This floor is under hospital authority.”

“And that room’s under ours,” Bender said, his face staying flat.

“You don’t own this building.”