Fallen Angels 03 - Envy (55 page)

The air that hit him smel ed dry and vaguely like earth . . . but there was something else. Cologne. A very woody spice that was at once expensive and pleasing, but also something he had a curious urge to get away from.

Manny forced his lids to open. His vision was wonky as hel , but it was amazing what you could pul out of your ass if you had to, and as the face in front of him came into focus, he found himself staring up at the goateed motherfucker who had . . .

On a wave of pain, his eyes rol ed back into his head and he nearly threw up.

“You’ve got to release the memories,” he heard Jane say.

There was some conversating at that point, his former col eague’s voice mixing with the deep tones of that guy with the tattoos at his temple.

“It’s kil ing him—”

“There’s too much risk—”

“How the hel is he going to operate like this?”

There was a long silence. And then al of a sudden, the pain lifted as if it were a veil drawn back, and memories flooded his mind.

Jane’s patient. From back at St. Francis. The man with the goatee and . . . the six-chambered heart.

Manny popped open his eyes and lasered in on that cruel face. “I know you.”

The guy had shown up in his office and taken the files on that heart of his.

“You get him out of the car,” was the only response from Goatee. “I don’t trust myself to touch him.”

Hel of a welcome wagon.

As Manny’s brain struggled to catch up with everything, at least his feet and legs seemed to work just fine. And after Jane helped him to the vertical, he fol owed her and the goateed hater into a facility that was as nondescript and clean as any hospital: Corridors were uncluttered, lights were paneled fluorescents on the ceiling, everything smel ed like Lysol.

There were also the bubbled fixtures of security cameras at regular intervals, like the building was a monster with many eyes.

While they walked along, Manny knew better than to ask any questions. Wel , that and he was so screwed in the membrane, he was pretty fucking sure ambulation was the extent of his capabilities at this point.

Doors. They passed many doors. Al of which were closed and no doubt locked.

Yeah, this sure as hel put the “undisclosed location” in “National Security,” didn’t it.

Jane eventual y stopped outside a pair of double flappers. She was nervous, and didn’t that cruemake him feel like he had a gun to his head: In the OR, in countless trauma messes, she’d always kept her cool. That had been her trademark.

This was personal, he thought. Somehow, whatever was on the other side hit close to home for her.

“I’ve got good facilities here,” she said, “but not everything. No MRI. Just CAT scans. But the OR should be adequate, and not only can I assist, but I’ve got an excel ent nurse.”

Manny took a deep breath, reaching down deep, pul ing himself together. Whether it was his years of training and experience, or who he was as a man, he ditched al the baggage and the lingering ow-ow-ow in his head and the strangeness of this descent into 007 land, and got with the program.

First thing on the list? Ditch the pissed-off peanut gal ery.

He glanced over his shoulder at Goatee. “You need to back off, my man. I want you out in the hal .”

The response he got to that news flash was . . . just fangtastic. The bastard bared a pair of shockingly long canines and growled, natch, like a dog.

“Fine,” Jane said, getting in between them. “That’s fine. Vishous wil wait out here.”

Vishous?
Had he heard that right?

Then again this boy’s mama sure hit the nail on the head, assuming the little dental show Manny was getting wasn’t just a figment of this situation, but the motherfucker’s personality.

But whatever. He had a job to do, and maybe the bastard could go chew on a rawhide or something.

Manny pushed into the examination room—

Oh . . . dear God.

Oh . . . Lord above.

The patient on the table was lying stil as water and . . . she was probably the most beautiful anything he’d ever seen. Hair was jet-black and braided into a thick rope that hung free next to her head. Skin was a golden brown, as if she were of Italian descent and had recently been in the sun. Eyes . . . Her eyes were like diamonds, which was to say both colorless and bril iant, with nothing but a dark rim around the iris.

“Manny?”

Jane’s voice was right behind him, and yet he felt as if she were miles away. In fact, the whole world was somewhere else, nothing existing except for the stare of his patient as she looked up at him from the table.

It final y happened, he thought. Al his life he’d wondered why he’d never fal en in love and now he knew the answer to that. He’d been waiting for this moment, this woman, this time.

This female is mine,
he thought.

“Are you the healer?” she said in a low voice that stopped his heart, her words gorgeously accented, and also a little surprised.

“Yeah.” He wrenched off his sport coat and threw it into a corner, not giving a shit where the thing landed. “That’s what I’m here to do.”

As he approached her, those stunning icy eyes slicked with tears. “My legs . . . They feel as though they are moving, but they do not.”

Phantom pain. Not a surprise if she were paralyzed.

Manny stopped next to her and glanced at her body, which was covered with a sheet. She was tal . Had to be at least six feet. And she was buiwith sleek power.

This was a soldier, he thought, staring at the strength in her upper arms. This was a fighter.

God, the loss of mobility to someone like her took his breath away. Then again, even if you were a couch potato, life in a wheelchair was a bitch and a half.

He reached out and took her hand, and the instant he made contact, his whole body went wakie-wakie on him, as if she were the socket to his inner plug.

“I’m going to take care of you,” he told her as he looked her right in the eye. “I want you to trust me.”

She swal owed hard as one crystal tear slipped out to trail down her temple. On instinct, he reached forward with his free hand and caught it—

The growl that percolated up from the doorway broke the spel that had bound him and turned him into a kind of prey. And as he glanced over at Goatee, he felt like snarling right back at the sonofabitch. Which of course made no sense.

Stil holding his patient’s hand, he barked at Jane, “Get that miserable bastard out of my operating room. And I want to see the goddamn scans.
Now.
”

Even if it kil ed him, he was going to save this woman.

And as Goatee’s eyes flashed with pure hatred, he thought, wel , shit, it might just come down to that. . . .

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The Black Dagger Brotherhood: An Insider’s Guide

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Acknowledgements

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 19

CHAPTER 20

CHAPTER 21

CHAPTER 22

CHAPTER 23

CHAPTER 24

CHAPTER 25

CHAPTER 26

CHAPTER 27

CHAPTER 28

CHAPTER 29

CHAPTER 30

CHAPTER 31

CHAPTER 32

CHAPTER 33

CHAPTER 34

CHAPTER 35

CHAPTER 36

CHAPTER 37

CHAPTER 38

CHAPTER 39

CHAPTER 40

CHAPTER 41

CHAPTER 42

CHAPTER 43

CHAPTER 44

CHAPTER 46

CHAPTER 47

CHAPTER 48

CHAPTER 49

CHAPTER 50

CHAPTER 51

COVET

CRAVE

THE BLACK DAGGER BROTHERHOOD NOVELS

THE BLACK DAGGER BROTHERHOOD

BY J. R. WARD

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Acknowledgements

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 19

CHAPTER 20

CHAPTER 21

CHAPTER 22

CHAPTER 23

CHAPTER 24

CHAPTER 25

CHAPTER 26

CHAPTER 27

CHAPTER 28

CHAPTER 29

CHAPTER 30

CHAPTER 31

CHAPTER 32

CHAPTER 33

CHAPTER 34

CHAPTER 35

CHAPTER 36

CHAPTER 37