vra
ilth and shame. To an elite trauma surgeon, it was
d the foul under-padding bound around his hip
mpletely ba
apered into a tight, ridged abdominal wall and deep, defined inguinal lines-the razor-sharp V of his hips carving down into heavily muscled, hair-du
ed with antiseptic wash, soaked a larg
ely clinical, fi
rom his skin. The heat rising from his muscular frame was intense, smelling
uscle of his upper thigh, dangerously close to his
lancing up
scarred temple. His eyes remained shut, submerged in deep metabol
mbled deep in his broad chest, and his heavy, masculine frame showed the subtle, unden
, spinal reflexes were simply conf
, my voice a calm, detached
g his immense two-hundred-and-twenty-pound frame onto his left side. H
crum, and buttocks, ensuring not a single mil
pulled out a heavy-duty, high-absorbency adult clinical brief-a medi
othed the front panel up over his pelvis. My gloved fingers worked with surgical speed
k, surveying
a ruthless warlord whose very name made federal agents sweat-swaddled secur
irk tugged at the
dragging my body into a heavy, restld sunk into deep, stagnant shadows-night had fallen hours ago, leaving
mples as my mind automatically r
ent nee
crete to the edge of the bed. I reached out and p
ath my hand w
tightening with an immediate
at least 103 degrees. His liver and lymphatic system were dumping the neutralized Fugu m
arp, clawed at the
eat. I was a combat surgeon. Panic
lled it with ice-cold water from my portable c
with his respiratory system still rebooting, pumping him
er cameras. Down here, in the belly of this concr
ed the freezing towel firmly against his forehead, t
skin as the cold cloth met the scor
ion as I wiped down his collarbones, his broad shoulders, and the dense, inked expanse of his p
h my hands, his breathing shallow and
tepping over to the steel basin on the side tabl
g quiet of the room, a
microscop
llowed by the unmistakable, muffled crinkle of h
he bed, the metal basi
ots f
died in
AN
gainst the concrete floor. Freezing water and ice cubes exploded ac
water. I didn't loo
w of the emergency bulb, Erik "Gri
rrifying, pier
Predatory as a
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