The Surgeon's Engagement Wish. Alison Roberts

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      A new face peered in through the curtain. ‘Luke? They just called to say they’re ready for you in Theatre.’

      His glance seemed to bypass Beth effortlessly as she used the damp dressing to cover the gaping wound on their patient’s leg. ‘Thanks. I’ll be up as soon as I can.’

      Mike took the cannula Beth was holding out for him. ‘Could you help Sid take Jackal upstairs, please?’

      ‘Sure.’ The prospect of making an exit was appealing.

      Was Luke simply being professional, ignoring her—quite properly—due to the emergency treatment of a patient? It was possible that he had not yet recognised or even noticed her.

      It was also quite possible that he just didn’t give a damn.

      And why, in God’s name, should that bother her so much anyway?

      Beth turned her back on Luke but she wasn’t going to escape quite so easily. The sound of breaking glass made everybody pause.

      ‘What the hell was that?’

      ‘We locked the doors when we came in.’ The male ambulance officer had abandoned his paperwork to step closer. ‘Sounds like someone really wants to get in.’

      A police officer appeared behind him. ‘ETA for the chopper is only two minutes. We’ve got a bit of a skirmish going on in the car park right now, though.’

      The sound of a shotgun being fired was unmistakable.

      So was the alarm that sounded on the new patient’s monitor in the tiny silence that followed.

      ‘He’s in VF,’ Luke warned.

      Mike was already reaching for the defibrillator paddles. ‘Everyone stand clear.’

      ‘I don’t want anyone moving from here until we get some back-up,’ the police officer ordered.

      ‘Stand clear,’ Mike ordered.

      Beth stood clear. In fact, she was quickly penned into the corner of the area, along with the paramedic and Chelsea, and couldn’t escape the awareness of how appalling the situation was.

      They watched as Maureen squeezed air into the patient’s lungs and Luke readied himself to do compressions when the initial series of shocks was completed. Mike pressed the paddles into position and pressed the buttons to deliver the second shock and then the third.

      Beth closed her eyes for a moment. This was all so bizarre it was almost a joke. Some huge, cosmic joke. And whoever decided which way the winds of fate were going to blow was laughing at her right now.

      She had come here to get away from the stress of dealing with violence and was now up to her neck in the most major incident she had ever encountered.

      And she had also come to get away from the lingering effect Luke Savage had branded on her life. She had just ended her extremely brief engagement to Brent, for heaven’s sake, because she had recognised that the only qualities he had that were attractive had been the ones that reminded her of Luke.

      The prospect of actually crossing paths with Luke Savage had haunted Beth for far longer than the fear of finding herself living Neroli’s nightmare, and coming to a small town like Hereford had seemed like the perfect way to escape that particular ghost.

      And here she was, only a few feet away from the man. And it felt like the first time she had seen him all over again. He was just as physically attractive, but it hadn’t been simply his looks that had drawn her so convincingly at that first meeting. It had been his presence. The feeling she’d got that this man would be able to handle any situation he found himself in, no matter what it was. And she could feel that again right now. Luke was just…exactly the same.

      It was so bizarre. It went way beyond being a disappointing start to a new beginning. This was gutting. Maybe she should have taken up Neroli’s invitation to go to Australia with her. Melbourne would be a nice place to live and Neroli’s sister was always short of waitresses in that coffee-shop.

      The static cleared from the monitor screen after the third shock to show a pattern that settled over several seconds into normal sinus rhythm. The quiet was broken by the steadying beeps of the monitor, loud but muffled shouting from somewhere outside and then the crescendo of an approaching helicopter’s rotors.

      Relieved glances were exchanged between staff members and it was only then that Beth’s gaze met that of Luke. The, oh, so familiar dark grey eyes beneath that shaggy mop of black hair widened and Beth realised that he hadn’t been ignoring her.

      He couldn’t look this shocked if he had known she was so close.

      Her presence was a surprise. And it wasn’t a pleasant one.

      It shouldn’t have hurt but it did. Any fantasies she’d ever had of looking into those eyes again and seeing the love that had once been there were crushed in an instant, and Beth could hear echoes of that cosmic laughter.

      She wanted nothing more than to get away, and Mike’s repeated instruction to help shift Jackal up to Theatre seemed timely.

      It wasn’t until Beth pulled the curtain back and stepped outside the resuscitation area that they realised the move had been premature.

      Black-clad, helmeted and armed offender squad members were filing rapidly into the emergency department of Ocean View hospital, but the skirmish that had been taking place outside had also moved in. Somehow one of Jackal’s mates had gained access and was now standing outside Resus 1 with a knife in his hand as a member of an obviously rival gang advanced rapidly towards him.

      And Beth had inadvertently stepped right between them.

      Was this the punchline of the joke?

      There was nobody close enough to help but the fear that should have swamped and immobilised Beth simply wasn’t there.

      ‘Don’t even think about it!’ she snapped.

      Beth drew herself up to her full height of a not very impressive five feet four inches. Her lack of height was irrelevant because the misery over the personal disaster she had engineered for herself in coming here had just morphed into pure fury.

      ‘You!’ She jabbed her finger at the leather-clad chest of the man whose progress towards Resus 1 she had just blocked. He was at least six feet tall and his bearded, tattooed face was bleeding heavily from a jagged laceration. ‘Go and sit down and behave yourself.’

      Whirling to confront Jackal’s mate, Beth was dimly aware that the police officers rushing to her assistance had slowed involuntarily, their jaws drooping.

      ‘Drop the knife,’ she commanded.

      ‘No!’ she yelled as both men made a move to close her further into the middle of the potentially very dangerous human sandwich. Her voice remained at a furious shout. ‘Do as you’re bloody well told! I am just so not in the mood for this.’

      Amazingly, the gang members froze. The hand holding the lethal-looking knife began to drop and suddenly the police were right there. As fast as the incident had occurred, it was defused and the space cleared.

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