Chapter 1 - The Butcher’s WorkVincent didn’t answer right away. His jaw tightened until the muscle ticked, his breathing shallow and rattling against his ribs.
“A back-alley medic,” Vincent rasped, his voice rough as gravel. “One of my men panicked. Brought him to a safe house instead of a surgeon. He stitched me up in the dark and cleared out before I woke.”
“Well, your amateur butcher needs to have his license revoked—assuming he ever had one,” Mara said, her clinical detachment masking the cold fury rising in her chest. “He used standard nylon thread on deep tissue, left dead space, and sealed an active bacterial pocket right over your pectoral muscle. It’s a textbook recipe for septic shock.”
She reached into her canvas bag, pulling out sterile saline, surgical scalpels, and a local anesthetic kit.
“What are you doing?” Vincent demanded, his eyes narrowing as he watched her prep the tray.
“I’m reopening the wound,” Mara said calmly. “I have to drain the pus, irrigate the pocket, and clear out the necrotic tissue before it spreads to your bloodstream. Otherwise, you’ll be dead by Friday, and I won’t get my six months of rent.”
Vincent let out a harsh, humorless chuckle that instantly turned into a violent fit of coughing. He tried to sit up, but Mara pressed her hand firmly against his uninjured shoulder, pushing him back down onto the mattress with surprising force.
“Stay down. Unless you want me to add physical therapy for a dislocated shoulder to your chart.”
For a terrifying second, Vincent stared up at her. In the criminal underworld, men kissed the ring or ended up in the East River for looking at him sideways. No one—no one—ever pushed Vincent DeLuca around in his own bed.
Instead of calling his guards, however, he simply exhaled slowly.
May you like
“Do it,” he muttered, closing his eyes. “Just don’t expect me to scream.”
“I’ve worked ER night shifts on weekends in downtown Chicago, Mr. DeLuca,” Mara replied, picking up the scalpel with steady fingers. “Trust me, grown men crying is the least impressive thing I’ve ever seen.”
