Chapter 2

Gina reached up and closed the call log on her phone.

Only then did I notice she'd called her husband three more times while I wasn't looking. He still hadn't answered.

She didn't answer my question. Instead, she asked one of her own. "Tell me something, Dr. Kent. When a man doesn't answer his wife's calls in the middle of the night, is it because something happened to him, or because he's cheating?"

The shift caught me off guard. "Maybe... bad signal?"

Gina scoffed. "Bad signal? Is that why every time you go out in the middle of the night, my husband's phone just happens to have a 'bad signal'?"

I froze, not following her at first.

"What? What are you talking about?"

Gina laughed softly. "Every time my husband works late, you have an emergency. Tonight he won't even answer his phone. So I'd like to ask you: what exactly is going on between you two?"

It finally clicked. Now I understood why she'd been acting so strangely all night.

She actually thought I was having an affair with her husband.

I barely knew the man. We'd nod at each other in the elevator. That was it.

I stared at her in disbelief. "How could you possibly think that?"

"I put a tracking app on his phone. His location has been showing up near your hospital all night, and there's a five-star hotel right next door.

"Using work as a cover. Clever."

I almost laughed from sheer exasperation. "That's a coincidence!"

"Drop the act. If I hadn't stopped you tonight, you two would probably be starting round two at the hotel by now."

She was losing control. Her voice climbed higher, thinner.

In that moment, I deeply regretted getting in her car.

But we were already on the road, surrounded by nothing but darkness. Getting an Uber out here was impossible.

A woman who'd put a tracker on her husband's phone, who accused people without a shred of evidence. She was a jealous wife straight out of a Lifetime movie.

I had gotten into a lunatic's car, and to save a life, I now had to reason with her.

I glanced out the window. The car was still crawling.

I fought to stay rational, reminding myself that getting to the hospital was all that mattered.

"If you don't believe me, just take me to the hospital and you'll see for yourself."

Gina barked out a laugh. "You think I'm stupid? The second I drop you off and leave, you'll walk right into that hotel. How would I ever know?"

"I can show you the messages from the ER! My patient is literally waiting for me to save his life!"

She snickered. "Quite the performance. Why don't you explain why you two always disappear at the same time?

"Otherwise, we can keep crawling along like this. Let him sit at the hotel and wait. I've got all the time in the world."

I opened my mouth to respond.

But before I could say a word, my phone chimed. The patient's test results had come in.

I zoomed in on the report. "Nathan Mercer, male, 38..."