Free Black Ops 03 - Deadly Games by Cate Noble

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    “No. I went to get my cell phone to call the police, while she went to make sure the front door was locked.”
    Lupe, wait.
    “So she was in the front part of the house when it caught fire?” Ramirez asked.
    The memory had Gena shutting her eyes. The force of the blast had knocked Gena backward, onto the rear porch. She’d dashed back inside and found the kitchen engulfed in flames.
    Lupe had crawled across the floor, screaming.
    Gena had used her bare hands to extinguish Lupe’s clothes. Then she half dragged, half carried Lupe out the back door. To the yard.
    Another explosion sounded. The propane tanknext door. Gena huddled over Lupe to shield her from the debris. A fireman came up and yanked her away. “You’re hurt! See the paramedics.”
    But Gena had refused to let anyone treat the minor cuts and burns she’d suffered. “Save her! Save Lupe!”
    Gena became aware that Helen offered a tissue. She took it and blew her nose, ignoring the closed look on Agent Ramirez’s face.
    “I believe that covers it for now.” Agent Ramirez tugged out his vibrating cell phone. “Excuse us.”
    No sooner had the two agents moved away than there was a flurry of activity at the nurses’ station. Beepers and buzzers sounded in ICU.
    “Code Blue.”
    Gena overheard the medical emergency code. Lupe!
    She rushed to the double-door entrance to the ICU. Already the corridor beyond was filled with nurses and techs, rushing to Lupe’s bedside. What was going on? How bad was it?
    Suddenly Gena was being jerked back.
    “Move it!” a doctor ordered as he slammed his access card through the sensor, then pushed past her as the slow-moving doors swung wide.
    Gena stepped forward, stood momentarily frozen in the opening, witnessing the controlled chaos. As the door closed it swept her inside, where she went unnoticed.
    A male nurse shoved what must have been a crash cart toward Lupe’s bed, half a dozen nurses in his wake.
    The doctor who was responsible for Gena’s ringside seat plunged into the midst, already barking orders. “Give me point-five milligrams atropine … lidocaine!”
    Gena lost count of the injections given. Blood pressure and pulse were called out repeatedly, the numbers garbled.
    Then there were no more orders.
    The room went silent. And Gena knew, knew, knew. Lupe was dead.
    No!
She hung her head and felt the knot of anguish that had been building in her chest rise.
    The doors swung open behind her, stirring the air. A dark-haired woman in a lab coat hustled past without speaking, without questioning Gena’s presence in the restricted area.
    Then the doctor who had inadvertently let her slip inside the ICU approached, his gaze sliding across her face. But he, too, passed mutely by.
    Invisible.
    Gena’s loss had left her as invisible as Lupe had been for most of her life.
    “You shouldn’t be in here!” A nurse came up just then, shaking her head as she gently but firmly guided Gena out to the hall before turning away.
    Unable to move or speak, Gena stared at the closed doors. Then she felt hands at her shoulders, knew someone was tugging her back toward the waiting area.
    She resisted, not ready to leave Lupe, not wanting comfort for a truth she didn’t want to face.
    “Gena?”
    That voice …
    The breath left her body as she turned and looked into the face of the most gorgeous and cruelest man she’d ever known.
    No, not the worst.
    Utter confusion threatened to wreck Gena’s fragile equilibrium. She blinked, frantic to block the memories that wanted to rush forward. She couldn’t deal with the mess that was their past. Not now.
    “What—? What are you doing here, Rocco?”
    “I’m sorry for the loss of your friend.” He fumbled for words.
    “Lupe. Her name was Lupe!” Gena shook off his hand and stepped away. “And you have no idea what I’ve lost.”
    “Agreed.” He looked solemnly left, then right. “Is there somewhere private we can talk?”
    The one-two changeup of