Free NYC Angels: Flirting with Danger by Tina Beckett

for a very long time. Maybe some of that was due to being free of Travis. But she wondered if it wasn’t the city itself.
    Her cellphone went off. Glancing at the readout, she saw it was the hospital.
    “Chloe Jenkins here.”
    “Where are you?”
    Brad’s voice. Impersonal. Brusque. Just like it had been ever since they’d come back from the picnic.
    “Central Park. Why?”
    “We’ve got a TTTS. Can you get back here?”
    TTTS … Her brain flashed through the acronym. Twin to twin transfusion syndrome.
    “Stage?” she asked.
    “Three.”
    Not good.
    Although fairly rare, TTTS was restricted to identical twins who shared a placenta. One fetus’s blood was shunted to the other, endangering not only the donor twin but also the recipient, if it progressed past a certain point. “On my way.”
    Dumping her empty paper cup into a nearby trash can, she stayed on the phone as she hurried to the corner to wait for the light to change. A million questionscame into her mind. “Did her OB/GYN do an amnio reduction on the recipient twin?”
    Brad’s voice came back through. “Yes, but the problem is still progressing. Coleman wants to do a laser ablation.”
    Wow. If Cade wanted to destroy the blood vessels linking the two babies, things had to be serious. “When?”
    “They’re trying to schedule it immediately, which is why I need you back here. The nurses’ station will be short-staffed otherwise.”
    She would have liked the opportunity to watch the procedure—as Angel’s was one of the few hospitals in the U.S. that offered it—but she was here to help however she could.
    The light changed, and she jogged across the crosswalk. “I should be there in about five minutes.”
    “Okay. See you when you get here.”
    Had she imagined the relief in Brad’s voice? Of course she had.
    As the doors of the hospital swished open a couple of minutes later, and the rush of cool air from the interior hit her, she smiled at the ordered chaos that met her eyes. A pink-haired clown—whose eight-foot height could only be the result of stilts—was busy swaying to some kind of rap music, his real smile almost as wide as the one painted on his face. His reflection gleamed in the mirrors and the polished floors. About ten delighted children had gathered around him, clapping in time to the beat.
    It was easy to forget she worked in a children’s hospital as the tiny patients on the fourth floor were still cocooned in their mothers, dependent on skilled doctorsfor their very lives. But here on the ground floor everyone was equal, doctors and patients alike.
    A wave from across the foyer caught her attention. Layla, holding the hand of a young cancer patient, who, despite the patchy hair and pale delicate skin, was laughing. Layla put an arm protectively around her small charge as she smiled at Chloe, making an imaginary phone with her free hand and holding it up to her ear.
“Call me,”
she mouthed.
    Chloe smiled back and gave her a thumbs-up. It was good to have a friend. Especially now.
    The elevator gave a soft ping as it arrived on the fourth floor, but as soon as she stepped out she saw Ginny at the nurses’ station, along with two other nurses. Where was the shortage Brad had talked about?
    Maybe they hadn’t gone to prepare yet. Although they didn’t normally pull nurses from the floor to assist. That job fell to the surgical nurses.
    Brad appeared round the corner with Cade, the two of them in deep conversation.
    Well, at least they were being civil to one another. They both spotted her at the same time, Brad frowning while Cade called out a greeting. “I understand you’re going to observe the procedure.”
    She was? Her eyes went to Brad for confirmation as they drew near. “We don’t get very many of these and I thought you might be interested.” His voice had softened a bit.
    How on earth had he guessed something like that? And why lie about his reason for wanting her to come back? Had he thought she