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  “You know, I could make you a deal as well.”

  “Holy shit.” Wren laughed, pulling me back into my seat. “Relax, Fischer. He’s baiting us.”

  “Am I?” he asked. “A child. Just one. I don’t care if you keep him as the backdoor man after. I pay well.”

  “I’m not playing Indecent Proposal at all, Mister Foster. We came here to ask you to extend the grant of one girl in the hospital. She’s sick, and she’s helping the police. But you’ve managed to run off Miriam Crownin, and her doctor girlfriend. You just propositioned me, in front of my boyfriend, well done, and as much as we need this girl’s help, I don’t think dealing with you is worth it.”

  “Give me one date, and I’ll extend the grant.”

  “Fuck off, sir.”

  Man, this woman was good at handling her shit.

  “I’ll cut the grant loose tonight. With one phone call.”

  Wren stood, and I stood with her. We were going to be leaving shortly, I could tell.

  “Mister Foster. Let me make this completely clear to you. We came to ask your help. To make the legalities of this easier to navigate. But I assure you, I do not need your ill-got, all-consuming dollar to assure that she gets the help she needs so she can give others that same help in turn.”

  “I’m sure you think you don’t—”

  She dipped her hand into her purse and pulled out a small slip of paper. “My card, Mister Foster. I can’t say it’s been a pleasure.”

  She grabbed my hand and we stepped back from the table. Offering my arm, I steered us to the doors. I leaned into her ear. “I’ll pay for the parking, because I’m hard as a fucking rock and we’re not going to make it out in under the hour.”

  “Doctor Warner, wait.”

  Foster strode over to stand in front of us, giving us no choice but to stop for him.

  “You’re Temperance Warner. Cadence and Langhorne’s daughter?”

  She nodded. “I am.”

  “I apologize for my rudeness,” he said.

  Wren slashed her hand through the air. “Don’t, Mister Foster. I don’t give a crap how hot you are, or how rich you are. Not everything has a dollar amount attached to it. Not my womb, not my friends, not my patients’ lives. So thank you for your time and your insults. Please, don’t let us detain you from finding some other dick to suck or cunt to humiliate.”

  She stepped around him and we were heading to the door again.

  “Doctor. I am sorry.”

  She paused and looked back at him. “No, you’re not.”

  My God, I wanted her. We were going to be lucky to make it to the car.

  Foster was nothing if not persistent. He ran ahead of us again and put his hand out to hold her in place and I balled my fist to take a swing at him.

  …Her moans filled the air as we dusted our lips over her breast, each of us sucking and nibbling on one. She had her head back, and our hands wandered down Wren’s body, finding her clit, touching her entrance.

  “She is gorgeous,” I said, savoring her flavor.

  “So responsive,” Lincoln said.

  “Oh, God…” Wren breathed, lust heavy in her voice. “Please…make me come.”…

  Foster ripped his hand away from her as though he had been burned, but Wren and I had schooled ourselves weeks before when we had a shared vision.

  Apparently, we weren’t the only ones who could share.

  Wren

  I slammed the button on the elevator and the car stopped at the next floor. I grabbed Fischer’s hand and dragged him out, and into the hall.

  I crushed my mouth over his and backed him against a bench in an alcove. He dropped on to the bench pulling me down to straddle him.

  “What the fuck was that?” I managed to gasp the words between the scorching kisses.

  “Apparently now our visions are telling us that we can share.”

  “Visions, or me?” I gasped as he pinched a nipple.

  Fischer’s hands gathered my dress in the front and pushed it up near my waist. He slipped his hands to my ass and pulled my panties down off my waist. I wasn’t getting up, so he snapped the one side of the string and then the other and pulled the scrap away and shoved it in his pocket.

  “Maybe both,” he answered.

  My hand found the fasteners of his pants and I had his cock in my hand in moments, moving my hand up and down on him.

  “With Lincoln Foster? Oh!” His two fingers shoved into me roughly, but it felt good.

  “You said he was sexy,” Fischer growled, and didn’t give me a chance to answer as he captured my mouth with his, and possessed me.

  “That doesn’t mean I want I ménage with him. Condom?”

  “Wallet,” he gasped.

  I reached into the back of his pants, and within a few second I had him sheathed. He had his hands on my hips and helped me lift up so I could slide down on to his cock.

  “Oh God, yes,” I hissed. “Why do I need you so bad?”

  “Adrenaline, Doctor,” he answered, digging his fingers into my hips and rocking me back and forth on his length. “I would have thought you knew that.”

  “I’ve never been drunk on adrenaline like this, fuck.” He was rocking me so each time I passed over him, my clit dragged over the root of his erection.

  “Do you think he shared the vision?”

  “Yes,” I gasped. “Yes, I do.”

  His hands moved to my ass, and squeezed. “God, fuck, I’m going to come.”

  My movements were desperate as I chased the orgasm. “Come with me,” I gasped.

  He dusted his finger over my dark entrance and I had to slam my mouth over his so I didn’t scream as I came. As soon as I offered him my climax, he jacked his hips up and drove in to my pussy hard. He offered his own climax back, and I wished I could feel his cum inside me.

  A moment later, he slumped back against the wall, and I followed him, peppering his face with kisses.

  “Damn, Fischer,” I breathed.

  “Damn, Wren,” he gasped back.

  “You ripped my panties off.”

  He smirked. “YOLO.”

  I smacked him playfully on the arm.

  “So what are we going to do?” he asked, his cock finally slipping free of me. I wiggled back and gave him space—and cover—to remove the condom. I tucked him back in, and took the remains to the garbage can across the hall, my dress falling easily back into place.

  “I guess I’m going to figure out how to donate the money to keep Ellie safe in that hospital.” I sighed, and sat down next to him on the bench. “I had the feeling Foster was a long shot anyway.”

  He jerked back. “You?”

  “Foster was a short cut, Fischer. He has all the legal routes set up. I don’t. And Miriam can’t because of impartiality in her non-profit. I guess I have to talk to legal before Foster—”

  His finger was on my lips. “What do you mean, you. You’ll donate how? Wren, you’re a well-known doctor, but you’re still a social worker.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “You think that a social worker could afford to become a practicing PhD on that salary?”

  He raised an eyebrow.

  “Lincoln Foster was abjectly and duly humiliated tonight because he tried to make a rude, public pass at me. My family wasn’t old money, but we were monied. I’m still monied. Just as wealthy as he is. My aunt never entertained his bullshit, and I never had to deal with him. It just would have been easier, but I can get my lawyers on this and—”

  He sighed. “Legalities. I don’t want you to do that.”

  “Fischer.”

  “Don’t bring this to court. Don’t get the lawyers involved. It’s not worth it.”

  “I don’t have to do anything, I just have to get them on it.” I wrinkled my brow.

  “Don’t. It’s not worth it.”

  My eyes went wide. “Excuse me?”

  “It’s really not worth it to fight the courts.”

  “This girl is potentially the key to
breaking a sex trafficking ring and you’re saying it’s not worth it?”

  “I’m saying there must be another way. Something that doesn’t drag lawyers and courts into this.”

  “You think we can avoid any of that at this point?” I was really confused. “This is all up to courts and laws now. She’s a ward of the state. We’re going to have to testify in this. The damages done to them physically and psychologically. The families are gearing up for lawsuits and civil suits.”

  He stood and walked away from me, digging his hands into his pockets. A moment later he turned, and looked at me, his face red and angry. “I don’t do courts. I don’t do legal shit. My responsibility stops at the operating room door.”

  “No it doesn’t,” I stated.

  “Oh, the fuck it doesn’t.”

  I stared at Fischer openly. Anger raged through me. “Are you serious?” I pointed an accusing finger at him before I could stop myself. “This is what you and Gutierrez are always fighting about. Your refusal to do anything to help those kids you put back together.”

  “I don’t have do anything beyond put them back together,” he snapped.

  “You selfish prick,” I whispered. “Are you being serious right now? All those kids you’ve operated on and saved? You’re just fine with them going back to the same people, the same house where they were beaten within an inch of their life?!”

  “It’s not my problem.”

  “If it wasn’t your problem, then why do you even bother to operate on them?”

  “That’s ethics. I am ethically obligated to operate and fix what I can.”

  “And that stops at the operating room door?”

  “Yes.”

  There was such finality in his words. His attitude was unbending, and I could see he had been through this argument before. I wasn’t going to crack this nut, ever or at all.

  I dropped my hands to my side. “We’re done. It’s over.”

  “What?” He was instantly confused.

  “I am not going to spend time in the presence of a man who won’t even help these kids find a sense of peace in their lives. Who won’t help them escape the hell they live in. No, Fischer. I’m sorry, but people don’t only exist when it’s convenient for you, or comfortable. That’s lazy doctoring.”

  “I don’t—”

  I slashed my hand down. “No. We’re done. I’m not going to hear this bullshit. I didn’t get to be where I am by picking and choosing the times and places I would care. I’m a twenty-four-seven doctor. Inside and outside my office. It’s why I’m here.”

  Striding past him, I headed back to the elevator, and hit the call button.

  His hand landed on my elbow.

  …We clung to each other desperately, watching the two faceless creatures circle us. A cold, horrible threat was in the air.

  “You can’t take me away from them!” I cried. “You can’t! It’s the balance! It’s my purpose!”

  “You are a perversion of nature,” one of the faceless hissed. “You and all of your lovers.”

  “You are broken apart,” the other faceless said. “You are not whole and will not be whole until you find all and regain them, and your balance.”

  “And if you fail, if you continue this perversion, you will be brought back to the beginning. Again and again.”

  “How is love a perversion?” Fisher screamed.

  “El says it is.” The first faceless leaned in. “You are broken!”

  A sharp pain slashed through me, our bodies ripped from each other and—nothing…

  We’d gotten so good at schooling ourselves from the visions and hallucinations I couldn’t read his face at all.

  “Perhaps we aren’t meant to be together, Fischer.” My words were quiet and solemn.

  “Maybe we are,” he said.

  I raised an eyebrow. “I guess we’ll never know.”

  The elevator opened and I stepped in. I only turned to see him there when I pressed the button for the bottom floor.

  “I drove you here,” he called as the doors slid toward each other.

  “I’m not your problem after the doors close.”

  They tapped together softly.

  My body was shaking as I tried to keep the sobs from echoing in the station. The train had to come soon. I didn’t want to stand here much longer with my shoes in one hand and my purse in the other.

  I knew I looked like a disaster. Everyone stayed away from me, and that was for the best.

  I was a disaster on the inside, too.

  How could someone say their obligation to these kids ended at the door? How could someone who seemed to have such a big heart put limits on it? I had been so close to admitting I loved Fischer to myself that hearing his words absolutely rocked me to my core.

  He’d helped me with the migraines and the insomnia. I could sleep again. But he couldn’t see his way clear to helping a child? Who had been abused?

  It was my whole life. My PhD had been in children’s social work. I wanted to help everyone I met, help them find the balance they needed, especially kids and young adults. It was who I was. It was my purpose.

  Fuck. I shook with another sob, and barely heard the phone in my purse ringing. After the third ring, I realized it was my phone and quickly pulled it out, prepared to reject Fischer’s call.

  It wasn’t Fischer. The main line for St. Christopher’s flashed, and I quickly answered.

  “Doctor Warner.” I managed to choke out my name.

  “Doc, it’s Nurse Rollins. We need you at the hospital. Now.”

  I coughed to try and clear my voice. “What’s wrong?”

  “Ellie. She’s having a really bad episode. Really, really bad.”

  Nodding, I tried to find my voice. He couldn’t see me, so I finally choked out the words. “Yes. I’m on my way.” I turned from the platform and raced for the stairs back out. I needed a taxi, an Uber, a Lyft…something. “I’ll be there as soon as I can find a ride.”

  “Thanks, Doc.” He closed the connection.

  There was a taxi just on the other side of the street and ran for it, sliding into the back seat, giving the driver directions to the hospital. I was really glad I kept wipes in my purse because I was able to get most of the running mascara off my face before we pulled up at the entrance.

  Andy’s assessment of ‘really really bad’ was actually an understatement.

  “A jacket!” I gasped, seeing the young woman sitting on the bed and rocking.

  “I didn’t want to sedate her,” Andy said. “She hasn’t done anything in weeks to warrant that, and I’m hoping you can help her. Without the drugs. Bring her back. We’ve got someone working on her room right now…”

  I turned sharply and looked at him. “Her room?”

  “She got her hands on charcoal. I don’t know where the hell she would have found that, but she drew up the whole room.”

  “Show me,” I snapped.

  Andy led me down the hallway to where Ellie usually slept in the hospital. I walked in and the whole damn room was covered in black charcoal.

  It was awesome. My mouth fell open and studied all the walls as I moved in. It looked completely abstract, and random. There were lines and swirls and smudges, all long and tall and distorted. It made no sense, and from the first day Ellie had been with the staff, everything she’d drawn had made sense.

  Reaching the window, I could see little words in the lines. No, Ben, Bad, Rape… over and over and over through the lines and spaces.

  I turned back to ask Andy a question and froze.

  The mural only made sense if you were looking from the window.

  I gasped and laid down on her bed.

  “Holy fuck, holy fuck…” I breathed. I leapt up, and grabbed for the janitor. “Stop! Stop cleaning!”

  I’d scared the shit out of him, but Andy nodded at him. He put the mop down and I looked at where he had started to clear the walls. It was only a tiny portion in the corner.

  “This room does n
ot get touched until Haden has CS come in and document,” I said.

  He nodded, and walked to the head of the bed. “What do you see? It’s all jibberish and abstract.”

  “Turn around and look up.” I put a hand on his shoulder and spun him around.

  Looking up, he gasped and staggered back into me. “Holy shit…”

  My phone had already dialed and I had it on my ear in the next instant. Haden picked up on the second ring, and she was out of breath.

  “Sorry, Detective,” I said, “but we need you at the hospital. There’s a major break in the case. We have the face of the ringleader.”

  “You what?”

  “Ellie lost it tonight and you have to come see this drawing she did. It’s shocking, and I’m about ninty-nine percent it’s his face.”

  “Can you confirm it? Get a name?”

  My feet hit the linoleum flooring with a ‘splat’ sound as I marched back to the observation window to the room where Ellie was. “I am going to talk to her right now. They put her in the jacket and didn’t drug her.”

  “Finally, a smart decision,” Haden answered. “I’ll be there as fast as I can.”

  The phone disconnected and Andy already had the door unlocked for me as I put my phone and purse in the locker there. “Make sure the cameras and sound are recording. I’m taking the jacket off her.”

  “I know,” he said.

  Elutheria was laying on the bed, facing the wall. I put a hand on her back, and unfastened the buckles.

  “I’m sorry, Ellie,” I whispered. “I know this hurts, but please trust me, this was better than the drugs.”

  “I know,” she whispered. “Anything is better than the drugs.”

  My heart stuttered. “Did they drug you, Ellie?”

  “Not if I could help it. I usually went along, and they didn’t need them. Just another lousy fuck, you know? But there were some who were so terrified of me, of someone finding them with their dick deep in a rent-a-pussy they insisted I have them.”

  I helped her sit up, and slipped the jacket off of her, throwing it in the corner, away from us. “What’s happened? What went on in that room?”

  “His face always haunts me, and I couldn’t get it out today. Since you won’t let me cut, I had to do something. I thought drawing him on the walls would get him out of my head.”