Chapter 2 - The First Crack in the Armor
The piercing alarm from behind the heavy double doors shattered the lingering tension in the corridor. A junior nurse flung the door open, her face drained of color as she shouted for Dr. Park. Audrey was already in motion, slipping past Callum with the focused agility of someone who had danced with death a thousand times. Callum lunged forward to follow, but Audrey slammed her palm flat against his chest, stopping him dead in his tracks.
“Stay here,” she ordered, her voice carrying the absolute finality of an operating theater commander.
“My father—!”
“Needs doctors, not an audience.”
Callum’s gaze dropped from her eyes down to the small hand pressed firmly against his expensive wool coat. For a terrifying second, the entire hallway froze, waiting for his guards to draw their weapons or for Callum to retaliate against the insolent nurse. Instead, Audrey slowly lowered her hand, maintaining unflinching eye contact until Callum took a deliberate step backward.
“Save him,” he said, the words slipping out before he could filter them, stripped of all arrogance and reduced to a raw human plea.
“We’re trying,” Audrey replied over her shoulder as the heavy doors hissed shut, sealing her inside the chaos of the trauma bay.
Forty-seven minutes passed like an eternity before Audrey finally emerged, a loose strand of dark hair clinging to her damp cheek and her shoulders slumped with deep exhaustion. Callum was standing motionless in the exact spot she had left him, staring at the floor with his hands buried deep in his coat pockets.
“Your father’s stable,” she announced softly, watching his broad shoulders drop by a fraction of an inch as the unbearable weight lifted from his frame.
“He had a serious cardiac event,” Audrey continued, keeping her professional boundaries firmly intact. “Dr. Park will explain the details tonight. He needs absolute quiet. No business discussions, and definitely no crowd of associates around his bed.”
Callum turned his head slowly, looking past her toward his men who hovered nervously near the nurses' station.
“You heard her. Clear the floor,” Callum commanded without raising his voice, sending his entire security detail scrambling toward the elevators within seconds.
The hospital administrator blinked in sheer amazement, watching the formidable crime syndicate boss follow her instructions without a single argument. As Callum walked past her down the corridor, he paused for a fraction of a second, his dark eyes scanning her badge.
“What’s your name?”
Audrey glanced down at the plastic clip resting against her scrubs.
“You can read.”
A ghost of a smile touched his lips again.
“Audrey Hail.”
May you like
“Mr. Ror.”
“Callum,” he corrected softly, before turning on his heel and walking away, leaving Audrey standing alone with a storm of complicated thoughts brewing in her chest.
