vra

ilth and shame. To an elite trauma surgeon, it was

the foul under-padding bound around Erik's hips

pletely bare

apered into a tight, ridged abdominal wall and deep, defined inguinal lines-the razor-sharp V of his hips carving down into heavily muscled, hair-du

ed with antiseptic wash, soaked a larg

ly clinical, firm

rom his skin. The heat rising from his muscular frame was intense, smelling

uscle of his upper thigh, dangerously close to his

lancing up

scarred temple. His eyes remained shut, submerged in deep metabol

mbled deep in his broad chest, and his heavy, masculine frame showed the subtle, unden

, spinal reflexes were simply conf

d, my voice a calm, detached

g his immense two-hundred-and-twenty-pound frame onto his left side. H

crum, and buttocks, ensuring not a single mil

pulled out a heavy-duty, high-absorbency adult clinical brief-a medica

thed the front panel up over his pelvis. My gloved fingers worked with surgical speed,

k, surveying

a ruthless warlord whose very name made federal agents sweat-swaddled secur

rk tugged at the c

dragging my body into a heavy, restl

d sunk into deep, stagnant shadows-night had fallen hours ago, leaving

mples as my mind automatically r

ent nee

crete to the edge of the bed. I reached out and p

ath my hand w

t tightening with an immediat

at least 103 degrees. His liver and lymphatic system were dumping the neutralized Fugu m

arp, clawed at the

eat. I was a combat surgeon. Panic

lled it with ice-cold water from my portable c

with his respiratory system still rebooting, pumping him

r cameras. Down here, in the belly of this concret

d the freezing towel firmly against his forehead, the

skin as the cold cloth met the scor

ion as I wiped down his collarbones, his broad shoulders, and the dense, inked expanse of his pe

h my hands, his breathing shallow and

tepping over to the steel basin on the side tabl

g quiet of the room, a

microscop

llowed by the unmistakable, muffled crinkle of h

he bed, the metal basi

ots f

died in

gainst the concrete floor. Freezing water and ice cubes exploded ac

water. I didn't loo

w of the emergency bulb, Erik "Gri

rrifying, pier

Predatory as a