The sterile, humming silence of the hallway stretched behind Linsy, a cold corridor separating her from the tempest she’d just left. She took a few shaky steps toward the nurses' station, intending to return to her room, her mind a whirlpool of bloody images and Michael’s torn expression.

Then she saw him.

Michael stood with his back to her further down the hall, just outside the neurosurgical ICU viewing area. His phone was pressed to his ear, his posture radiating a tense, focused energy ...