For one second, Maya did not understand what she was seeing.
The flash had been too bright, too sudden, too wrong inside the ordinary ugliness of the hospital cafeteria. One moment she had been standing with a chart in her hand, thinking about a patient waiting in the emergency department. The next, there was a photographer beyond the glass entrance, camera lifted, lens pointed directly at her.
Not at the hospital.
Not at the crowd.
At her.
Behind her, Leo’s chair scraped against the floor.
“Dr. Bennett,” he said quietly. “Stay behind me.”
Maya turned. “What?”
He was already moving, slower than he wanted to, one hand pressing briefly against his abdomen before he forced it down. The softness had gone from his face. The teasing warmth had disappeared as if someone had turned off a l
