From Venice With Love Read Free

stretcher that now carried the still-unconscious man into the ambulance, but that was also the direction in which the woman was going. She was still looking for something, her head bent as she peered around people, and suddenly Nico spotted what she was after. A black laptop case, propped against the wooden piling the ambulance launch had been tied up to.
    He could get to it first. She’d have to stop and talk to him then and he could thank her. Get her address, maybe, and then follow up on the patient and let her know the outcome. With a determined effort Nico stepped in front of a man and reached for The case. He had it in his hand when someone bumped into him from behind with such force that his hand simply opened. The case fell, bounced on the cobbles and fell again, in a graceful arc, to land in the canal. For a second or two it floated on the surface. And then it sank.
    Charlotte watched the laptop case disappear under the murky water of the canal, its disappearance hastened by the wash of the ambulance as it took off with its beacons flashing and siren sounding.
    If she took her shoes and jacket off…
    Good grief…was she actually considering diving in to try and retrieve it before it sank too far?
    The downward glance towards her shoes had hammered home the reality of what was happening. Straightening and dusting off her skirt after she’d got to her feet hadn’t cured the creases and streaks of grime. Her tights were shredded and one knee was grazed enough for a trickle of blood to be obvious.
    Her armour had been dented.
    But worse than that—far, far worse than that—her shield had been ripped away from her and destroyed.
    ‘Oh…my…God…’ Charlotte had about a heartbeat before she knew the fear would try and kick in.
    The man was turning towards her, clearly appalled at what had just happened.
    She couldn’t let him see her fear. Couldn’t let anybody see it because if they did it would become real. It would take over and she would be sucked back into that place where she was utterly powerless. Where she became nobody.
    It wasn’t going to happen. Charlotte fought back, gathering fury as if it could repair the amour. Replace the shield.
    ‘You
idiot,’
she snapped. ‘Have you
any
idea what you’ve just done?’
    The dark eyes widened, startled by her ferocity.
    ‘I’m so sorry,’ he said. But the apology in his eyes was being replaced by something more like astonishment. Anger, even, at being attacked for something that had clearly been an accident.
    Charlotte knew that. She’d seen the person behind being pushed and stumbling, only prevented from fallingby the safety barrier this man’s back had provided. It didn’t help, though, knowing that the action had not been deliberate. How could it, when the effect was the same?
    ‘That laptop has my presentation on it,’ Charlotte snapped. ‘The presentation I’m supposed to be delivering to an international symposium in…’ She jerked her gaze to her wrist. ‘In exactly
ten
minutes.’
    His face was changing again, along with the expression in his eyes. He was putting pieces of a puzzle together with the same kind of swiftness that had been obvious when they had become a team, working in sync to try and save the life of the unfortunate man who’d fallen from the scaffolding in the wake of his cardiac arrest.
    They weren’t a team now. They were on different sides of a battle and Charlotte felt as if she was fighting for her life. He couldn’t possibly understand how important this was to her but he obviously knew more than she would have expected.
    ‘Not by any chance the symposium on critical interventions in the emergency department? Being held at the Bonvecchiata hotel?’
    ‘Yes. I’m Dr Charlotte Highton. Due to open the symposium in…’ Charlotte had to swallow hard ‘…
eight
minutes.’
    ‘
You’re
Charlotte Highton?’
    ‘Yes.’ Charlotte glared at the stranger, who was looking at her as if he’d seen a ghost. As