Rescue Me Read Free

surgeon inAmerica , are you not?"
    Beth still blocked the shot. For Christ sake, don'ttell him who you are , Sam thought, wishing to hell telepathy was of one of his skill sets.
    "I'd be more receptive to your request if you'd made an appointment," Beth said coolly, and Sam breathed a silent sigh of relief. Smart girl. He shouldn't have underestimated her.
    Thadiweclicked his beefy fingers, and one of his men handed him a large manila envelope. He rooted around inside to find what he wanted, then handed her several photographs. "This is what I want my new face to look like."
    She glanced at the pictures, her ponytail brushing the pink, blood-speckled, collar of her shirt, then said smoothly, "I can't perform surgery without extensive lab tests, X-rays—"
    "The lab tests were done last week, as were these X-rays and photographs." He handed her the envelope. "Everything you need is here."
    Her ponytail jerked as she looked up atThadiwe . "Surely you don't expect me to do it now ?"
    "I wouldn't have brought you here otherwise."
    "But this type of surgery has to be done in stages. Over several months, surely you k—" Clearly he wasn't aware of how long the procedure took. "As you can see, I have a deep cut on my dominant hand," she told him calmly, holding out her injured hand. Beth was left-handed, not right. But she was playing every card she had. "Obviously performing any type of surgery now is impossible."
    "Yet you will manage, Dr. Randall, or I will not hesitate to kill you."
    Beth blinked and curled her injured hand toward her body.Thadiwe moved closer, and Sam's finger rested against the trigger, in case the son of a bitch made a wrong move. "I can't."
    "You can,"Thadiwe slowly ran his finger over the creased frown in Beth's forehead. "And you will. Your husband leaves for work at 6:15. He drops your baby off at Apple Tree Day Care I have your mother's
    home address inHollywood , your brother's too—congratulations on his wife's pregnancy. And your grandfather, well, it would be a shame if anything happened to him at the nursing home—In other words, Doctor Randall, if you fail to cooperate fully, I will have your entire family slaughtered by morning. All it will take is one phone call."
    Sam's mouth tightened. Even though this wasn't Beth's familyThadiwe was threatening, it was Lynne Randall's—a doctor who was guilty of no more than being the best in her field. Beth's friend.
    "Leave my family out of this. All right. You give me no choice. Your surgery will take upwards of twenty hours." She pulled out some of the paperwork, then took a moment to scan the information.
    "You have high blood pressure." She glanced up atThadiwe . "I appreciate your state-of-the-art OR, but what happens in the event of an emergency that I can't handle alone? We're in the middle of the jungle, hundreds of miles from anywhere." Her hand was leaving blood stains on the manila envelope, and it made Sam crazy to see her hurt when he was right there and should have been able to protect her. Even from herself.
    "There are dozens of factors to consider. A reaction to theanesthetic . Clotting issues that could cause excessive blood loss. Underlying, undiagnosed pre-existing conditions. Even though you've been treating your high blood pressure, there's still a possibility that you'd stroke out from the stress such a complex medical procedure will put on your body. Especially since you insist on having several procedures done at once. It's risky. Very risky."
    Sam's estimation of herb.s . ability went up. The type of surgeryThadiwe wanted would take half a dozen procedures over the span of several months, not hours. Beth was playing along, and buying time.
    "How close is the nearest hospital with well-trained emergency room staff and a competent cardiologist?" she asked calmly as she flipped throughThadiwe's paperwork.
    "An hour by helicopter. You'd better not make any mistakes, Doctor Randall. If anything goes wrong, if I should come to any harm