Heart Murmurs Read Online Free Page A

day.” Theresa Lincoln, the best damn CT surgeon in the city, was enough of a professional that she didn’t bat an eye when he cornered her in one of the observation rooms. There was no recrimination in her voice. She spared as little consideration for stray emotion as she did for her hair, which she kept tamed in a severe bun. “Is there something I should be concerned about? Is Dr. Gupta’s work in question?”
    “No. Never!” he was swift to assure. A doctor’s career could end merely on the suspicion of sub-par care. “It’s nothing, Teri. I just wanted to follow up on a consult from last week.”
    Dr. Lincoln didn’t buy that, of course. A Johns Hopkins grad with a PhD, she hadn’t been born yesterday. But all she did was nod, dismissively. “If she’s not at that bar down the street, you’ll find her at the Barracks on 7th Street. I believe she, and a few other residents, have apartments there.”
    The Barracks was slang for an old apartment building called the Baron, built in the 1950s. Stark, almost military in its efficiency, it was perfect housing for anyone who did nothing in its rooms but sleep and maybe heat up a can of soup. Vince knew of it even though he’d never been there. It was an easy, fifteen-minute walk. Easy in every way except mentally.
    What did one sayto a woman who ran from their bed after a bout of phenomenal sex? Vince had never, ever been in this position before. He’d never had to be the pursuer, tracking someone down for answers and pleading for a second chance. Even when he and Debra had broken up, he’d just accepted it and closed the case file rather than dwelling on all the maudlin might-have-beens. Anushka was uncharted territory, territory that he’d mapped to the best of his ability in the darkness of his bedroom, memorizing the taste of her and exploring the wild terrain of her body.
    Are you insane, or just so used to getting your own way that you don’t give a damn what anyone thinks?
    Both. Most definitely both. Because he stalked through her apartment building with purpose, recognizing and then ignoring a few interns along the way. When he came to her door, he didn’t bother with a pleasant tap or a gentle ring of the doorbell. No, he pounded on it, until he heard the fumbling of locks and the knob on the other side, and it was swinging open to reveal one very exhausted and cranky-looking future cardiologist.
    Wearing flannel pajama pants and a faded Penn State T-shirt, without a trace of makeup on, and looking ready to kill him, Anu was still one of the most compelling things he’d ever laid eyes upon. “What?” she demanded. “What do you want?”
    “What do you think I want?” He shouldered past her, into the small apartment, which could easily fit, in its entirety, in his living room. “To check your bedpost for a fresh notch.”
    “That’s not fair. I don’t deserve that from you.” She flinched, shutting the door behind him and flattening herself against it. Like she needed it to hold her up.
    He would’ve held her until sunrise. Gladly. “I don’t know what you deserve, Anu. I don’t know anything about you, because you didn’t stick around long enough for me to discover it.”
    “As if you’re not used to that?” She came away from the door then, skirting past him and keeping a battered plaid couch between them like a force field. “What would’ve been the point, Dr. McHenry? You’re you, and I’m me. We have no long-term potential whatsoever, so why not file it away as what it was: a good time that doesn’t need to be repeated.”
    He wanted to kneel and look for his jaw where it had hit the floor. “Jesus. Is that what you think? Do you really think I’m not capable of a deeper commitment?” It certainly wouldn’t be the first time he’d been accused of it, but he usually deserved the suspicion. This…this was something else. “Is it just how you’re determined to live: for nothing but the work and the occasional