IMPACT

New York, 10:17 p.m. — Lenox Hill Hospital ER

Hope Jones shot through the corridors like an arrow, her white coat flying open over surgical scrubs, her long brown hair braided tight and snapping against her neck. At twenty-six, she was already a prodigy: ER doctor, brilliant, uncompromising, almost ice-cold. Her glacial blue eyes shut down any attempt at familiarity.

Blood no longer fazed her. Nor screams. Nor death.

But tonight, something was about to change.

A trauma alert had just come in. Shooting. Multiple victims. A slaughter. Again.

Hope stepped into the operating room without a tremor. The team was already in place, a young man in critical condition on the table. She assessed him in two seconds flat: perforated chest, massive hemorrhage. Absolute priority. She moved fast, impassive, when the door opened again.

And he walked in.

Alessandro Romano.

She didn’t know his name. Not yet. But the moment he crossed the threshold, time seemed to contract. A perfectly tailored black suit, a powerful frame, hypnotic brown eyes that read people like pages too simple to bother with.

He bore no wounds. But his hands were covered in blood—the blood of the man they were trying to save.

He moved closer, slowly, as if he controlled even the air around him. Then, calmly:

— He dies, you lose him… and I’ll have this hospital shut down.

Hope didn’t look up.

— Then you’ll have to kill me too.

Her voice was clear, cold, snapping through the room.

The team froze. The atmosphere went electric. But Alessandro didn’t flinch.

He watched her. Long. Like a predator intrigued by a prey that refuses to bow.

— Do you know who I am?

She finally raised her eyes to him. Straight. Unyielding.

— No. And I don’t care.

A pause. Then a smile. Slight. Almost dangerous.

— That’s a first.

She turned back without a word and kept operating, the patient’s heart beating faintly beneath her hands. While she worked, she felt his stare burning into the back of her neck. He said nothing else. But he was there. Powerful. Uncontrollable.

He didn’t move closer. But he didn’t leave.

When she was done, when the patient was finally stabilized, she stripped off her gloves with a snap and turned around. He was still there, leaning against the wall, arms crossed, eyes locked on her.

The silence between them was taut. Charged.

— Who are you? she asked.

He stepped closer, slowly, until he was less than a yard away.

— The one no one dares to cross.

She didn’t move. She held his gaze.

— Then you just had your first crossing. Congratulations.

A breath of laughter brushed his lips.

He looked at her with something new in his eyes. Not contempt. Not anger. Desire. Raw. Immediate. Dangerous.

— You… you’re going to drive me crazy.

She arched a cold eyebrow.

— You’re already screwed if you think that’s going to work.

He leaned in just enough for his breath to graze her cheek.

— We’ll see, dottoressa.

And he left.

But she stayed frozen, tense, her heart beating too hard for someone who never feels anything.

Something had just been set in motion.

A game of fire from which no one would walk away unscathed.