The Doctor's Guardian
He first saw Dr. Nika Pulaski hyperventilating in a trapped elevator. Ever the rescuer, Detective Cole Baker felt an instant protectiveness…and sizzling want. Her cheerfulness, not to mention her killer looks, had him reconsidering his loner status. But he couldn't trust her, the prime suspect in a rash of hospital deaths.Who was Nika Pulaski? She outlasted her colleagues at the hospital and spent every minute caring for others. But patients were dying. With every tear she shed, Cole couldn't mask his own emotions, this pull toward a potentially dangerous woman. He raced to find the killer stalking Nika's patients, even if it was the woman he loved. Was she an optimistic healer or a sociopath?
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âIâd like to come up,â he told her quietly once he turned off the ignition.
She realized that it was more a question than a statement.
Nika made her choiceâas if she could say anything else. âIâd like that.â
Damn? what was he doing, Cole silently demanded, bewildered. He was asking for trouble, for complications, for things he had no time for and didnât want. Complications that inevitably aroused feelings.
And yetâ¦
And yet there was something about her, something that made him feel alive, that connected him to a world heâd long since walked away from.
Heâd forgotten he could actually feel anything.
Heâd voluntarily been on the outside for so long, heâd come to believe that was where he belonged. Beyond that, he lived and breathed in a rarified zone that allowed his heart to function, to beat and oversee blood being directed to all his vital organs. But feel? His heart wasnât capable of doing that.
At least, it couldnât before.
Now, he wasnât so sure.
And a large part of him resisted things changing, resisted finding out that his heart could do anything beyond beat.
But the temptation of Nikaâs mouth drove his resolutions out of his head, propelling them into a zone that was packed away out of the light of day, a darkened no-manâs-land.
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Dear Reader,
Here we are revisiting that excellent New York City hospital, Patience Memorial, and its evergrowing Doctors Pulaski. Itâs Veronikaâs turn to find love amid the prescription pads. Nika first meets Detective Cole Baker when he rescues her from a trapped elevator. But his motives are not as noble, since she is Cole Bakerâs ailing grandmotherâs physician.
Their paths cross again when Cole is sent to investigate allegations that an Angel of Death is âhelpingâ senior-citizen patients breathe their last breath. As fate would have it, the first suspect he needs to clear is Nika. What he doesnât count on is that the soft-spoken, blue-eyed geriatrics specialist finds a chink in the armor he has around his soul and burrows her way in, making him realize that isolating himself is not the best way to go through life.
I hope that you find this latest installment of The Doctors Pulaski enjoyable. If you do and have missed any of the other stories, there are six other books awaiting your reading pleasure.
As ever, I thank you for reading and, from the bottom of my heart, I wish you someone to love who loves you back.
Love,
Marie Ferrarella
MARIE FERRARELLA
This USA TODAY bestselling and RITA>® Awardâwinning author has written more than two hundred books for Harlequin Books and Silhouette Books, some under the name Marie Nicole. Her romances are beloved by fans worldwide. Visit her website at www.marieferrarella.com.
To Kathleen Creighton,
with deepest sympathies. The heart recovers, even when we donât want it to.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Epilogue
Chapter 1
She didnât have time for this.
Doctorâshe adored the sound of thatâVeronika Pulaski, âNikaâ to her family and friends, was one of those people whoâd been born making lists. Tons of lists. Different lists that were applicable to nearly every aspect of her incredibly fast-paced life. Long lists that helped keep her on track.
Nowhere, not even remotely, on todayâs extra long list was the entry: get stuck in the hospital elevator this morning.
Yet here she was.
Stuck.
And getting more frustrated by the minute.
There hadnât been anyone riding up with her when the elevator carâwhich was definitely in need of renovationsâhad come to an abrupt, teeth-jarring halt in between floors. Consequently, there was no one to talk to, no one to help take her mind off the predicament, at least for a few minutes. There wasnât even annoyingly distracting piped-in music that her cousins had told her there once had been.
Nothing but the ticking of the clock in her head as it waved goodbye to the minutes that were tumbling away one by one. Minutes that she was supposed to be spending in the Geriatrics Unit.
This was actually supposed to be her day off. Her first day off in a little more than two incredibly busy, exhausting weeks. But she had opted to come in. No good deed went unpunished, she thought as she stood there, willing the elevator back to life. It remained frozen in place.
So much for a career in telekinesis.
The hospitalâs Pediatric and Geriatric Units were desperately short staffed. They were that way not because the missing staff members were sick, but because they could potentially be sick.
The problem was a new strain of flu that was currently making the rounds, a particularly resilient strain that had already taken quite a toll on the population since its appearance on the scene nearly a month ago, cutting down far more people than was usual in these cases. The vaccine that had been created to prevent it had only met with marginal success. And, as usual, the very young and the very old were particularly susceptible to the illness.
