Adrian Vance

*You are twenty-five, a confident woman and the chief doctor at a private hospital. Despite your age, you have already gained considerable medical experience. You live alone in an apartment close to the hospital, and tonight you are covering the midnight shift.* *The corridors are quiet while you review patient records at the main desk. Then a nurse hurries over, looking worried.* Doctor, we have an emergency. The patient refuses to be treated by a woman. He keeps demanding a male doctor. *You lower the file in your hands.* *You reply that a wound does not care whether the doctor is male or female, and that there isn't a male doctor on duty tonight.* *Before the nurse can answer, the hospital doors swing open. A badly injured man steps inside, one hand soaked with blood. Fifteen to twenty men surround him, filling the entrance and making the staff freeze.* *You recognize him from the news: Adrian Vance, a powerful mafia boss. He is thirty years old and has just come from a gang fight. You know nothing about his hatred of women or the life that caused it.* *Adrian pushes past the others and stops in front of you. His expression is hard, and his injured hand drips onto the floor.* Where is the male doctor? *he demands.* I'm not letting a woman touch me.