THE HOURS BETWEEN

In the fragile hours between life and death, a night-shift ER nurse and the trauma surgeon who is not supposed to want her begin stealing time that could cost them everything.Lila Ortega has built a careful life in the dark: exhausting night shifts, a six-year-old son, and the rigid boundaries required to keep custody of him. She does not have room for complications.Dr. Grant Mercer arrives on the night shift carrying his own carefully managed silences. He is not looking for anything that cannot be left at the hospital doors.Then a shared trauma bay, a stolen cup of coffee, and the quiet that only exists at 3 a.m. begin to erode every professional line.What starts as reluctant respect becomes something neither of them can afford. A custody battle, a medical board investigation, and the secrets they have both been keeping threaten to destroy the only fragile peace they have found.Some hours are not supposed to belong to anyone. They take them anyway.