Joslin wanted to work days, but there were no open positions. She got it and poor Gertrude got bumped down to nights.
I was fairly sure that Joslin had the ER director by the cock, but I wasn’t going to say that.
I also knew for a fact that she was fucking at least three of the doctors in the ER. Not that I’d ever say a word to the three of them when they thought they were being so discreet about it.
“Yeah, well I’m leaving anyway, so it doesn’t matter what the problem is. Have a good day,” Michael said and stepped around the still hissing woman.
“Don’t you walk away from me!” Joslin hissed. “Why is it so hard for you to face your problems? Always running away, using your sickness as an excuse.”
Michael froze and turned.
“Do not,” he said menacingly. “And I repeat, do not, say another fucking word, or I’ll have my lawyer drawing up a defamation suit against you so fast you can’t even run to one of your fuck buddy doctor friends for support. Trust me on this, Joslin. You don’t want what I got.”
With that, he stalked out the door, and for once Joslin had no comeback.
Bennett followed behind him shortly after, and it was only when I turned to throw wide eyes at Melissa that I saw Nikki in the corner, looking like her heart had been torn out.
Melissa watched me watch Nikki, and I was surprised when she said, “Nikki’s in love with someone. I guess now we know who.”
Yeah, I guess now we did.
Nikki was a phlebotomist.
She’d been working in the ER as long as I’d been there, and in the time I’d known her, she’d become a really good friend.
Although I didn’t see her as much as I would’ve liked, I still counted her as one of the friends I could rely on if I needed her.
And I’d known she’d fallen for someone.
I could tell almost two years ago when it’d happened.
Yet she’d clammed up and hadn’t said a word about it ever since.
Leaving all of us to wonder just what exactly had transpired.
Turning back to Melissa, I inadvertently stepped out past my computer, effectively running into Joslin as I went.
“Watch where you’re going, heifer,” Joslin snapped, glaring at me as she passed.
I wanted to pick up the chart that was next to my hand and whack her upside the head with it, but I refrained.
Barely.
Instead, I turned to Melissa as I’d previously intended to do, and said, “We need to get her out for a girl’s night. Get her to talk.”
Melissa nodded sagely. “Yes, yes I think we do.”
Four and a half hours later, exhausted and tired, I walked out the sliding doors of the medical center and was grateful to see Bennett leaning against his truck waiting for me in the fire lane.
“Hey,” I said, walking up to him and practically dropping against his chest.
He let out a small oomph and wrapped his arms around my shoulders.
“What’s going on, Nox?” He asked softly against my hair
I smiled up at him for using that weird nickname and sighed as I pushed away from him.
“Joslin Downs, that’s what,” I growled, crossing my arms across my chest.
“What? Why?” Bennett asked.
I lifted my lip in a silent snarl.
“I accidentally bumped into her just after y’all left and pissed her off. Or maybe I was just a convenient scapegoat. Whatever the case, she blamed me for everything that went wrong today, and then some,” I growled.
“Yeah, she’s a real piece of work, that one,” Bennett admitted. “Michael had some real colorful things to say about her as we drove back to the station today after seeing y’all.”
I could imagine.
The woman was the devil, and I pitied the man who ever had to deal with her shit.
Past, present, or future.
“Does she have a golden vagina or something?” I asked in all seriousness. “Because she’s always been the way she is right now. Never once has she changed. She treats everyone like shit, and not one of the doctors I know she’s sleeping with cares. They all know how she acts. I’m not sure that they know she’s sleeping with three of them, but still.”
Bennett shrugged and pushed himself off the truck he was leaning against, then opened the door for me.
I was surprised to see Reagan in there.
She was, however, sleeping.
“Did you wear her out?” I asked Bennett.
He smiled. “I think she’s in a food coma. I came home to her, Payton and Harleigh finishing off all the pancakes and cinnamon rolls,” he said dryly.
I smiled.
“That was fun. I really like cooking, but it never seems to be worth it to do it for just me. There’s no way I could keep fitting in my pants if I did that,” I admitted laughingly.
He winked.
“Hop in, princess,” he said, sweeping his hand out in an exuberant fashion.
I did.
Softly, so as not to wake her, I slid inside Bennett’s single cab truck and shut the door as quietly as I could.
“You really need to get a bigger truck,” I mused.
Bennett slammed his door, hard, before looking in my direction.
“What for?” he asked.
I pointed at Reagan who was practically sprawled all over him.
“She really shouldn’t be in the front seat until she’s bigger. Not to mention it’d save you from that,” I said softly.
He shifted his truck into reverse, carefully avoiding Reagan’s legs, and said, “I have what I can afford. And for right now, it’s this.”
I remained silent about that, sensing a sore subject when I heard one.
Chapter 10
A gentleman doesn’t participate in locker room talk. All he needs to do is fuck her hard enough that she screams loud enough that everyone can hear it. Different route, same outcome.
-Note to self
Lennox
“I think I might’ve underdressed,” Bennett said softly.
I moved my eyes from the dashboard where I was changing the station on the radio to see my parents standing in the opened front door.
I tried to see it from his point of view.
He must be looking up at the large home, and the two impeccably dressed people standing on the front porch.
“They’re very down to earth,” I told him. “They came from nothing and instilled that in their children. I know how to work for what I want, and I still have a humongous amount of student loan debt that I need to pay off.”
He blinked, turning to me with a crease on his brow.
“They didn’t pay for your tuition?” he asked in surprise.
I shook my head. “No. They felt it showed ‘responsibility.’ And that it would be better for me, in the long run, to understand how money worked, and how it didn’t grow on trees.”
“Hmmm,” he grunted.
As soon as he pulled up behind my dad’s BMW, he turned the truck off and started to rouse Reagan.
Knowing it’d take a few minutes, I hopped out of the truck, closed the door softly, and walked up to my parents.
My mother, always with a smile on her face, walked out from under my father’s arm, straight to me.
She hit me like a mini wrecking ball, gathering me into her arms and kissing me.
“How’d your shift go, Lennie?” she asked softly.
I leaned back and smiled at her. “Good. Long.”
She smiled and patted my cheek. “Welcome to the world of medicine.”
I snorted and turned when my dad made it to our sides, walking into his open arms and locking my hands behind his back.
“You didn’t tell me your man had a child,” he muttered into my hair.
I shrugged. “Does it matter?”
He shook his head. “No. But I would just think it’s something you’d mention when you saw me this after
noon and told me all about him.”
I snorted. “I’m sorry. You caught me at a bad time.”
And he had.
He’d caught me just as Joslin Downs had accidentally spilled her glass of tea all over my keyboard and charting I was doing.
“I was nice enough to get you some new scrubs. Wasn’t I?” he teased, letting me go to offer his hand to the man who was now standing at my back.
“Brock Jane,” my father said.
Bennett took his offered hand and shook it.
“Bennett Alvarez, sir. It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Jane,” Bennett said.
My dad’s smile was genuine as he said, “Call me Brock.”
Bennett nodded. “Brock. This is my daughter, Reagan Rose Alvarez.”
My dad looked down at Reagan and offered his hand to her, too.
“Ms. Alvarez,” he said formally.
Reagan smiled. “Dr. Jane.”
My dad’s eyebrows rose. “Call me Brock.”
Reagan nodded solemnly. “Yes, sir.”
Manners! Holy moly! If this girl could charm the pants off of my dad, she would forever hold his heart.
It’s also why I could get anything I wanted from my father, if I had a mind to ask for it.
“Are y’all going to eat anytime soon? I’m starving!” my sister whined from the doorway.
I looked up to find Emily, my baby sister, standing there with a frown on her face.
Emily was a seventeen-year-old girl who I loved with all of my heart. But she was a pain in the ass and thought she could get everything handed to her if she whined loud enough.
Something my parents never allowed me to do, but since Emily was the baby, she got to act like that without consequence.
“My sister, Emily,” I muttered to the two people at my side.
Bennett cataloged all of her in two point five seconds.
“Doesn’t she look… charming,” Bennett finally settled with.
I laughed.
Emily was into the whole ‘emo’ thing.
She liked to wear dark clothes. Her hair was black. And I was fairly sure she made herself look pale on purpose.
I was, however, fond of the fishnet stockings.
I still couldn’t believe that my parents allowed her to dress that way.
But they did.
“Daddy, you told me I wasn’t allowed to paint my fingernails black because they didn’t make that color. You lied,” Reagan said accusingly, looking up at Bennett with an accusatory look.
Bennett shrugged. “Must be something new.”
I held in the laugh that threatened to burst free from my lips and took Reagan’s hand. “Come on, let’s go inside.”
She followed dutifully, not a hint of sleep clung to her, surprising me.
“This is a big house,” Reagan said as we passed over the threshold.
“It’s a monstrosity,” Emily muttered. “I hate it.”
I rolled my eyes.
Emily hated everything.
“It’s not a monstrosity,” my mother chastised Emily gently. “It’s got character, and I love it.”
“I don’t know why you had to get something so big. I won’t be here much longer, and then you’ll have an empty nest with no little birdies to fill it,” Emily said snottily.
Apparently, Emily was in one of her snits.
The kind where she thought everyone was out to get her and make her life a living hell.
“I got this place because it was in a good neighborhood, and there was a pool and lots of rooms for little grandchildren to play,” my mother said pointedly, looking in my direction.
Which in turn was also in Bennett’s direction.
Bennett’s hand squeezed my waist gently at that comment, and I about died of embarrassment.
“Mom,” I said, shaking my head. “I just met the man. How about we wait a few weeks before we name our future kids?”
My dad laughed. “Honey, hate to break it to you, but your mom’s been planning for grandchildren since that little boy told us he was marrying you in the eighth grade.”
I scrunched up my nose. “Dad that was Davey Johnston. And he threw dirt in my eyes and called me a wiener.”
My mother grabbed Reagan’s hand just as she said, “I had a boy call me fugly.”
We all blinked.
“Who called you that?” Bennett barked.
“A boy on the playground. I kicked him in the shin, and took his place on the merry-go-round, though, so it was all alright,” she said, following my mother into the kitchen.
We all followed to the one place in the house where we always seemed to gather.
My mom taught me all that she knew when it came to cooking.
All the recipes were hers, and I had her to thank for all of my kitchen utensils.
You always have to have the right stuff, Lennie baby. Without the right stuff, you can’t make perfection.
I smiled at my mother’s words and went to the fridge.
“Beer, wine or Kool-Aid?” I asked Bennett.
“Kool-Aid, please. I’m on call tonight,” he answered immediately.
“I want Kool-Aid, too,” Reagan chirped from her seat beside her father.
I smiled and pulled down one of the cups my mother had for my brother’s children.
“Olaf or Anna?” I asked her, holding up the cups.
She pointed at Anna, and I shook my head.
I shouldn’t have even asked.
I filled three glasses and took them all to the table while my mom pulled her world-famous lasagna out of the oven and placed it in the middle of the table.
I didn’t really know if it was ‘world-famous,’ but I kind of felt like it should be.
It really was the bomb, and my mother never failed to make it delicious in all the times I’d had it over the years. In fact, it kept getting better and better.
“What am I, chopped liver?” Emily asked, annoyed when she didn’t see a drink for herself.
“Emily,” I said in annoyance. “I have two hands. You have two hands. Really, it would’ve made more sense had you helped me carry one of those, instead of sitting down expecting someone to get your glass for you.”
Reagan snickered beside me, looking down at her empty plate in front of her.
Bennett looked up at the ceiling, studying the chandelier above the table.
“I’m sorry, Bennett and Reagan, but my children have no manners at times. When their brother gets in on the mix, which is something I’m sure you’ll find out soon, they can’t be stopped. Be happy you only have one child,” my father said amusedly.
Bennett snorted. “I have a sister of my own. There’s been no slapping yet, so I call this a good dinner so far. Something that most assuredly would’ve happened had we been at my parent’s place with my sister.”
My father smiled. “Well, in that case, let’s enjoy dinner. My pretty girl made some good food and has been teasing me with the lovely aroma since this afternoon.”
My mother blushed.
“Oh, Brock. You say the sweetest things,” my mother said, stopping behind his chair to give him a kiss on the cheek.
“Gag me,” Emily choked.
And for once, I seemed to agree with her.
***
Bennett
“Can you tell me about Lennox’s stalker?” I asked as we watched from the bar area as Lennox, Lucinda, and Reagan cut cookies with their cookie cutters.
Brock growled low in his throat.
“She’s been following my girl around for going on five years. It’s amazing to me that one woman can hold such a grudge over a man trying to get a date from her. Lennox was nothing more than a passing fancy to that man and has paid the price ever since.” Brock shook his head. “I can’t tell you much, except that I don’t know much. Lennox has, in some way, shape, or form, had to move because of that psycho four times in the last five years. It never fails that
she seems to find her, either.”
“I’ve noticed that myself,” I informed him. “And I think she has some sort of inside person that’s getting the information for her. Lennox is unlisted in all the phonebooks, and she has no home phone. She’s registered with the DMV, of course, which means she’s in the police database. However, that information is confidential and in all actuality, quite hard to get to.”
“Those aren’t the only places that would have her name, phone number, and addresses on file. The place she banks at, her doctor’s office, hell, even her employer, all have that information,” Brock supplied.
I nodded. “That I know. What we have to do is just figure out the source. How she’s getting that information. I have a guy I’m close to running the information for me as we speak. He started sometime this afternoon and should get back to me by tomorrow morning.”
Brock nodded. “If there’s anything I can provide you with, please let me know. I’m well and truly disturbed that this is happening to my daughter, and I’m tired of seeing her eyes filled with fear.”
I one-hundred percent agreed with that.
“I’ll find something,” I told him honestly. “Nobody’s that good. She’ll screw up, and when she does, I’ll find her.”
He sighed. “I’ve shelled out quite a bit of money to this PI I’ve found, yet he says there’s nothing to find. You’ve given me more hope in the last ten minutes than I’ve had from him in five years.”
I truly felt honored that he’d say that.
Well and truly honored.
Offering him my hand, I said, “Now just to convince her that she’s staying with me until we figure this out.”
Brock laughed.
Guffawed, actually.
Bringing the female attention in the kitchen with it.
Lucinda and Lennox were smiling happily, and Reagan was contemplating.
I knew she was confused, as well as hopeful.
She’d met some of my dates before, but never before had we spent as much time with them as we had with Lennox.
She’d never met their parents, and she’d never had them spend the night with me and been aware of it.
Lennox had met all my friends. My sister. My child.
And would meet my parents this weekend.
Code 11- KPD SWAT Box Set Page 113