by B. B. Hamel
“I want to be reinstated,” I said. “I want you to resign. I want the hospital to take on my case against the Tippett family, and I want them to win it. And I want a big, fat cash settlement, half of which will go to Lori.”
Caroline let out a strange, choking sound. Everyone in the room stared at me like I’d gone insane, especially Lori.
“What are you talking about?” Lori asked. “Half to me?”
“Call it emotional damages,” I said.
“Piers, that’s insane.” Her mouth hung open. “You can’t be serious.”
I glanced over at Rees, and he looked up from his phone for the briefest of moments—and I saw a little smile, just for an instant. He knew what I was doing, and we didn’t need to talk about it. Lori’s mother wanted her taken care of, then I’ll take care of her. I’ll make sure she’s financially settled, and I’ll give her the best surgical training in the world.
And then I’ll marry her, if all goes to plan.
“This is all highly irregular,” Ms. Lumber said. “I don’t think that we can simply give you money.”
“You can,” I said. “Or else I’ll sue the fuck out of you, and I will win in court. You heard that recording, and you can read those documents. Caroline screwed you, and the hospital’s liable. You want to avoid a huge scandal, and a bigger payout? Write me a fat check, fire Caroline, and let me get back to work.”
Caroline pushed back from the table. “This is insane,” she said, her voice shaking. “You’re lying. He’s lying, of course. I wouldn’t— I couldn’t— make something up?” She laughed, her tone getting high-pitched and manic. She took a step toward the door. “You can’t be serious.”
“Caroline,” I said. “It’s done. There’s no reason to keep fighting. Give me what I want.”
“You want to ruin me,” she said. “You want to get me fired. And for what? For some horrible lie? It’s all a lie.”
Ms. Lumber rubbed at her face. “I’m sorry, guys, I need to talk with my client in private for a while. Thanks for coming out here, we’ll take this under advisement.”
“Do that,” I said. “And do it fast. I’ll give you a day before we file the paperwork with the courts.”
“That’ll be fine,” Ms. Lumber said.
“No,” Caroline hissed. “God, no. This is bullshit. He’s lying, can’t you all see that? It’s fake, I’ve been set up. I’ve been set up!” She lunged across Ms. Lumber and grabbed the tablet, ripping it from Mr. Hammond’s grasp. He grunted in surprise as she turned away and threw the tablet as hard as she could at the glass wall.
It shattered in a rain of glittering shards.
Caroline screamed. Everyone flinched away from the mayhem. Rees seemed to be paying attention—and seemed to be loving it. Lori moved toward me, and I turned her away from the destruction. Caroline stomped forward, glass crunching, cursing, screaming. She found the tablet and cut herself on the jagged edges as she retrieved it. Blood flowed wildly, dripping down her arms.
“It’s a lie,” she repeated, and stepped through the broken glass wall, and out into the hallway.
Silence fell again.
“That was incredible,” Rees said, sounding delighted. “I knew this would be fun, but that was unbelievable.” He laughed and looked over at Ms. Lumber, who seemed too shocked to do anything. “I assume we’ll have your settlement proposal in hand by tomorrow. Please don’t be stupid. Make it a good one.”
“Of course,” she whispered.
Rees pushed back and stood. His lawyers did the same, both of them glancing around like a bomb just went off. “It’s been a pleasure,” he said. “Lori, Piers, good luck with all this.” He laughed again, shaking his head, and went out after Caroline, stepping through the glass. His lawyers went after him, scuttling along like crabs.
I stared at the blood on the carpet, then looked over at Ms. Lumber. “Someone should find her,” I said. “Get her hand stitched.”
“I’ll get someone,” she said, standing. She seemed to gather herself a bit. She was a pretty woman, in her forties, and having a task seemed to steady her.
“And obviously someone has to clean all this up.” I gestured at the glass.
“Right, of course.” She grabbed her things and went to leave, but hesitated. “Dr. Hood, I’m sorry about all this. I genuinely had no clue what Caroline was doing.”
“I know that,” I said. “Do me a favor and make the hospital pay.”
She smiled slightly, nodded once, and left.
I turned to Lori, who stared at me with an open mouth. I grinned huge and took her hands between mine. “That was perfect,” I said.
“Are you kidding me? That was horrifying.”
“But it couldn’t have gone any better. I mean, Caroline losing it like that? And the lawyer here to see the whole thing go down? They’re going to pay out.”
She pulled her hands back from me. “What was that about, giving me half?”
“You deserve it,” I said. “I couldn’t have done any of this without you.”
“Piers—”
“They’re going to pay me an obscene amount of money,” I said. “And frankly, I don’t need it. You have med school debt still, you’re just starting a life. You deserve it.”
“I don’t need the money,” she said. “I didn’t do this to get paid.”
“I know you didn’t, but you’re getting paid anyway.” I took her hands again, and this time she leaned toward me. I kissed her, holding it for a long moment, then pulled back to stare into her eyes. “I love you, Lori. You’re the reason I’m doing this. You’re the reason I give a damn.”
Her smile was like heaven. I don’t think I’d ever seen a smile that made me so happy before in my life. I realized I’d spent so long on my own, without caring about another person at all, except for my patients, and even they were more like puzzles that needed to be solved.
Lori lit something up inside of me, something that I never wanted dimmed again.
“I love you too,” she said.
I pulled her against me and hugged her amidst the broken glass and the blood.
We were doctors. A little chaos didn’t bother us.
And besides, we won, finally, after all this, we won. I could have her, and would have her, despite the complications. I knew there’d be talk about me dating my resident, but I didn’t give a damn.
Nothing mattered but Lori.
31
Lori
Five Years Later
“What do you think, doctor?” The nurse, a young girl named Leanne, stood next to me in pink scrubs. We looked down at the patient, an older man named Rex, with a stitched-up incision in his chest, his lungs rising and falling. All eyes fell to me.
“I think we’re finished,” I said, nodding to myself. “It only took, what, three hours?”
“Five,” Leanne corrected. “Time flies when you’re cutting someone open, right?”
I grinned at her, but she couldn’t see through my surgical mask. “Finish this up for me,” I said.
“Of course, doctor.”
I left the operating room and scrubbed myself out. I tossed my gloves, my gown, my hair covering, and my mask. I felt worn down and loose, and more alive than I’d ever felt in my entire life. I stood there basking in that glow, thinking back to that surgery, to each motion, each stitch at the end. I was in complete control, and I owed a lot of that to Piers. He’d imparted everything he had to me, and then some. We’d both grown as people, and as surgeons.
I pushed open the door to walk into the hall, but stopped with one foot on the tile.
Piers held out a bouquet of flowers. “Congratulations, doctor,” he said.
“What are these for?” I took them, and held them to my nose. Tulips were my favorite, and these were beautiful: deep, impossible purple.
“Your first surgery as an attending,” he said. “How does it feel?”
“Good,” I said. “Really good. Honestly, do you feel like this after every procedure?�
��
He laughed and draped an arm across my shoulder. Five years hadn’t done a thing to blunt my incredible attraction to him. Despite everything we’d gone through, I still craved every touch, every kiss, every second we spent alone.
Five years of training. Five long, long years of working hard, every single day, and planning. We put our life on hold so I could finish my residency, and now that it was over—I felt strangely torn on the whole thing.
“Usually,” he admitted. “But it dulls a little, I think.”
I leaned my head against his shoulder. “Thanks for the flowers. It means a lot.”
“What’s the matter?” he asked, probably sensing something in my tone.
“Nothing,” I said, which of course was a lie.
And he saw through it. “Come on,” he said, facing me again. “Spit it out.”
“Well, it’s bittersweet, you know? I finished my residency, I’m done with all that, but it’s like—where do we go from here?”
So much had changed over the last five years. So much had also stayed the same. We were friendly with Rees, though he still kept to himself. My brother moved out of my father’s house. And we visited my mother’s grave every first Sunday of the month.
Best of all, I heard that Robert Tippett went through a lengthy and complicated court case against his sister—and ultimately lost. He never received his inheritance. I like to think we had a hand in that and I truly hoped he was miserable.
So much was different, but really, it was all one big cycle. Without Piers to ground me, I wasn’t sure I would’ve been able to hold on through it all, the five long years of back-breaking work, honing my skills, learning everything I could from him.
And at the end of it, I was a better surgeon—a damn good surgeon, I thought.
“You know what we do next,” he said, kissing me gently. “Private practice. We do the procedures we want, and only take on the patients we choose. We save lives. And let’s face it, between the two of us, we’re going to save a shitload of people.”
I grinned a little. We hadn’t talked about going private for a couple of years now, but I knew it’d still been in his mind, hovering in the background. “Are you sure?” I asked. “Things are good and steady here. And you know we don’t need the money.” Which was an understatement: the hospital wrote a big, fat check to each of us for ten million dollars. After paying off my debt and investing the rest, I could more or less quit working for the rest of my life if I wanted.
“We sure don’t,” he said. “But it’s never been about the money, right? If it were, we’d be in something like plastic surgery. Make some very shallow people look beautiful.”
“Don’t mock the shallow,” Is aid. “Sometimes I think I could use a nose job.”
“Never,” he said, kissing my cheek. “Come on, what do you think? Private practice, marriage, maybe kids—”
“Slow down,” I said. “We only moved in together four years ago.”
He laughed and hugged me tight. “I know it’s been slow for a while, but I was waiting for you to finish. And now that you’re done, I feel like there’s so much ahead of us.”
He was right, of course. I knew he was right. All those complicated feelings seemed to vanish with him around. Piers had that effect on me, though only on me—everyone else still saw him as a surly, asshole surgeon.
But I knew he was the kindest, gentlest, best partner I could ever imagine.
“I think I can handle speeding things up,” I said.
“Good,” he said, and turned to face me, dropping to one knee. He took a ring out from his pocket and held it up. “So let’s start by getting married.”
I sucked in a breath, eyes wide. We’d talked about getting engaged, but we hadn’t discussed any specifics. My heart beat wildly, and several nurses walking nearby stopped and stared, mouths hanging open. I reached out my hand.
“Yes,” I whispered. “God, yes.”
He slipped the ring on my finger. It was simple, but gorgeous: princess cut, white gold band.
He stood and we kissed for what felt like forever. I was high on finishing my first surgery post-residency, and even higher on getting engaged to the man I loved.
I didn’t know what the future held, and in that moment, in his arms, it didn’t matter, because I knew he’d never let me go again. We were set for life—set with each other.
“Come on,” he said, tugging me close as the nurses nearby clapped and laughed wildly. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
“Okay,” I said, and let him lead me away—wherever he went, it didn’t matter, because I’d follow.
If you want more steamy suspense, read the mafia books that started it all! Obsessed with His Bride begins the story of the Leone Crime Family. Dante meets his match in Aida, though she resists his intense charms at first. But when a war breaks out, Aida must give in to her desire or end up dead. I’ll kill to keep her. I’ll do much worse to make her my bride. >> Click Here to read it!
Want more from Piers and Lori? Sign up for my newsletter and read a fun little bonus scene! >> Click here
Also by BB Hamel
All my books are standalones, steamy, safe, and have a guaranteed HEA!
Click Here for the whole catalogue on Amazon!
Series include Steamy Daddies, SEAL Team Hotties, Love to Hate, Baby Daddy, Miracle Babies, and more.
Thanks so much for reading! As an indie author, your support means absolutely everything to me.
XO, BB