by Jill Sanders
Looking quickly back down at the chart, he noticed the letters CPS in red at the top of the girl’s chart.
Pasting on a smile, one that no longer reached his eyes or his heart, he stepped all the way into the room. The woman sitting next to the girl looked scared and nervous for her child. Nothing more.
“Evening,” he said easily. “I’m Dr. Rafe Turner. I’ll be the one fixing up that arm of yours,” he said easily to the girl. “It says here your name is Adele?”
The little girl nodded her head, avoiding his eyes.
“Like the singer?” Again she nodded her head while her mother looked on. “Do you like her songs?” he asked, moving closer to her. The girl flinched when he got too close. His eyes met the mother’s and instantly knew that the woman wasn’t the cause of the pain in their lives.
“I like ‘Hello,’” the girl answered in almost a whisper.
To ease the girl’s mind, he started to hum the song. When the little girl started singing along, he smiled.
He was happily surprised when she picked neon green for her cast and allowed him to hold her arm and wrap it slowly and carefully while her mother held her other hand.
He had just finished up with the cast when Carrie, a caseworker from Child Protective Services, stepped in. He’d only met the woman twice before but remembered her, since the two times they’d met still stuck in his mind.
It was never easy seeing a child taken away from parents, but knowing that it was for the best helped a little.
“This is Carrie,” he said before the woman could say anything. “I’m going to step outside and talk to her for a few minutes,” he told the mother.
The woman looked even more afraid than before.
“Am I all done?” the little girl asked. “Can I have candy now?”
He’d promised her a sucker if she held still for him while he put the cast on. He pulled a large green one from the jar they kept in the cupboard. “You’re done, but we still have some paperwork to do. So stay put.” He smiled down at her. “I’ll be right back.”
“Okay,” she said, her eyes going huge when he handed her the candy.
“Rafe,” Carrie sighed. “This never gets easier,” she said when they were a few feet from the door to the room.
“I can tell you right now, the mother isn’t the one abusing. From the bruises on the inside of her wrists and the way she was holding her left hand, I’d say she’s got more injuries than the little one. They are just hidden by the bulky clothes she’s wearing.”
Carrie sighed and closed her eyes. “Has the SOB been around?”
“Not that I’ve seen.” He waved Barb over to them. He didn’t want to walk too far from the door in case the mother got spooked and left now that the kid was patched up. “Any signs of the…”—he glanced down at Carrie—“SOB?”
Barb’s eyes narrowed. “No, the mother brought her in on her own.” Barb reached over and took the kid’s chart from him. “She claims the girl fell off her new bike, rolled down the hill, and landed on the driveway.”
“Right,” Carrie said as Barb handed her the file. “I’ll go in and assess things.” She had started to turn around when a man walked through the ER doors.
“You have my daughter and wife in here?” he asked the nurse at the front counter. “Adele and Mary King?” he said loudly. “It’s been over two hours. What’s taking so long?”
Rafe tensed. “I’ll take this,” he said, motioning for Carrie to go into the room with the mother and daughter.
“I’m calling for backup,” Barb said softly. Rafe nodded and moved over to the front counter, placing his body between the man and room two.
“Mr. King?” Rafe said in a pleasant voice.
“Yes.” The man turned to him, fire in his eyes. Then he noticed Rafe’s size and dialed his anger back a step.
“I’m Dr. Turner,” he said easily, not holding out his hand to the other man. “I’d be happy to answer any questions you have.” He motioned for the man to move towards the waiting area. There was a small room in the corner where he planned on putting the guy until security or the cops showed up, to make sure Carrie had plenty of time to do her job. Hopefully the mother would confess and request CPS’s help.
But the man didn’t move. Instead, he squared his shoulders to Rafe’s.
“Is there a problem?” The man’s eyes narrowed. “It’s taken far too long for a sprained wrist.” He crossed his arms over his chest and Rafe questioned if he could handle the guy. Sure, he had him on muscle, but the man did fill out his shirt. Even though he appeared soft, Rafe knew that wouldn’t stop the guy from taking him down.
“No, no problem.” He smiled. “Your daughter has a fractured radius.”
“What does that mean?” the man broke in.
He took a breath and shifted so that he was squarer to the man. “A broken arm.” He motioned to the bone on his own arm. “I’ve just finished putting a cast on—”
“I’m not paying for that,” the man said, breaking in again. “I never agreed—”
“You were not present,” he reminded the man. “Your wife—”
“Shouldn’t have agreed to it either.” The man’s eyes moved to beyond Rafe’s left shoulder.
Rafe glanced over and noticed the woman holding the small crying child in her arms and leaving the small room with Carrie close on their heels.
The man walked past Rafe, knocking into his shoulder as he did so.
“I told you not to agree to anything.” The man grabbed his wife’s wrist. She cried out, her face paling even further, and Rafe stepped closer.
“Mr. King…” Carrie started to say.
“Who the hell are you?” The man jerked his wife’s arm, causing her to almost drop Adele.
In one smooth move, Rafe took the little girl and handed her over to Carrie just as Mary King melted to the ground.
“What the—” the man said as his wife’s limp body pulled him down. Rafe watched in horror as the man actually started tugging the unconscious woman towards the door.
Carrie disappeared with the little girl as Barb and Kenny, one of the rent-a-cops that normally stood at the entrance of the ER, appeared. Rafe knelt beside Mary to check her vitals. But he had to release the man’s hold on his wife’s wrist first. When he gripped the man’s wrist and demanded he release his hold, the man turned on him and, without warning, a fist connected with Rafe’s left eye.
Instead of fighting back, Rafe stood up and blocked the man with his full force as Kenny tried to cuff him. Several other nurses rushed over and helped Mary while Rafe and Kenny struggled with the husband.
Rafe had just gotten the man’s arms trapped behind his back when two other officers arrived. By that time, Rafe’s nose was bleeding and he was sure his lip was split as well.
When things settled down, Mary woke and begged the officers to release her husband.
“It’s broken,” Barb told him, holding onto the woman’s wrist.
“I don’t want to press charges,” the woman said, fear in her eyes as she begged the police.
“She may not”—he turned to them and took a deep breath—“but I will.”
The head officer nodded and turned to his partner. “Take him out. I’ll deal with the paperwork.”
“Where’s Adele?” Rafe asked Barb as she helped Mary into a wheelchair so they could get her down to imaging.
“Carrie has her.” She nodded towards room two. “When you’re done with them”—she motioned to the police—“take the rest of the night off.”
He opened his mouth to argue, but the look the woman gave him told him to keep his mouth shut.
“It’s the rules.” She touched his arm. “Good job.” She smiled.
He nodded and turned towards the officer. He’d never been involved in an arrest process before, and after being photographed and practically interrogated, he felt completely drained. More so than when he’d worked a triple shift.
Barb had helped him clean up his lip
and bleeding nose. He’d showered and changed into a clean pair of clothes before leaving the hospital just after one in the morning.
The problem was, he was still pumped, despite being exhausted.
Before taking off, he pulled out his phone. In hopes that Emily was still up, he shot a text off to her.
-I have the night off unexpectedly. Are you up? Want to grab some food?
Then followed it up with.
-This is Rafe, BTW
He tucked his phone in his back pocket and started the engine of his bike. Before he reached the corner, he felt it vibrate and pulled off to read her reply.
-Sure, what did you have in mind?
He thought about it and decided the only thing open outside of fast food was probably the Denny’s.
-Denny’s in half an hour?
He sent the text and waited for her reply.
-I’ll meet you there.
Smiling, he tucked his phone into his pocket again and started the bike. As he rode through the dark streets, he smiled and hummed Adele’s “Hello.”
Chapter 5
What was she doing? She was clearly insane. Parking in front of Denny’s, she looked at the dark bike she’d parked next to. He was here already.
She slumped in the seat. What did it say about her that the first time a guy calls her, she drops everything and comes running?
Maybe she was curious about why he’d texted her. It wasn’t as if she was anything special. Glancing at her reflection one last time, she questioned if she should have taken more time to fix her makeup and hair.
A knock sounded on her window, causing her to jump slightly.
Seeing Rafe standing just outside her car door had her blushing. Had he watched her check herself? How embarrassing.
Smiling, she opened the door and climbed out.
“Hi,” she said automatically, then her smile fell when she noticed his face. “What happened?” She rushed closer to him, taking his face in her hands as she examined the bruises and slight cuts on his lip.
“I had a disagreement at work.” He shrugged and took her hand in his, pulling her fingers away from his face.
“Does it hurt?” she asked, suddenly realizing how close they were.
“Only when I smile,” he joked. But she saw the pain in his eyes.
“What happened?” she asked as he shifted her hand into his and started walking into the restaurant.
“CPS was called, and things got a little ugly.”
He was trying to play it cool, but by the way his hand was holding onto hers, she could tell he was still affected by what had happened.
“Looks like you’ll have a black eye tomorrow,” she added when they stepped into the bright diner.
“Yeah.” He sighed. “It matches the one on a five-year-old named Adele, like the singer. Mother and daughter even have matching broken arms.”
Emily felt her own anger grow. “Tell me the SOB is locked up,” she said quietly as they waited in line to be seated.
“He is now, but I’m not sure how long he’ll stay that way.”
They both waited to finish the conversation until after they’d been seated and had hot cups of coffee in front of them.
“If the mother pressed charges…”
“She didn’t.” Rafe shook his head. “I did. After the guy sucker-punched me.” He reached up and touched his lip and eye. “It won’t be enough to keep him long, but hopefully long enough for CPS to do their own digging and get Adele out of there. Hopefully, the mother too.”
“Why do women stay…” she started to ask, but she’d taken enough psych classes to know why. Instead of finishing, she took another sip of her coffee.
“Yeah.” He must have read her thoughts. “It’s fucked up, but…” He shrugged. “That’s why it’s important for us to keep our eyes and ears peeled.”
“How did you spot it?” she asked.
“I didn’t. One of the nurses must have before I got into the room. But it wasn’t that hard in this case.”
“I’m always afraid I’ll jump to conclusions and…”
He reached across the table and took her hand. “Even if you do, it’s better than the alternative. Joey—he worked with me my first year at UMH—he delayed calling CPS, chose to believe the father’s bullshit story. The next week, the kid was brought back with brain damage. Joey quit the very next day.” He sighed. “Couldn’t handle the guilt.” He shook his head.
“Yeah, I suppose.” She thought back to the first year she and her father had been on their own. “You know, CPS was called on us once,” she admitted.
She didn’t know why she was telling him the story, but since they were on the topic and it appeared it was going to take their waitress a very long time to take their orders, she decided to fill the time with a little of her past.
“Oh?” He frowned.
“My mother had just passed the year before.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, touching her hand.
She nodded and continued. “I was around six, I think…” She shrugged. “Well, believe it or not, I was very much a tomboy.”
He chuckled. “You must have grown out of it.”
She thought to the gym shorts and baseball shirt she’d changed out of to meet him. “I can pretend to be a girl every now and then,” she admitted with a smile.
“Thank god for it.” He wiggled his eyebrows. “What happened?”
“Well, I decided I wanted to learn how to slide into home base…”
“You did not.” He set his mug down. “You’re into baseball?”
She chuckled. “Is there any other sport?”
He laughed. “Now I know I’m in love…”
“Anyway,” she said after her heart and stomach settled down again after his words, “I ran home with bloody knees and several loose teeth. Dad rushed me to the nearest ER and after I got patched up, an officer arrived to question my father. I yelled at them to leave my daddy alone, that I was just trying to slide into home plate like all the boys do.” He chuckled. “My father didn’t even know I was playing with the boys down the street.” She sighed and sat back.
“What happened next?” he asked.
Just then the waitress showed up and took their order. She normally would have ordered a chicken salad, but she was starving and requested the chicken fried steak instead.
“It took some persuading, but finally they let us go.” She remembered the years of fear following the incident. How every time she saw a police officer, she was afraid that she’d be taken away from her loving father.
“That must have been scary for you,” Rafe replied.
Instead of answering, she nodded. They were quiet for a while as she questioned why he’d called her. It was her old fears surfacing again, an issue Jamie always encouraged her to get over.
“What is it?” Rafe asked after a moment.
“Hmm?” She pushed her doubts into the back of her mind.
“I can see the wheels up there working overtime.” He motioned to her head. His smile was so mesmerizing, she almost lost the hold on her tongue. “You do this thing…” He leaned forward slightly, and suddenly she could smell his sexy scent, causing the memory of lying next to his naked body to surface and consume her mind. “You tense up as you think. It leads me to believe that you’re either trying to decide what to say or…” He leaned back and slowly crossed his arms over his chest, his smile frozen in place.
“Or?” she asked after a moment.
“Or you’re about to bolt for the door.” She relaxed slightly. “What has you deep in thought?” he asked.
“You,” she finally admitted. His dark eyebrows rose slightly.
“Me?”
She leaned forward now. “I’ve been in your class for over two years, before…” She sighed as his smile grew. “You barely said two words to me. Now, you’re calling me at…”—she glanced down at her watch—“two in the morning, asking me out to breakfast.”
“Is there a question in
there?” He looked very relaxed now and entertained.
“Why?” She leaned back, trying to mimic his relaxed state. If he could act casual about it, then so could she. After all, maybe he was just looking for a friend. She could live with that, right? Part of her mind screamed no, but she chose to ignore it. The attraction she’d felt for him all of this time was too strong to ignore now that he’d shown the slightest interest in her. Moving forward, if he just wanted to be friends, there would be no stopping the hurt.
“Why did I call you?” His eyes narrowed. “I would think that was obvious.”
Her breath held in her lungs. Just then the waitress arrived with their meals.
When she left, she finally had the courage to ask him what he meant.
“Emily, you’re one of the smartest women I know. You’re not only beautiful on the inside but smoking hot on the outside.” He chuckled.
“You hardly know anything about me,” she replied.
His chuckle was low and sexy. “As you said, you’ve been in my class for two years. I may not have talked much to you, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t watching you.”
She swallowed and felt her stomach flutter.
“You were?”
He laughed and took a bite of his burger.
She continued to smile as she ate her chicken fried steak. The topic turned to work and schedules. He asked about her plans for the next semester.
She filled him in on her plans to finish her Bachelor of Science in Nursing while working at UMH.
“There’s just no amount of school that can prepare you like interning can,” he admitted.
“How long have you been working at UMH?”
“Two years now.” He sighed and pushed his empty plate towards the corner of their table. She watched him pile up his trash and used utensils to be helpful.
“Are you going for your MD?” she asked.
“No, I got that two years ago.” He smiled.
Her eyebrows shot up. “Seriously? You’re already an MD?”
He chuckled. “Yeah.”
“But… you can’t be much older than I am. How did you get through eight years of school already?”