by AS Teague
I knew what she needed was to be surrounded by the people who loved her. “Georgia brought all your favorites,” I told her warmly and then cut my eyes to my brother. “Hampton, however, failed on his job.”
Piper laughed. “I doubt that. He’s never failed at anything in his life.”
She paused long enough to kiss Hampton and Smith each on their cheeks and then wrapped her arms around Georgia in a tight squeeze.
“He was in charge of supplying the games for game night.” I waved a hand toward the stack of boxes. “He took it upon himself to raid Mom’s toy closet apparently.”
She came to a stop beside me and her gaze roamed the games, lighting up as she said, “Ohhh…I love Back Off Buzzard! Can we play that one first?”
Smith beamed and Hampton smirked, his face smug as he quipped, “Now who’s the failure?”
I ignored them both and wrapped my arm around her shoulders, leaning close enough that my lips grazed her ear. “Hey, you.” Her response was to push to her toes, kissing me noisily on the mouth.
“I will never get used to seeing that.” Georgia pivoted on the ball of her foot and stalked out of the kitchen. “I need a drink. Hampton? Smith?”
They both took the hint and followed her into the other room, leaving me alone with a transformed Piper. “You look…”
“Less like a zombie and more like an actual human being again?”
I shook my head. “No, that’s not what I was going to say.”
“It’s what you were thinking, though.” Her lips were tipped in a smile.
I pulled her against my chest and pulled in a deep breath through my nose, letting her scent fill my lungs. “You were the hottest zombie I’ve ever seen.”
She laughed. A real laugh. One I felt all the way to the bottom of my feet. “You’re so full of shit.”
“Hey, we gonna eat and play these games or are you two gonna make out in the kitchen all night long?” Hampton shouted from the table. “I won’t judge you, but I also won’t save you any pad Thai. So, get your asses out here.”
“You better not touch my noodles!” Piper shot back over her shoulder. She turned to join the rest of our family at the table, but I caught her hand.
“Love you, Pippie,” I whispered.
She squeezed my fingers. “Love you too, Law.”
“We get it,” Georgia quipped. “You’re in love. Jesus, you’re gonna make me lose my appetite. Come on already.”
Piper laughed again, and with our hands still joined, led me to the kitchen table.
“How did you know?” Piper asked, her words just a bit slurred.
I turned, pulling the covers up to my waist, and faced her. “How did I know what?”
She continued to lie on her back, her eyes closed, her brow wrinkled. “How did you know I needed tonight?”
“Ah. Well.” I paused, not exactly sure what to say. She took the break in my words as an opportunity to speak again.
“You just get me. It’s like you’re inside my head. You know what I need when even I don’t know it.” Her eyes flew open and she turned to face me. “How do you get me so well, when no one else does?”
The sheet had slipped down when she turned, revealing the smooth swell of her breast under the cotton tank top she’d changed into before sliding into my bed. She didn’t even bother to get into her own tonight, just followed me down the hall and climbed right into mine.
Well, more like tripped over her own two feet and then collapsed onto my bed in a fit of laughter.
I quirked an eyebrow at her and said, “Plenty of people get you.”
She frowned as she shook her head. “Nope. Not like you do.” Flopping onto her back, she threw her arm out to the side and smacked me in the face.
“Ow.”
She apologized, but it was hard to take it seriously when she giggled throughout the whole thing. “You know, you never even asked me if I did it.”
The more she talked, the more her words began to run together and I figured the bottle and a half of wine she’d had tonight was finally catching up with her. It was only a matter of time before she either passed out or made a run for the bathroom. Selfishly, I was hoping it would be the former, but knowing her as well as I did, I had a feeling I would be holding hair back before the night was done.
“Asked you if you did what?”
She clicked her tongue. “You know what I’m talkin’ about. You never asked me if I wrote those prescriptions.” Her head turned back toward me, but her eyes were squeezed shut. “You just stormed in and took over and said you were going to fix the problem. No hesitation. No questions. Jusss blind faith in me.” Her lids slowly lifted, revealing her sky blue eyes that were swimming with tears. “And I love you for that.” A droplet spilled over, rolling down her cheek to her pillow. Her voice cracked as she said, “Why are you so good to me?”
The question hung in the air for a moment before I said gently, “Because you’ve never thrown up on me.”
She made a noise in the back of her throat and shoved at my shoulder. “Very funny.”
I lifted a shoulder. “You want me to keep being good to you, how about you turn over if you feel like that wine’s going to make a reappearance.”
She rolled her eyes and tucked her hands under her cheek. “I’m serious.”
I studied her mouth, the way her full lips were parted as she took quiet breaths in through them. I followed the curve of her cheeks to her eyes, noticed the way her eyes were wide, waiting for my answer, and despite being intoxicated, they were bright and clear. I noticed her slender fingers that were linked together and tucked under her perfect chin, thinking of all the times those fingers had been on my skin. Her blond hair was fanned out behind her on the pillow, wisps of it falling across the slender cord of her throat, and remembered the first time I’d felt it on my chest as her head rested over my heart. I’d known what she looked like since she was a baby, and yet, I didn’t think I would ever tire of looking at her.
My throat thick with emotion, I asked, “What was the question?”
Her voice was low, so quiet it was mostly just a breath of air as she answered, “Why are you so good to me?”
Without hesitation, I answered, “Because you’ve always been it for me.”
Her bottom lip, the one I loved to run my tongue across, quivered and she let out a squeak. “Good answer, Lawson Reed.” With one smooth move, she was atop me, her hair falling around my face. “Really fucking good answer.”
37
Piper
“Miss Kelley, you’re here today because you’ve been accused of improperly prescribing narcotics.” The man in the center of the table paused to look at the paper in front of him. His eyes roamed over whatever was written and he frowned before looking back at me. “This is a formal hearing, so anything you say will be recorded as evidence. Do you understand the allegations that have been brought against you?”
No, I did not understand. Not at all.
But that was not the response they expected from me. My mouth was dry, my tongue so thick all I could do was nod my acknowledgement. Mr. Wheeler was seated beside me and gave my knee a quick pat before he launched into my defense.
I’d been instructed not to speak, instead to let him do all the talking, but as the proceedings went on, it became harder and harder to bite my tongue.
It was alleged that I had written prescriptions for multiple people, giving them all insane amounts of drugs they had filled at pharmacies all over the state. It was those pharmacies that had noticed the problem first and given my name over to the DEA.
My stomach turned as they rattled off the names the scripts were written to. I’d never even heard of those people before. And I knew there were countless patients I had treated in the emergency room whose names I couldn’t remember. But I was pretty positive I would know the names of the people I’d been basically dealing drugs to.
And that was what it boiled down to.
The amount of pills that ha
d been dispensed under my name was essentially nothing more than a legal drug deal. And I’d been the supplier.
The board droned on about something, but I couldn’t hear what was being said. My mind raced as I tried to figure out how the hell this had happened.
Had I lost a prescription pad somewhere that some lucky drug addict had stumbled across?
Had I treated someone in the ER who’d stolen my pad?
I didn’t know.
But what I did know was that the case against me was solid. My attorney’s exact words. The scripts were legitimate and had my actual signature on them. Even I couldn’t deny that the handwriting was a dead match for mine. I’d been horrified when I’d seen copies of them. I knew I didn’t write a single one of them, yet I couldn’t prove it.
I’d been discouraged coming in to this hearing, but Lawson had assured me it was going to work out. I’d hung all my hope on his words, needing to believe I would be cleared. But with the way the proceedings were going, my confidence was fading.
Then one of the board members said something that caught my attention. I leaned over to my attorney and whispered, “What did he just say?”
James Wheeler pushed a hand through his hair and pressed his lips together. “Don’t worry yet, Piper. It’s standard procedure in cases such as these.”
I shook my head. “I didn’t hear everything. What did he say?”
His eyes squeezed shut and the words he said next caused the air in my lungs to rush out in a whoosh.
“They are suspending your medical license.”
I swallowed hard, forcing the bile that had started up my throat back down.
That was it. I was done. My career was over.
I was going to be sick. With a shaky hand, I reached for the glass of lukewarm water that sat on the table in front of me. The liquid did nothing to help with my parched tongue, nor did it stop the roll of nausea.
Mr. Wheeler put his hand over the microphone and leaned toward me. “I know this is difficult for you. But, please, try to relax until we’re done here and then I’ll explain everything to you.”
I nodded mutely, my mind racing.
Everything I’d worked so hard for, gone.
But just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, they did.
“Miss Kelley, are you listening?” The man on the end of the panel who was deciding my fate spoke my name, pulling me back to reality.
I nodded, still unable to really speak.
He cleared his throat and looked at the people seated beside him. “Miss Kelley, we are recommending that the DEA take this to trial.”
If it were possible for my heart to stop beating based on a few words, then I would be dead in the very chair I sat in. I couldn’t believe what I’d just heard.
In the matter of a few minutes, I’d gone from the devastating news that I would no longer be able to practice medicine to the mind-numbing knowledge that I could be going to prison.
The rest of the hearing moved in slow motion, and I spent the duration feeling like I was treading water in a pool that was just a hair too deep. The moment Mr. Wheeler clasped my elbow, I shot to my feet and nearly dragged him from the room.
Lawson was waiting for me on the other side of the thick wooden door and as I burst through he launched to his feet, catching me as I fell into his arms.
With my face pressed into the crook of his neck, I sobbed, “I’m going to go to prison.”
He held me, his arms wrapped tightly around me, and let me blubber into his shirt, soaking it with my tears. All around us, people milled about, but he didn’t try to move me out of the middle of the hallway. When I’d finally exhausted all the tears I had, I pulled back to look at him.
“You’re not going to prison,” he told me firmly.
“They are recommending taking it to trial! I’m going to rot away in a jail cell,” I moaned.
He shook his head and pressed his lips to my ear, whispering, “We will run the fuck away before I ever let that happen. Do you understand me?”
I pressed my lips together to stop the quivering and nodded mutely. Lawson pulled back and as his eyes searched my face, I blinked the moisture away.
“Let’s get home and we can talk about what happened.” Lawson glanced over my shoulder at where Mr. Wheeler was still standing. “You follow us back to my house.”
I assumed he nodded in agreement because Lawson spun us, and with his hand at my back, guided me through the door and out into the sunshine.
I wanted to laugh at the irony of how one of the worst days of my life was such a beautiful one. But there was nothing funny about the predicament I was in.
When we arrived back at Lawson’s house, Pieters was waiting for us. We’d settled at the table with Mr. Wheeler and Lawson had demanded the attorney tell us, in great detail, everything that was said during the hearing.
“Wait,” Pieters said. “Tell me the names the prescriptions were written under again.” He’d been sitting in the chair next to the attorney across from us, his forearms propped on the table. But he’d turned his torso so he was facing Mr. Wheeler, his eyes intense as the attorney started reading the names from the legal pad he’d jotted them down on.
“Stop,” Lawson barked as he shot out of his seat. “Let me see that.” He reached over and snatched the pad out of Wheeler’s hands and scanned the list of names.
“Son of a…” Lawson murmured as he glanced over at me and then at Pieters.
My gaze shot back and forth between the two men as they exchanged worried looks. “What? What is it?”
Pieters opened his mouth to speak, but Lawson gave a quick shake of his head and he clamped his jaw shut. “Be right back.”
He and Pieters stalked down the hall, slamming the door soundly behind them when they reached his office.
38
Lawson
I shook the legal pad in Pieters’ direction. “No way this is a coincidence.”
He ran a hand over his shaved head. “I don’t know, man. I think you’re grasping at straws.” He held up a hand to stop me when I opened my mouth to argue. “I know this is personal for you. But you aren’t thinking with a level head.”
I slung the legal pad at my desk and turned on my heel to stalk toward my computer, throwing myself into my seat. With an arm over my eyes, I groaned, “You cannot tell me I’m not on to something. How many people are named Josiah? How many different people have the surname Shadblow? And don’t even get me started on those other names. You know this is something.”
Pieters grabbed the extra chair and pulled it up next to where I was sitting before falling into it. He took on a placating tone when he said, “I’m sure there are millions of people named Josiah. And while Shadblow is a strange name, it’s also not one of a kind.”
I leaned forward. “Yeah, but prescriptions written for two people with the same names as the suspects we’ve been investigating for the last year? Written by Piper? For the exact same drugs? Same quantities? Come the fuck on. You cannot tell me you don’t think there’s something to it.” The more he argued with me, the angrier I became.
We’d worked together a long time and had rarely butted heads on cases. It was one of the reasons I’d been glad to come back home and work this case in the first place, knowing it was Pieters who was in charge. But he was being unreasonable in this instance and I was running short on patience.
I surged out of my chair, ready to stalk down the hall and tell Wheeler to call a special hearing when Pieters grabbed my arm. “Where are you going?”
I shook out of his hold. “To tell Piper we’ve solved her case.”
He shot to his feet, blocking my path. “We haven’t solved shit. If anything, all we’ve done is come up with even more questions.”
I clenched my jaw and leveled him with a stare. “Move.”
He matched my expression and with the same lowered voice responded, “No. Sit down and let’s talk this out.”
I did the opposite of what he as
ked and pushed against him until we were chest to chest. I pushed to my toes and our eyes met. Mine were narrowed with anger while his were full of irritation.
“I will not sit by while these pieces of shit ruin Piper’s career. This is all connected somehow. If you aren’t interested in helping me, then get the fuck out of my house,” I snarled, the frustration of not being able to figure this out bleeding over into my professional relationship with my partner.
“Have I ever left your ass in the wind before?” Pieters rumbled, poking me in the chest. “Now, calm the fuck down and pull your shit together.”
I took a step back, putting the space I needed to get my shit sorted out between us, and stalked back to the computer. Pieters blew out a breath and then followed me, pulling the chair up beside where I sat in front of my monitors.
“Let’s go over it again.”
I ground the heel of my palms into my eyes and groaned. “Okay. Here’s what we know.”
An hour later, we emerged from my office. I was stiff from being hunched over the computer, but I was more convinced than ever that Piper had somehow been pulled into the case I was working on.
It was time to tell her the truth.
“I haven’t been completely honest with you about why I came back to town.”
I’d always meant to tell her the truth of what my job was, but the timing had never been right. And even though it wasn’t labeled top secret, I wasn’t supposed to discuss cases. Especially with family matters.
More than the restrictions on what I could or couldn’t talk about, I hadn’t wanted my family to worry about me. I’d lived in Vegas for years like they all believed. But I’d also been assigned to cases that took me to dangerous countries. So, I’d made sure to always be vague about my work, letting everyone think I was just a computer guy who ran codes and programs for a security firm.