“Every time I eat, I want to share the food with the kids.”
Nyxie unwrapped the large sandwich and peeked under the bun at the toppings. She doubted there was a veggie he didn’t have put on it. Picking up half, she gave it a sniff and coaxed a smile to her lips for his benefit. She opened her mouth and took a small bite not really feeling hungry.
“I know,” he said. “I’m sure wherever Lotus and Reina are, they’re eating well.”
She nodded, slowly chewing and swallowing past the lump in her throat.
“Why is my sandwich twice as big as yours?”
“I’m trying to get you into a healthy weight range. Both bags of chips are for you, also. If you can’t eat them, save them for a snack.”
She blushed. “I’m sorry. I’ve always been skinny. I guess it’s my genetics.”
Declan looked like he wanted to comment but kept it to himself. “I’ve got to get going before anyone starts to wonder where I am. I might have time to drive you to my house when I get a supper break if you want to use my spare bedroom.”
“I want to stay with Cody.”
“Okay. I’ll see you on my evening rounds.”
“Thank you for the sandwich,” she said dropping her gaze to the floor.
Declan stepped to the curtain, but turned around and came back to her. He leaned down and lightly kissed her mouth. “Yum, Italian Nyxie. I don’t know which sub taste better; the sandwich or you.”
8
Dr. Emily Saunders stepped into her office after her nurse informed her Declan Stryker was waiting on her. He’d been the first resident she’d met when she moved to Lubbock and because he’d done his undergraduate studies here, he’d known his way around better than any of the other new residents. He’d graduated from medical school at Yale and had requested to come to Tech for his residency, a fact that baffled the A&M alum.
“Declan, what on earth are you doing here?” the tall blonde OB/GYN resident asked. “The last time I looked, you had a penis not a uterus.”
He raised a sardonic eyebrow. “You looked? Perv.”
“I didn’t have to. You strut around like a man with a cannon and two bowling balls between his legs.”
He laughed. “Remind me why we never dated?”
She met his eyes and gave him a shrewd look. “Because you strut around like a man with a cannon and two bowling balls between your legs.”
He laughed again. “I’m sure my balls are no bigger than yours.”
This time she laughed. “When we finish residency, we’re going to have to find some time to hang out, maybe drink some beer and play some pool.”
“That sounds good,” Declan said more to be polite than any desire to see her. She wasn’t his type. She was too type-A, too much like him. “I’ve got a favor to ask. Have you seen the story in the news about the kid hit by the truck?”
“Is he a patient of yours?”
“Yeah. I went to high school with his sister. Their folks are dead, so she’s raising her brother and two nieces. She was at work when it happened and CPS took custody because they say she was negligent.”
Emily sat down in the thick leather chair behind the large desk and signaled him to sit also. The patient chairs were decidedly lower and Declan moved to stand behind them rather than sit lower than her.
“It sounds like they’ve got a good case. Are you trying to decide if you should testify against her?”
“I’m helping her get them back,” he said dryly trying not to let his irritation show.
“Oh.” Emily was genuinely surprised.
There was something about Declan that always brought out her competitive side. She rankled over the fuss people made over his Ivy League education as if her education was chopped liver. She finished her undergraduate degree in three years and the prick had finished his in two and a half years. But he was also the kind of person who would shove you out of his way to get what he wanted and she was not.
“The lawyer suggested she should do everything in her power to prove she should get them back. I think a three-year birth-control implant would show she’s not planning to add to her brood with any more mouths to feed. I’ll pay for whatever she needs.”
She leaned back in her chair and eyed him. “The lawyer said that, did he?”
“Yeah, and a complete drug screen, too.”
“Declan….” She drew his name out like song lyrics. “Are you doing the nasty with her?”
“No,” he said firmly. “Christ, I haven’t seen her in years. She doesn’t look well either, too skinny, pale, circles under her eyes. Maybe you could give her a complete physical, CBC, the works. You should probably check her for STDs, too. This is Lubbock after all.”
She shook her head. “Deck, you’ve got as much subtlety as an elephant.”
Declan stared at her wishing he’d given more thought to having Emily conduct Nyxie’s exam. A slow smile spread across his face. “You got me. I’m not fooling around with her yet. But maybe after her brother’s out of danger, I’ll ask her out.”
It was sometime after 5:30 when Dr. Emily Saunders poked her head into the curtained ICU room and glanced around until her eyes fell on Nyxie. “Are you Onyx?”
“Yes.” Her voice had the inflection of a question.
“I’m Dr. Saunders. Can you come with me, please?”
She rose from her chair and rubbed Cody’s hand. “I’ll be back in a little bit.”
The doctor set a quick pace as she led Onyx through a maze of hallways, her three-inch heels tattooing her steps. “When he told me your name was Onyx, I was expecting you to be black.”
“I get that a lot. That’s why I prefer Nyxie. Are you doing the drug test on me?”
“Yes, that and taking care of the birth control.”
Onyx stopped dead in her tracks. “I-I can’t. I haven’t showered since the day before yesterday.”
The doctor hooked her arm through Nyxie’s forcing her to continue walking. “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure no matter how long it’s been since you bathed, I’ve had to deal with worse. But if it makes you feel better, I’ll get you a washcloth and you can wash up a bit beforehand.”
Nyxie pulled her arm free but did not stop. “Thanks.” Her voice was flat, bordering on sarcasm. “I’m sorry, that was rude of me. I’m just embarrassed.”
“Men just don’t understand what these exams are like for us. But try not to worry about it.” Emily smiled down at Nyxie sympathetically. “It’s a long walk to the Health Sciences part of the building, maybe we can go over some of your history to save time. Do you or any members of your family have any chronic health issues like diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, asthma?”
“No, not that I know of,” Nyxie answered as she glanced around for landmarks so she could find her way back to the hospital.
“Are your parents still living?”
Nyxie sighed. “Daddy died two years ago.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. How old was he?”
Normally, if someone said they were sorry her old man was dead, Nyxie told them flat out, she wasn’t, but today she let it pass. “Thirty-nine or forty, I think.”
They weren’t the kind of family that celebrated birthdays especially after her mother disappeared. In general, she avoided her father as much as possible and when the police came to her door and told her they’d found him dead on the side of the road, she felt relieved. She never claimed his body and as far as she knew, it could still be in the basement of the hospital rotting in a cooler.
“That’s young. How did he die?”
Nyxie hesitated and sighed when she realized she couldn’t avoid answering. “He drank himself to death.”
The woman tilted her head to the side, but didn’t turn to face her. “Was it alcohol poisoning or cirrhosis? Drunk driving?”
“I really don’t know,” she said evasively. “What does this have to do with my medical history?”
“Okay. Is your mother still
alive?”
“No idea. Haven’t seen her in a decade.”
“Was she in good health when you last saw her?”
Nyxie looked at her and wanted to tell the doctor her mother may have been having a few breathing issues when she last saw her, but knew it would lead to more questions. “My mother was an alcoholic, too, but other than that, she seemed healthy enough.”
“And on average how many drinks a week do you consume?”
The doctor looked straight ahead and kept her voice neutral, but whether reality or just her own insecurity, Onyx felt like she was being judged.
“I don’t drink, I don’t do drugs and I don’t smoke.”
“Okay. Do your grandparents have any health issues you know of?”
“I’ve never met them.”
The woman opened the door to a staircase and allowed Nyxie to go in first. “Am I walking too fast for you?”
“I’m a waitress. I walk fast all day, I can keep up.”
They went up one flight and the door opened up to a carpeted corridor, leaving the clicking sound of Emily’s heels behind them. “Maybe we should discuss your sexual history. What kind of birth control have you used in the past?”
“I haven’t….” Nyxie turned her head toward the bank of windows as they passed.
“No condoms, nothing? I see why Declan wanted the STD test.”
Nyxie frowned and her voice came out as a whisper. “Just because I’m trash, doesn’t mean I’m a slut. I’m sorry Dr. Stryker thinks so little of me.”
“No, it’s not like that. The rates are just high here. If it makes you feel better, I made him take one, too.”
“But I’ve never had sex with anyone.”
Emily laughed out loud in a burst then smiled widely at her. “He doesn’t know that, does he? Too good,” she added to herself.
“I don’t want to talk to you about Dr. Stryker, either.”
“Fair enough,” she said still smiling. She stopped at an office, pulled keys out of the pocket of her white coat and unlocked the door. “In here. He asked me to give you a full physical. I think he’s concerned about your weight. Would you tell me if you had an eating disorder?”
The office was completely empty except for Nyxie and the doctor. The lights in the waiting room were off, but sporadic areas of the rest of the office were lit.
“Probably not, but I don’t. I’ve always been thin,” Nyxie said, adding silently to herself that hunger does that to you. People like the doctor had no clue in this great country, people continued to go without.
“Come with me.”
They entered an area that looked a bit like a galley kitchen with cabinets high and low. The expanse of countertop was broken up by a wide metal sink, but Nyxie quickly noticed a white porcelain hand sink mounted to the wall a few feet away.
“We don’t usually do drug tests here.” The woman handed her a plastic specimen cup. “Leave your things on the counter. I need you to fill it up to here,” she said pointing to a spot on the cup.
Reluctantly, she placed her phone on the counter, afraid if the girls had their phones, they’d call in the few moments it would take to fill the cup.
When Nyxie started to head for the toilet, the woman stopped her. She stepped in first and put something in the water to turn it blue. “You’re not allowed to flush until you bring the cup back to me.”
As promised, the woman allowed her a few minutes to wash up before drawing blood for the CBC and proceeding with the exam. She asked more questions about Nyxie’s health history and when she found out Nyxie hadn’t had a period in months; she drew more blood to do a nutritional screening.
“Put your feet in the stirrups and slide down.” The woman squirted a little KY on her gloved fingers. She had barely begun the exam when she stopped. “Your hymen is still intact so I’m going to break all the rules and not do a Pap smear on you today, a little gift for Dr. Stryker. Have you had your HPV vaccines yet?”
“I don’t know what that is,” she said shaking her head.
“Gardasil?” Emily raised her brow as if she expected recognition.
Nyxie shook her head and lifted her shoulders in a shrug.
“It’s a vaccine to prevent a few of the strains of HPV that can cause cervical cancer. I’m going to give you one today, one in a month and the last one in six months. We’ll do a Pap smear at one of those appointments if you’ve had sex by then.”
She finished the rest of the exam, gave her the shot and proceeded to numb her arm and inject the implant into the inside part of her upper arm.
“That’s it. We’re all done.” Dr. Saunders reached out to help her sit up. “I’ll just wait for you in my office and we can talk about the implant and any questions you might have.”
She had barely exited when she heard a loud crash from inside the room. She knocked on the door. “Nyxie? Are you all right?” When Nyxie didn’t answer, she stuck her head back in and found her passed out on the floor and the tray from her procedure littered around the tiled floor. “Shit. Nyxie, Nyxie, wake up,” she said shaking her.
Emily didn’t try to pick her up. She put her on oxygen, pulled over a chair from the corner and elevated her feet on it. She took her BP and pulse and then covered her up the best she could with the paper sheet she’d given Onyx for the exam. A slight smile emerged when she realized she had managed to hold onto the cell phone she’d only set aside during the drug test. Emily pulled it out of her slack hand and called Declan’s number.
“Nyxie, it’s not a good time. I’ll call you back in a few minutes.”
“Declan, it’s me, Emily. Your friend fainted. I thought you might….”
“I’m on my way.”
“Get her some orange juice,” she suggested.
“Right. Do you have a glucose meter? Never mind, I’ll bring one. What’s her BP?”
“It’s 96/55. Her pulse is sixty. Both are lower than they were during the exam.”
“Hmm,” he grunted.
“It’s probably just a reaction to the HPV vaccine, but I thought you’d want to know.”
“I’ll be there as quick as I can. I’m on the far side of the hospital.”
“Hey, guess who’s waking up. See you in a minute.”
She hung up on him and watched as Nyxie pulled her feet off the chair and push herself to a sitting position. When she reached to pull the oxygen off, Emily told her to leave it on for a couple more minutes.
“May I get dressed, please? The floor is really cold.”
“Sure,” she said and reached out to help her stand up. She allowed her to remove the oxygen for as long as it took to slip the dress over her head. Emily noticed Onyx wore no bra.
Nyxie made a face as she picked up the panties. “There’s nothing worse than putting dirty underwear back on,” she said shaking her head.
“Wait. I’ve got some clean ones in my overnight bag. I promise, I got them fresh out of the dryer this morning. She left for a moment and came back with a string thong. “I’d give you a pair of bikinis, but they’d be too big. I figured we could tie a knot on each side to make them fit. I tell my patients not to wear thongs, but I still wear them myself.”
Suddenly, there was a loud knocking on the outer door. “That was quick. Keep the oxygen on and wait here. That’s Declan.”
Emily rushed to the door and let him in. “Declan you can be a real douche.” He gave her an icy stare knowing it was useless to try to shut Emily up when she had something to say. “You didn’t warn that poor girl I was coming. It was her first pelvic exam and she hasn’t been home to shower since her brother’s accident. She was mortified.”
“Damn, I forgot the juice,” he said ignoring every word. “Would you mind running to the vending machine for me while I go check on her?”
He handed her two one-dollar bills and as soon as she left, he locked the door and went in search of Nyxie. She sat on the edge of the chair barefoot and pale. He unzipped the glucose meter’s case and quickly pulle
d a lancet. Without a word, he picked up her hand, swiped her finger with an alcohol pad and pricked her finger making her jump. He ignored the hostile look she gave him as he squeezed her finger until a large drop of blood appeared. He pulled a test strip from the kit and quickly had her results. He frowned at the number and his gaze shifted to her.
“I brought you food to eat. Did you eat it?”
“I wasn’t really hungry.”
In an instant his demeanor changed. “Kowtow,” he said removing the oxygen.
“What?”
“Kowtow. Kneeled down and put your forehead on the ground. Now!”
She scrambled out of the chair onto the floor. “Put your hands under your forehead and put your ass in the air.”
He unbuckled his belt and pulled it from the loops. With one finger, he raised the hem of her pink polyester uniform to expose her thong-clad ass. Doubling the belt in half, he raised his arm. “The only sound I want to hear from you is the count.”
“This one is for disobeying me. If you had eaten the sandwich like you were told, you wouldn’t have fainted.” He let his arm fly and angled the blow high on her left cheek and low on the right.
A shaky breath escaped her lips. “One.” she said quietly.
“One, sir,” he corrected. “And for not taking care of your health. Your body belongs to me.”
The blow caught her at the same angle, but slightly higher on her buttocks. Her breathing increased.
“Two, sir.”
“And for making me punish you at work.”
The lash was hard and punishing and level across her ass, crisscrossing the bright red welts forming on her skin. She breathed a hard breath in through her nose and out her open mouth.
“Three, sir.”
“And this is for making me rush through your first punishment. I should have been able to anticipate this, take it slowly and plan each mark.”
He struck her lower catching part of her sex. She whimpered softly still trying to get her breathing under control.
The Love She Craves: Selling Her Soul to Declan Page 7