Surrender My Love

by Lisa Eugene

  “Gloria said she saw him, said he looked hot,” Sally added.

  “I saw him too, just as we were leaving. He had some gorgeous woman wrapped around him like a belt,” Susan giggled.

  Sally snickered and grinned. “Guess he’s getting lucky tonight!”

  Chloe grimaced, feeling her bubble wobbling.

  Her heart stuttered to a stop. She rolled down the window to let in fresh air, feeling her empty stomach lurch.

  “That woman looked like she was ready to jump his bones. I think she’s a model. Just the type I’d expect him to go for. You know, perfect face, perfect legs, perfect ass. Men can be so superficial!”

  Pop…Chloe bit hard on her lip. Who wanted to live in a bubble anyway?

  Sally snorted. “Come on Susan, like women don’t appreciate a beautiful package too?”

  “Oh I can definitely appreciate a beautiful package,” she giggled, “but there’s something to be said for brains too.”

  “Hell, the man’s a genius and I bet he’s packing. He’s probably an animal in bed.”

  “I’ll admit he’s gorgeous, but I can’t think of him that way. He’s so intense. He holds everyone to impossible standards, expects perfection. He’s tough on the residents too. Plus, he makes me way too nervous. I’d probably faint before he got my clothes off.”

  “I think I’d enjoy him even unconscious!”

  Chloe listened as her friends chortled, the noise filling the cab, causing more tumult in her stomach.

  “Chloe, did you see him?” Sally asked.

  She swallowed the acid that had risen into her mouth and shook her head. “No…no.”

  “Good. Would have ruined your evening. I know how much you dislike him.” Susan turned to Sally. “He almost got her fired.”

  “I heard,” Sally’s mouth turned down sympathetically. “I’m sure it was just a threat. Don’t give him a second thought.”

  Chloe nodded and turned back towards the window, thankful that the conversation soon streamed to a different topic. That woman Brad had been with had been stunning. Just his type, as Susan had said. They did make a handsome couple, and she really shouldn’t care. She just wished the turbulence inside her stomach would subside, because right now the churning organ wanted to be rid of its meager contents.

  A week later, Chloe was diligently making midnight rounds at work. It was the practice of the night nurses to check on their patients every half hour. The steady beam of her flashlight sliced though the dim haze of the hall as she quietly made her way from room to room, scanning each patient. She checked for rising chests, dripping IVs, intact tubes and assured that safety bars were in place on the beds. Exiting the room of her last patient, she headed to the nurse’s station, bumping into Susan at the medication cart. Her brows twisted, puzzled because Susan was supposed to be on break. Chloe glanced at her watch.

  “You’re back too early, Susan. You still have fifteen minutes left.”

  Susan sighed and faced her. The long blonde hair she usually wore up was tied in a haphazard knot behind her head and her stethoscope dangled askew around her neck.

  “I know. I just wanted to get a head start on giving out my meds. I’ve had the worst night.”

  Chloe frowned. She knew Susan had been busy with her patients. They hadn’t had a chance to chat all night. Susan was usually spirited and jovial at work, but tonight she was tense and seemed overwhelmed with her duties. Chloe had offered help several times, but Susan insisted she was fine.

  “Can I help with anything?” Chloe offered again, watching her hold a vial upside done and plunge a long needle through the rubber stopper.

  Susan shook her head, almost dislodging the knot of hair at her nape. “No. It’s just that Mr. Kaplan is driving me nuts!”

  “Why?” Chloe watched the syringe fill with clear liquid.

  “He’s just so confused tonight, and agitated. He hasn’t slept at all. The phlebotomist was here earlier to draw his blood and I had to help hold him down. I’m giving him more of his sedative.”

  Chloe instantly felt the hairs on the back of her neck ripple to life. A slow tremor of apprehension quivered her stomach, and she fingered the small flashlight inside her pocket. Memories of the horrific night almost two weeks ago clicked through her brain in terrifying snapshots. Taking a deep breath, she blew the anxiety away. She was being ridiculous. They worked on a geriatric ward. Patients were confused all the time. Maybe Mr. Kaplan just needed someone to sit with him for a while. Her arm reached out to still Susan’s arm, stopping her as she placed a cap on the threatening looking needle and turned towards Mr. Kaplan’s room.

  “Wait, Susan. Why don’t you finish taking your break? You’ve been running around all night. I’ll check on Mr. Kaplan.” She reached for the syringe in Susan’s hand.

  Susan frowned and pulled the syringe out of reach. “It’s okay. I’ll do it.”

  Chloe smiled and took the syringe from Susan’s hand. She shoved it in the front pocket of her nurse’s uniform and patted her friend’s sloping shoulders. “Don’t worry. Finish your break. You need it. If he needs more sedative, I’ll administer it.”

  She smiled and waved her tired friend into the lounge at the back of the nurse’s station, then patted her pocket with the syringe. She really had no intention of using it. She found that most of the agitated patients tended to curb their erratic behavior when faced with a calming presence. Most of the time it was just fear or anxiety that spurred their volatile state. She swiveled her head to look for Justin, but not seeing him, she assumed he was in a patient’s room.

  The nursing station provided the only light for the ward and the dark halls suddenly seemed eerily quiet. Not a snore or machine’s beeping disturbed the silence. Chloe started down the hall, guided by the thin yellow beam of her flashlight. Her steps slowed as she grew closer to Mr. Kaplan’s room. She rubbed a sweaty palm along the front of her white dress, cursing the accelerating thud of her heart for reacting to the foolish dread rearing up inside her.

  She stopped outside the room and her eyes narrowed. A puzzled frown pinched her forehead. Mr. Kaplan’s door was closed. The policy was to never close the door of a confused patient. It was always left ajar in case the patient called out in need. Susan was a seasoned nurse and never would have pulled it shut. But then, Susan was having a rough night and might have done so inadvertently.

  Chloe turned her head to peer back down the hall, thinking that the station seemed very far away. A sudden chill sent a wave of cold air prickling down her back, and she tensed her muscles to ward off the sensation. Her flashlight found the door knob in the dark, and with an unsteady hand she pushed the door open.

  She gasped at the sudden force that slammed against her, knocking her back into the wall and jolting the breath from her body. Her flashlight fell from her hands and rolled along the tile, the beam catching the tail of a lab coat before suddenly disappearing. It took a moment for her to recover her bearings and realize it had been a body that knocked her down. The thud of her heart became a drum in her ears, beating a fast-thumping fear. Someone had pushed her aside. She could hear their hurried steps racing toward the stairwell. She yelled for Justin, but only the thick quiet responded. Quickly she straightened and found the flashlight. Flicking it on, she hastily turned to step into Mr. Kaplan’s room. The yellow glow landed on a pale face right in front of her and she let out a choked scream. Nigel took a step towards her, looking as startled as she felt.

  “What’s the matter?”

  Chloe clutched her galloping heart and took a breath. She pointed in the direction the person had fled, now hearing the heavy stairwell door opening.

  “I—I”

  The door banged shut and Nigel jerked his head.

  “What’s going on?” he whispered.

  “Someone just ran out of Mr. Kaplan’s room. They went through the back stairwell.”

  “Are you okay?”

  Chloe nodded, trying to catch her breath.

  “I�
�m gonna check it out,” he said, then took off in the direction of the stairwell.

  Chloe took quick steps into Mr. Kaplan’s room. It was dark, and even though she had the flashlight, she flicked on the overhead light. She turned towards the bed and her heart froze still in her chest. With ice churning through her veins and her eyes round and wide, she raced to the bed. It was just seconds later that her voice exploded and she screamed the breath from her lungs.

  “Code Blue! Code Blue! Room 416!”

  Chloe sat on a well-worn couch in the nurses’ lounge. Clutching the cup of tea that someone had placed into her shaky hands, she looked into the sober faces of her supervisors. Nurse Wall was present, standing rigidly with her hands clasped behind her back, her lips cinched into a tight line. Standing next to her was Mrs. Chavez, another night charge-nurse. Chloe closed her eyes, attempting to shut out their stony gazes, but all she could see was the slack, pasty face of poor Mr. Kaplan. Despite every effort to revive him, he hadn’t woken from death’s deep slumber.

  “Tell us again about the noise you heard, Chloe?” Mrs. Chavez asked.

  Chloe swallowed and wiped the moisture from her eyes. She’d already been through this story several times and drugging exhaustion was starting to claim her.

  “It was the sound of the stairwell door opening and then closing shut. That’s where he ran.”

  “He?” Nurse Wall pounced. “I thought you said you didn’t know if the person was male or female.”

  Chloe blinked. “I—I don’t know. I mean he or she. I didn’t get a good look, but I guess my general impression is that it was a he.”

  “How can you say that if you’re not sure?” Nurse Wall countered. “And did you not have a flashlight?”

  “Yes. As I said, it had fallen. He…the person knocked it out of my hand.”

  Chloe sighed. She was so tired she didn’t know what she was saying or thinking anymore. She felt like she’d been speaking with them for hours, and she was still shaking from the rushing adrenaline of the Code Blue. Mrs. Chavez had the same square build as Nurse Wall, and the two stood stationary, almost identically dressed in white, hair short and shaggy. She couldn’t help but think that they looked like two giant fluffy marshmallows, and she had the absurd urge to laugh. Laugh because inside she was so miserable and confused that her emotions were grossly disorganized. The image of her supervisors was contrary to their intent. They were anything but sweet and mushy. Any moment now she expected them to shine a bright light in her eyes and slide bamboo shoots under her nails. Mrs. Chavez’s voice stabbed through her skull, continuing the inquisition, and Chloe looked up.

  “Did you go after the person?” Mrs. Chavez was asking.

  She shook her head. “No. Like I said, Nigel did. I guess he didn’t find anyone or we would know by now. The rest of the night was just chaos.”

  “Did Nigel get a look at the person?”

  “I don’t think so. He showed up after the person ran off. I think he just heard the noise—the door slamming shut.” Chloe shrugged her sloping shoulders. “You’d have to ask him.”

  Nurse Wall leaned in, her eyes as sharp as a crow. “Why were you attending to Mr. Kaplan? Why were you going to his room? He was not your patient.”

  “I was just helping Susan. She was having a rough night.”

  Nurse Wall straightened and smiled tightly. “Always willing to lend a hand, aren’t you, Nurse Bennett?”

  Chloe frowned, wondering at Nurse Wall’s sarcasm. Her brain was too lethargic to bother trying to decipher the snide remark.

  “It appears you’ve had a rough night as well. You’re off for the next few days, correct? You’re back on Tuesday?”

  Chloe shook her head, remembering the conference she’d signed up for. “I took Tuesday off to go to the Omega Pharmaceuticals conference. I won’t be back at work until Wednesday.”

  Mrs. Chavez stepped forward. “Try and get some rest.”

  Rest…Again she almost laughed out loud. In the next few days, she had to take her mother to three doctor appointments, meet with her landlord to see if she could do half the rent this month then make it up later, and get all the grocery shopping done for the week. She also had to cover one of the aide’s shifts that her brother had promised to do then reneged. Since she’d denied him access to the accounts, he’d been more and more unreliable. He was always late. Sometimes he cancelled last minute or just didn’t show up. Mrs. Chavez’s voice continued, interrupting her thoughts.

  “I know this has been quite an ordeal. Thank you for the information. Hopefully by Wednesday we’ll have some more answers. Also, please keep what happened between us. I don’t want the staff to know that there was a stranger on the ward. I don’t want a panic to ensue. Also, the patients and family members may think it’s not safe here at WMH.”

  Chloe nodded slowly, mulling over Mrs. Chavez’s words. There was one person she’d considered telling.

  “Is that clear, Chloe? You are not to tell anyone.”

  Chloe nodded again with a firm dip of her head.

  “We’ll speak to our superiors and conduct a thorough investigation. We’ll get to the bottom of this. In the meantime, we’ll increase security on the wards and have the guard come around more frequently.”

  Chloe knew the strained smile was meant to reassure her, but she still felt a great deal of unease. She wrapped her arms around her torso, watching the charge nurses walk out the door. Her body felt agitated and jumpy, a strange fluttering sensation as if thousands of tiny bugs crawled under her skin.

  She shook her head, trying to settle her jumbled thoughts. Why would someone be in Mr. Kaplan’s room? Was that person responsible for his death? Why would anyone want to harm an old man in a hospital? There were no signs of trauma on Mr. Kaplan’s body. What could have happened? Was her tired brain jumping to conclusions? And, why was Mr. Kaplan so confused? Chloe chewed her bottom lip. Just like her other two patients who had died. Was it a coincidence?

  She tried to take a deep, calming breath, her mind telling her she was weaving a web of nonsense, stringing together things that didn’t make sense into convoluted knots. Was she just hypersensitive? These patients were elderly. Each with documented dementia. It had been deemed that the other two patients had died of old age. As Brad had said: It could be just a coincidence.

  But there had been someone in Mr. Kaplan’s room. Chloe rubbed her palms up and down her arms, trying to infuse warmth into her cold body.

  She’d been contemplating telling Brad of the events of last night. He was concerned about the deaths too. She wondered if he’d made any progress in finding a reason. Could these deaths be a strange coincidence? At least now the matter of Mr. Kaplan’s death would be investigated by the hospital. She was certain if there was any wrongdoing, the hospital would find it.

  She thought it best to stay away from Brad anyway. She hadn’t seen him since that adventurous night at the club. Not that she’d expected him to seek her out…Well, maybe I’d hoped…,she reluctantly admitted with a sigh. All week she’d been nervous that he’d show up on her ward or that she’d accidentally run into him. But, he hadn’t come. The only memories she had of that night were the slight bruises on her skin that had now all but disappeared. She’d absurdly treasured them—the blush on her right hip where his long fingers had gripped her and a light purple on her pelvis where she’d been pushed into the wall. That was all she had of one of the most incredible nights of her life. That, and the memory of his touch that she relived every night. Her one night stand was becoming an every night dream.

  Chloe blew out a deep breath. Shit! She had to stop. He didn’t do relationships. Loosely translated: Don’t expect to ever hear from me. She sighed. She’d agreed. No regrets. He probably hadn’t given her a second thought.

  The phone rang from Bea’s line and Brad smacked the speaker.

  “What?” he answered rudely, despising the interruption. Two of his patients needed medical clearance before surgery, and he was b
usy reviewing the information sent from their doctors. He’d discharged the actor, but had wasted half the morning trying to discharge Madame LaFontine, who still refused to leave. Of course, she’d suddenly developed chest pain while he’d been in the room and then proceeded to rip her gown open to show him exactly where the pain was…right between her bared silicone implants! Her breasts were about thirty years younger than she was and were the only things that hadn’t suffered the effects of gravity. The contrast was not only startling, but patently frightening. Thank God the nurse had been in the room. He’d prescribed two Tylenols and an antacid for her pain, then absconded, leaving her and her breasts in capable hands.

  “Don’t what me!” Bea’s equally annoyed voice came through the speaker. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you this week. You’ve gone from grumpy to downright ornery!”

  Brad pulled back his shoulders. He knew he’d been agitated and emotionally labile the past week. He felt as though his stress had climbed to a mountainous peak and showed no signs of a descent any time soon. He felt it in the tremors of his hands that forced him to need a slight increase of his medication, and in the erotic dreams that plagued him almost every night. He rubbed his hands over his face. Part of it was that he had a lot on his plate, and part of it was his restless distraction over Chloe. Another reason, he knew, was that since their encounter, just the mere thought of her spurred him to rigid arousal. An arousal he could find no relief for. He’s taken so many cold showers in the past week he was surprised the blood hadn’t frozen solid in his veins.

  He’d decided the best thing was to leave her alone, and he knew that had been the right decision, but he couldn’t seem to get her out of his head. She was woven in between the ganglia and enmeshed in the fibers of his brain. Every thought, every word, every road inevitably led back to Chloe Bennett. He’d seen her walking in the hall one morning during the week and it had taken an enormous effort not to approach her, to remain concealed behind the door until she’d passed by. She’d been with a group of nurses engaged in conversation…smiling…beautiful. She didn’t seem miserable in the least. Didn’t seem to be pining away for him. Nope. No pining at all… just smiling. Happy. Smiling and happy. Happy and smiling. And so am I, dammit!