“Right on top of you.” Caden smacked his brother on the back, then said to Jay, “I’ll do the report. You go find my sister a ring.”
Stunned, Jay smiled, because he hated paperwork, and Caden offering to do it so Jay could do something special for Alina touched him. “Thanks, man.”
Jay didn’t hesitate. He didn’t want Caden to change his mind, and he couldn’t wait to get the ring. One step closer to making Alina his wife.
Wow.
His stomach tightened and a surge of adrenaline shot through him and amped his excitement.
He was going to propose, get married, and have a wife. It kind of felt unreal and at the same time long overdue. He and Alina would be so happy together. They had so much to look forward to. The only dark cloud, this thing with Noel. But he’d get to the bottom of that soon and eliminate any threat to Alina’s future. She’d worked hard to earn her degree and put all her money on the line to go into business. He wouldn’t let her lose it all.
If Noel tried to take it from her, he’d put that smarmy bastard down.
Chapter Thirty
“Mother f-ing dumbshit.” Alina bolted up from her seat in front of the computer, nearly toppling the chair. Rage and panic seized her heart and knotted her stomach.
Mandi took two quick steps back to avoid the fury Alina could barely contain. “It’s bad, isn’t it?”
Alina raked her fingers through her hair and tried to contain her frustration and the very real fear that this could ruin her life. “Bad would be accidentally refilling a prescription for a dead person because someone in their family is stealing the meds. This is fraud, theft, a violation of state and federal law. This is stealing Schedule II drugs to sell them on the street to addicts who could potentially overdose.”
“You think he’s dealing?”
“Or selling them to a buyer who is selling them on the street. He’s discounted the purchases in the system and paid the very least he could get away with ‘selling’ them without alerting the feds that something is off in the accounting or purchase tracking. If we hadn’t discovered that the two people who died are still our customers, I don’t know that we would have ever found this.”
Mandi winced. “Thirty-six people on the list of deceased.”
“Thirty-six people refilling drugs at a hefty discount. Sixteen doctors who didn’t prescribe those refills.” They’d made one call after the next to confirm none of the doctors was involved. Noel was smart enough to refill on a schedule, so it didn’t look like patients were abusing or selling. He never submitted them to the insurance companies, who would have known the patient died. He didn’t refill all thirty-six at the same time. How he kept track, she didn’t know, but he had a system and had been doing this for over a year, adding new people as they died and those prescriptions could fall into his refill plot.
She had another list of patients who reported drugs stolen, lost, or damaged who needed a replacement refill. Mandi called five out of the nine on the list and found only one legitimate.
Mandi also looked up local home robberies and discovered not only the two people who had died, but several others who were customers. She checked the records to see if those individuals came in the week of or before their home was broken into to refill a prescription and if it was a narcotic or stimulant. The news wasn’t good.
“He’s got to be working with someone who sells them on the street.”
Alina sighed. “Okay, the pills are worth a lot of money, but Noel can only supply so much per month without raising suspicions. He’s found a way to create a steady flow, but with demand rising, he needs another way to get more pills. So what does he do?” She thought about the pieces they had gathered. “He does what we did. He pulls a report for all Schedule II prescriptions filled that week or month. You can’t steal from the same person twice, so he marks off the ones they’ve already hit. He finds a new prescription. He gives the names to his street dealer, who robs the person and steals the drugs. He sells drugs . . . burglary’s not that big a leap. Noel plays the odds that most people keep their medication at home and only take a pill or two with them to work or whatever. Some people, like me, get a seven- or ten-day supply for an injury and probably don’t take all of them. Even if they only score a small amount, it’s still money in their pocket.”
“That’s a huge risk.”
“Noel would know how many pills should be on hand based on the prescription. If he filled it and had the robbery take place a day or two later, the bulk of the pills would be there for the taking. His dealer sells them. A few pills sold at steep rates on the streets covers the cash cost here with the deep discount for the prescription refills on the deceased patients. The records look up-to-date and no money is missing from the accounting.”
Mandi consulted her computer screen and the list of customers who had been robbed. Who knew how many other robberies had occurred and not been reported in a news article easy to find on the internet? They may have only hit the tip of the iceberg with their cursory research.
With the information they did gather, they’d created quite a few spreadsheets detailing how Noel worked. She’d be able to hand it over to the DEA or FBI, whoever took the case and shut Noel down and possibly the pharmacy. She hoped to be able to keep her license. It didn’t seem likely. She might even have to serve time. Because, disturbingly, Noel started using her ID number on many of the refills over the last two months. On paper, or in megabytes, it looked like she was complicit.
“I’ve updated the robbery spreadsheet. You’re right. Each of the robberies occurred a couple days after we filled the prescription.”
“Right, so even if you or I filled the prescription, he would know about it by pulling the report.”
Mandi nodded, her eyes sad and confused and angry. Noel’s little side business put all of them at risk.
“I’ve never seen him with anyone who looks like a drug dealer.” Mandi hit Save on her updated spreadsheet.
“I saw him arguing with two guys out back a while ago. They took off in a truck. I asked him about it. He said you were arguing with your new boyfriend.” Alina remembered something else. “But that wasn’t right because like twenty minutes later you came back from break and your boyfriend came in to return your sweater.”
“I remember that. You said you knew about our fight, but I didn’t know how you’d know since it happened at home the night before.”
“I remember thinking that Noel had lied to me, but we got busy and I forgot about it.”
“That’s the night you got in your car accident.”
Memories from that night hit her at odd moments. But the foggy fragment right at the end before she passed out had never been clear until now. “Oh shit. I saw him.”
“Noel?”
She shook her head, trying to bring the image in her mind into clearer focus. The guy in the other car didn’t have Noel’s darker hair. But he had a tattoo on his arm. “He had light shaggy hair. Like one of the guys I saw at the back door arguing, not with you, but with Noel. And the same snake tattoo circling up his arm.”
Mandi fell back in her chair. “You don’t think Noel sent him after you?”
Her heart raced with the possibility. “If you asked me that two hours ago, I’d have said no. But now, I don’t know.” She didn’t want to go there, but she had to accept that the man she thought she knew yesterday was not the same man revealed to her today in all she’d discovered.
“He seemed genuinely worried about me after it happened. In fact, his intense concern and questions made me uncomfortable. I think he might have suspected it had something to do with him.” Her stomach soured.
“Oh God.” Mandi pointed to Alina’s face. “Are you going to tell me now how you got that cut and bruise on your lip? It was Noel, wasn’t it?”
Someone knocked on the front door, startling them. Alina glanced at the clock on her computer. “We’re a couple minutes late opening.” Alina tossed Mandi her keys. “Go open the doors. I’ll close this all up an
d transfer the files to a flash drive.”
“Two.”
“Why two?”
“Give one to me for safekeeping. Just in case.” Mandi spun around, purple hair flaring out, and flew out the door to answer the knocking that had turned to all-out banging.
Alina took the clipped bundles of paperwork she’d printed out and stacked them in a file folder. She closed out the open windows on her computer and dragged the file folder to the thumb drive. It took a minute to transfer the files, but once done, she pulled the thumb drive out, replaced it with another she found in her drawer with the pharmacy name and logo on it. They handed them out as promotional items sometimes. Files flipped from the folder onto the thumb drive on her computer. While it finished, she went to Mandi’s computer and transferred the folder she’d created with all her research on the accidents, the two deaths, the records for the refills for all the deceased, and the spreadsheets that showed when and for whom the refills were done.
They had a lot of information, but nothing that proved definitively that Noel was linked to the robberies and deaths. She wanted that proof.
Pharmacists consulted patients on the proper use of medications. Noel went against all they strived to do to help their customers. He was sending highly addictive drugs out into the streets where some kid looking for a high could take too much and die. She thought of the soccer mom Jay had busted driving with her toddler in the car.
Her heart couldn’t take the horrible scenarios playing out in her head.
Mandi popped her head in the door as she pulled the second drive out of the computer. “I need you up front. Someone has a question about their medication and another customer wants a flu shot.”
“Be right there.” She stuffed one of the memory sticks in her pocket and held the other out to Mandi. “Put that somewhere no one will find it. No matter what, if Noel asks you if you know anything about what I’ve been doing, you say no. Can you do that?”
“I’m only a few years from being a teen. I think I can still lie with a straight face like I used to do when I told my mom that smell coming off me wasn’t pot.”
Alina sucked in a ragged breath and ran her fingers through her hair.
Mandi laid her hand on Alina’s shoulder. “Are you going to tell Jay and your brothers now?”
“Yes. I’ll hand this all over to them and hope they can save my ass.”
Mandi squeezed her shoulder. “Jay won’t let anything happen to you. He loves you.”
“You think so?” She had no doubt, but wanted to hear what Mandi, someone who wasn’t as close to her and Jay as everyone else in their lives, thought.
“It’s so obvious every time he looks at you.” Mandi glanced down the hall toward the counter. “Come on. Nothing we can do right now. The morning crowd is growing.”
Alina switched gears from super sleuth to pharmacist. With Noel out today, she’d be busy until closing. She wouldn’t even get out of here for lunch. No time to meet with Jay. She’d have to wait until tonight. If he didn’t have to work late.
She hoped they talked soon. She didn’t want to wait. Noel was not going to get away with any of this. She wanted the supply coming from her pharmacy shut down. Even if that meant she had to close the business to do it. The community needed them, but she’d do whatever was necessary to keep those drugs off the streets and out of the hands of people who could die from using them.
Two deaths were too much blood on Noel’s hands.
God knew if anyone had overdosed because of him.
Those two thoughts weighed heavy in her heart. So much so, she could barely stand it.
No more. She loved her job, but it wasn’t worth someone’s life. She needed to stop him before anything else bad happened.
She put the thick folder in her messenger bag and hurried out to help Mandi through the morning rush.
Chapter Thirty-One
Alina’s troubles took a backseat to the busy morning and afternoon at the pharmacy. Understanding the dire circumstances and suspecting something happened between Alina and Noel the night before, Mandi hadn’t left her alone all day. They ordered delivery for lunch and ate between customers during the lull.
Alina hated seeing the worry in Mandi’s eyes.
The knot in Alina’s stomach had turned into a lead ball. While most of the day she’d been able to focus on work, now that the steady stream of customers had slowed down, she fretted over what to do next. She liked to plan, be in control, and do things in a methodical way. It made her good at her job. But the moment she revealed Noel’s nefarious activities, everything would be out of her hands.
She didn’t want this to touch Mandi. She’d been a good and loyal employee.
It scared her to let go and trust that things would work out. Jay and her brothers would try to protect her, but with all Noel had done, she didn’t delude herself into believing they could save her.
Alina put another order into the system and picked up the phone to call yet another doctor’s office to get an alternative medication for the one not covered under the patient’s plan when the back door opened and Noel stepped in, face grim, his eyes darkened by lack of sleep. He walked toward the door separating her from the back area, his gaze steady on her through the window. She waited for him to enter his code and come inside, but he veered off into the office instead.
“What’s he doing here?” Mandi whispered.
“Stay here. I’m going to find out.”
Mandi held her arm. “Don’t. Let it go until you talk to Jay.”
“I’m not going to say anything about what I know. But I do want to see what he’s up to now. Every minute I don’t turn him in gives him the opportunity to get me in deeper. I can’t let that happen.” Alina patted Mandi’s hand, then went to the office.
Noel snagged the paper off the printer the second it spilled into the tray.
“What are you doing here? I asked you to take the day off.”
“That’s not how I remember it, Alina. Your boyfriend pulled a gun on me”—Noel jammed his finger into his chest—“while you ordered me out of my business.”
“Our business,” she snapped. “You seem to have forgotten we’re partners. What you do affects me. That stunt you pulled last night—”
“Is that what you told him? I came on to you.” Noel shook his head. “You’ve been playing this game since you arrived. Hot one minute, cold the next.”
She couldn’t believe he wanted to turn this back on her. “You’re the one playing games.”
“You made it pretty clear last night you wanted me to kiss you, standing close to me, putting your hand on my arm, drawing so close I could smell you with every breath I took. The second I give in to your invitation, you put up a fight because your boyfriend showed up and you didn’t want to get caught.”
She tried to contain the fiery fury raging through her, heating her face. “The only thing I offered was compassion for what you’re going through with Lee. Your wife. Remember her? Because I do. I would never interfere in someone’s relationship.”
His voice dropped an octave as his eyes scanned her body. “Yet you flirt and walk around this place in those skintight pants and transparent tops.”
A burst of laughter shot out of her at the ridiculous statement. Her slacks fit, but were far from skintight. If her blouses were ever transparent, she wore a matching tank underneath. She was always dressed professionally.
And she wore her white coat, which covered most of what she was wearing from shoulders to mid-thigh.
Maybe he believed the baseless accusation, or maybe he was deflecting and trying to get her to not dig into the business if she was stuck on their personal relationship. That wasn’t as personal as he obviously thought.
She planted her hands on her hips. “You have some imagination. What I wear, how I act, doesn’t give you the right to touch me. You acted inappropriately. You’re married. That should mean something.”
“My wife is dying.” No hope filled those
words, just a finality that brought out his anger. “She might as well be dead for all the attention I get from her.” The bitter words stunned Alina. “So, yeah, I fell for your smarts, that killer body, all those smiles and pats you give me. I ate it up.” Lust filled his eyes. “When you offered more, I took it.”
She couldn’t believe he’d complimented and insulted her all at the same time. “Noel, let me be clear. I never offered you anything but friendship. Jay and I are together.”
“I’m sure you went out of your way to make up with your boyfriend last night.” His eyes swept over her body in a lascivious gaze that made her want to take a shower.
She wouldn’t let him taint what she and Jay shared or put the blame on her. “Why aren’t you home with your wife? She needs you. That’s why you wanted a partner, right? So you could be home with her and help her recover.”
“You’re not listening. She’s not going to recover this time.”
“Give the treatments a chance to work. Don’t give up.”
He rolled his eyes. “I came in to put the orders through because I didn’t think you’d have time to do them today, but I see you already did it.”
“We’ve been quite busy, but I did them as things slowed down.”
“Yeah, business is great. The customers love you.” The resentment in his voice turned the weight in her gut to a burning ball of unease.
“Noel, this isn’t like you.” She wanted to give him a chance to explain and make her understand. One last chance to tell her how he got to this place and that he wanted out. “Please, tell me what’s going on. Maybe I can help.”
His gaze locked on hers. In his, she saw all the worry, confusion, regret, and inevitability he couldn’t hide behind his anger and resentment.
He opened his mouth to say something, but snapped it shut and shook his head. “You don’t want to help me. You want to destroy me.” He shot past her and headed for the back door, the paper he’d printed crushed in his hand.
Alina hit a few buttons on the printer for the log and reprinted the last job. She picked up the paper and stared at the list of customers, their addresses, and the prescriptions filled.
Tempted by Love Page 26