The Silencer
A Bad Boy MMA Romance
The Silencer
A Bad Boy MMA Romance
By Aubrey Michelle
Copyright 2016 Aubrey Michelle
All Rights Reserved
This book is a work of fiction. Any similarity to real people, places, or events is strictly coincidental. This book may not be reproduced or distributed in any format without the expressed written permission of the author. Exception is made in the case of brief quotations used in published reviews.
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Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Epilogue
Bonus Content
Bonus Story #1
Bonus Story #2
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Chapter One
Shelly
What in the hell is wrong with these people?
That was the only thing going through my mind as Amanda and Paula stormed out of the conference room. They were pouting like teenage girls because neither of them had gotten their way. It was ridiculous really. They’re CNA’s and think they get to pick and choose which residents they’re willing to care for. I wanted to yell and let them know that things don’t work like that, but it wasn’t my place. As usual, however, I bit my tongue and let them battle it out.
Fights and arguments are nothing new among the staff at the First Hope Assisted Living Center. So far, management has been able to keep it hidden from the residents but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before that changes. So what was the fight about that morning? Neither one of the girls wanted to give Anthony Reddick his shower. Apparently, he bites and they’re both sick of it. Of course, they completely ignore the fact that he’s mentally disabled and has no idea that what he’s doing is wrong. They just wanted to pass the buck onto someone else.
The writing was already on the wall. Before the end of the week, I’d be diving into the stacks of applications that we keep on file so I could interview for at least one new CNA. I’ve been here since I was 19 years old and since that time, I had seen so many come and go. In the four years since I became a Registered Nurse and I had given more say into who was hired, I must have interviewed close to a thousand candidates and hired hundreds. At least it seemed like that many.
In this business, turnover is naturally high. It doesn’t help our cause that the pay is low and we’ll bring on almost anyone with a pulse. If they’re of legal age and pass a background check, we’ll hire them and train them. We don’t have a choice in the matter. Believe me, I wish we could be picky and could get good, qualified candidates in the door but we’re in Detroit and we have to take what we can get.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a bed being wheeled in through the back door. I wasn’t told there was going to be a new arrival so I was caught off guard. I glanced down at my desk to see if the patient’s file had been sent to me but there was nothing there.
“Maggie, do we have information on the new patient being brought in?” She’s our assistant director of nursing and I figured she’d be the best person to ask.
“I have no idea, sweetie,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders. “Nobody told me we had anyone new coming in. Nobody really tells me anything anymore. It’s becoming harder and harder to do my job.”
Tell me about it. It’s like we’re constantly being set up to fail.
“Okay, I’ll see what I can find out.”
I could feel my blood beginning to boil. Was I the only person other than Maggie that actually took my job seriously? Were we the only two people in the building who gave a damn about the residents that were under our care. It sure as hell was beginning to feel like it.
As the intake nurse—well, the fill-in intake nurse since we were short—it was my duty to take care of the new patients coming into our facility. That was going to be impossible now. Between the meeting that our director insisted on and the juvenile fighting that tacked on nearly 45 minutes, I was way behind already.
Looking at the clock, I could see that several of my patients were going to be way behind on their medications. It sure would be nice to have a med-tech on staff. With the administration unwilling to spend any more money than absolutely necessary, there were only four people on staff qualified to hand out medication. Maggie had a truly hectic schedule and there was no way she could do it. Angie Jackson, the director of the facility, probably could have made time but didn’t. That left Candace Jackson, Angie’s niece, who could do it but simply didn’t. Being the director’s niece, she got away with doing the minimum amount of work necessary.
Regardless of how backed up I was; I knew there wasn’t going to be any help from anyone. I printed the medication list and grabbed the keys off my desk before making my way back to the supply office, which was where all the medicine was kept. Patient by patient, I made my way down the list, filling small plastic cups with the correct doses the patients needed.
“Shelly? Can you come in here and give me a hand?”
That’s never a sound I want to hear coming from one of my CNA’s. There’s a reason we always have at least two on the schedule at all times. When one of them has to call for me, something is usually wrong. I locked the door to the medicine room and went to see what she wanted.
“I’m really sorry to bother you,” Paula said with wide eyes as she threw her hands in the air. “I need to get everyone out of bed so I can get them ready for lunch and I can’t find Amanda anywhere. There’s no way I can get everyone ready on time without her help.”
Unfortunately, I didn’t need to hear anything else to know exactly what happened. I’d seen it plenty of times before. Amanda had walked out in the middle of her shift, leaving us short-handed. I could try to call someone else in but it’s hard enough to get people to come in for their scheduled shifts and I didn’t have the time to beg. Paula needed my help and the residents had to eat.
The ninety minutes that followed were stressful but the two of us handled it like the professionals we were. By the time we were done, all the residents who needed medication had it and everyone who needed to be taken to the cafeteria was about to enjoy their lunch.
As much as I would have loved some down time while the residents ate their meals, I still needed to figure out who this new patient was. His chart still hadn’t shown up on my desk so I had no clue what I was dealing with.
“Hey, what do we know about this new boy that came in today?” I asked Angie, who of course was reveling in a lunch after a rou
gh day of not doing anything. “I haven’t received any information on him.”
“Oh, him? Yeah, I gave his chart to Candace to give to you.”
Candace, who was having lunch with her aunt, reached behind her and got into her bag.
“Sorry about that,” she chewed her food, annoying me even more. “With all the commotion going on around here today, I must have forgotten to give these to you,” she said with a smart-ass attitude. What in the hell did she know about all the commotion? She was nowhere to be found when she was needed. Of course, I’d learned to expect nothing less.
There was so much I wanted to say but I knew it wasn’t going to do me any good. I had dreams and career aspirations that I wasn’t willing to compromise by letting my temper get the better of me. Instead, I put on my happy face and went off to meet the new resident. Looking at the chart, I saw that his name was Casey Stark.
“Hello, Casey! My name is Shelly McIntyre and I’m going to be your nurse.” He greeted me with a blank stare. I could see that he was going to be placed into our special needs unit. According to his chart, not only was he mentally challenged from birth but he was also paralyzed from the neck down.
I began taking his initial vitals and examined him. He looked weak, and a little too thin for a boy his age. I noted a few bed sores that would need cleaning and treatment, and recorded those in the chart. No patient under my care would ever have wounds like that. When I was finished recording his information into the chart, I bent down so that I was eye level with him and smiled. It must have been scary for him to be in a new, unfamiliar place.
“Dietary will be bringing your lunch to you in just a little while. I’m going to have a look at your chart and I’ll be back to check on you soon.”
I went back to my desk, reading Casey’s chart as I walked, to sit down for the first time since I had come in. For some reason, the new patient had me intrigued. Reading the chart, I was surprised to see that there was almost no information included whatsoever. I learned that he had been paralyzed for three years and had come to our center because of family complaints about where he had been previously.
Something else that surprised me about Casey was that his parents were not listed as he legal guardians. The forms listed Jason Stark, the resident’s brother, as the person responsible for making his medical decisions. I was going to find Angie so I could get some additional information for the chart when I looked up and saw someone staring through the rectangle window on Casey’s door.
Jason
It might have been 2:00 in the afternoon but it was still a little too early for me. It had been a long night. I’d been in the main event of Monster Cage Fighting 17 and came out victorious. It was my sixth win in a row by knockout and I couldn’t help but feel like I was on my way to bigger things.
With each win, my dreams of moving on to the big leagues seemed a little closer. I had never been good at anything in my life but when it came to fighting, I was a natural. My home life was shit. Growing up, education wasn’t encouraged at all. I had no skills to fall back on. If I was going to make sure my brother was taken care of, I had no choice but to make it with the big boys, the champs.
I could replay the previous night’s fight in my mind with ease. My opponent came at me hard and fast, swinging wildly as he closed the distance. His biggest problem was that after he swung, he dropped his hands, giving me a clear shot of his chin. Twenty-three seconds after the opening bell, he was lying flat on his back looking up at the lights, incapacitated.
The rest of the night was more of a blur, however. I went out to celebrate my win and I celebrated hard. Shots flowed freely—as did the women—and I took down every one of them faster than I took down my opponent. I don’t even remember going home but I’m sure I’ll never forget the hangover I woke up with. As much as I wanted to stay in bed, I knew what my priorities were.
I walked into First Hope just in time to see a nurse reading the chart in Casey’s room. I was happy to see her smiling and she seemed to be friendly. Of course, the nurses at Grand Mountain seemed nice too as long as I was around. I stood in the hall, a few doors down from the room my brother was in. I was standing at an angle that allowed me to see into the room while remaining relatively inconspicuous. I was hoping to observe her a little more but she was leaving just as I got there. She walked right past me, not giving me a second thought.
After she left his side, I walked up to his room and looked through the small rectangle window. He appeared to be sleeping and I didn’t want to bother him so I just watched him sleep for a moment. I was sure the move must have taken a lot out of him. Besides, my head was pounding so I doubted I was going to be very good company.
“Hi, my name’s Shelly McIntyre. Are you Casey’s family?” his nurse asked, sneaking up on me.
“What? Oh, yeah. I’m Jason. Casey is my brother.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Jason. I’m the RN on duty and will be your brother’s nurse. I was just looking over Casey’s chart. You’re the legal guardian?”
“Yes, I am and I want to let you know that I DO watch over my little brother and I won’t think twice about raising hell and turning people in if he isn’t taken care of.”
“That’s completely understandable and I assure you that he is in very capable hands here.”
“Is that right? That’s what I was told by his previous nurse and that didn’t work out very well.”
“There really isn’t a lot of information in his chart, so I can see why you would say that. I also noticed he has a few bed sores.”
“There’s not? That’s pretty fucking convenient. Those lazy asses couldn’t even document a chart? Pathetic.”
“I’m sorry?” she asked, seeming to be confused.
“Look, the last shit hole I had my brother in treated him terribly. He wasn’t in there long before he turned up with bed sores and was dropping weight.”
“Oh my God, that’s terrible,” her eyes seemed to register exactly what I was saying. It was like she knew.
“Yeah, but it gets worse. After I had complained about it, things didn’t get any better. Each time I visited, I started noticing bruises on him that nobody was able to explain. It was like they were pissed at me for saying something about his bed sores and were taking it out on him when I wasn’t around.”
She looked like she was at a loss for words as I continued. “Look, if I could afford it, I’d put him in a much nicer place than this but I can’t so I’m hoping he can actually get somewhat decent care while he’s here.”
“Jason, I’m sorry to hear about how your brother was treated. I can assure you that as long as I’m around here, none of our patients will be abused in any way. I wouldn’t stand for it and neither would our assistant director of nursing. As long as your brother is in our care, I’ll make sure he’s treated like one of my own family members.”
“I appreciate everything you’re saying to me but it means nothing. I’ll believe everything you’re saying when I see it.”
“Fair enough. You’re more than welcome to go on in. His lunch will be around soon. We have people to help him eat but you’re more than welcome to feed him if you prefer. I’ve got to check on some of the other residents but I’ll be around if you need me. Just come find me.”
She grabbed her charts and took off down the hall. I knew I came off harsh but I didn’t give a shit. My brother was more important than her feelings. The nurse herself, though? She was hot as hell.
CHAPTER TWO
Shelly
It was already approaching two hours past when I should have been off but I knew I wasn’t going home anytime soon. There was still so much left to do and I knew that if I didn’t finish everything, they’d all be waiting for the next day. Heaven forbid one of the other RN’s actually get off their ass and do their job. Maybe it’s all my fault. I’m sure they’ve figured out by now that if they just sit around at their computers playing on Facebook, I’ll get frustrated enough and do their work for them.
>
The thing that pissed me off the most was watching everyone with their eyes on the clock when it was their time to go home earlier. Nobody ever bothers to stay behind to give me a hand, regardless of the fact that I help them with anything and everything they need. Instead, I sat at my desk while the shift change wondered what in the hell I was still doing there.
As I was in front of my computer inputting resident information into the computer system, I came across Casey’s file. I had been so busy that I’d never gotten around to even creating a permanent file for him. If it were up to me, I’d fire everyone for not doing their job, but what good with that do? I’d still be in the same boat that I was in now.
Just as I was about to click out of his file and move onto the next one, I thought about the meeting I’d had with Casey’s brother earlier that day. He seemed to be extremely protective of his little brother. While that’s certainly not a bad thing, it’s not what I was normally used to dealing with. As sad as the reality is, many people are admitted and barely ever have any visitors coming to see them. Seeing his brother get protective over him was a breath of fresh air.
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