by Jenna Jacob
“It’s not him. Fuck him,” I assured, spitting the bitter taste out of my mouth. “My stomach’s been off for a couple days.”
“Then maybe you should go home, in case you do have a flu bug,” she suggested.
“No way. I don’t have a fever, and I will be present and accounted for on the unit when Darnell comes through the ER. I refuse to let him think he got the best of me.”
“Pride get in your way much?” Liz drawled, arching her brows.
“Only when it comes to that asshat, because my pride is all I have left when it comes to him.”
“Bullshit,” Liz challenged as she wet a paper towel in cold water and handed it to me. “You have way more than that idiot will ever have. Like a heart, for starters.”
After I pulled myself together, Liz and I rushed back to the unit. As we made our way through the double doors, I spied Sam talking to Monica, the hospital social worker. Slowing down, I paused as Sam began to speak.
“Mrs. Wiggins is finally ready to file abuse charges against her husband. She’s here again because she told him she was pregnant again. Like the sorry sack of… Like he didn’t have anything to do with it.” Sam shook his head. Anger marred his features. “The police are en route, but I’d like for both of us to be with her when they get here.”
Monica tsked. “That poor woman. Of course I will. You never need to ask, Dr. Brooks. I’ll go sit with her now, in fact.”
My heart ached for Sam’s patient. We shared the silent understanding that part of our time together tonight would be spent helping Sam purge the anger he had to keep bottled up inside him right now. It was one of the ways we complemented each other…let off steam, and processed the stress. I sent him a reassuring wink before I started to step around him. Monica darted off the other way while Sam snagged my arm.
“I need to talk to you about something,” he stated in a somber tone.
“I’ll be right back. I just need to clock in from lunch,” I replied.
As I hurried toward the locker room, Liz came breezing toward me from the opposite direction. “You need to tell Sam that Darnell is being hired here.”
“I know. I’ll tell him tonight.”
“Good.” She nodded, then leaned in close with a sassy smirk. “We don’t want you getting a spanking, now do we?”
“Brat,” I scoffed as she scurried away.
After locking up my purse, I hit the time clock, then spun toward the door. Sam leaned against the frame, assuming the posture he’d worn two nights ago. A hint of remorse flickered in his eyes. My blood began to chill and my pulse quickened. Something was definitely wrong.
“Are you here to break our date tonight, Doctor?” I forced levity that I didn’t feel into my tone.
“No.” He shook his head. “But I do have to tell you something that you won’t want to hear.”
I swallowed tightly and nodded. “Go on.”
Willing back the tears that stung my eyes, I began steeling myself for heartbreak. My guts roiled, threatening to purge once more. My head told me Sam had come to realize he needed a true submissive and this was the end.
As he pushed off the doorjamb and made his way toward me, my chin quivered. I clenched my teeth together and tried to keep from falling apart. His eyes searched mine as a frown lined his face.
“What’s wrong?”
“I—I’m sorry. I know you think I didn’t try, but…maybe I really didn’t… I don’t know. I thought I might be able to be what you wanted, but—”
Confusion wrinkled his brow. “Stop. What in the hell are you talking about?”
“You’re breaking up with me because I’m not submissive, right?”
Thunderclouds rolled across his face as his lips thinned in a tight line. Scowling, he gripped my shoulders and pressed my back up against the wall, holding me in place with his wide chest.
“No,” he barked. “Dammit, Cin. When are you going to get it through your thick skull that I’m never letting you go? Why is it you automatically rush to the worst-case scenario? Just because I have something serious to talk to you about doesn’t mean I’m giving up on you. Do I make myself clear, girl?”
His commanding Dominant tone set me on fire. His imposing timbre nearly took me out at the knees.
“Yes.”
“Yes, what?” he pressed.
“Yes, Sir,” I whispered.
“Good girl.”
The pride suffused in those two words kindled a sense of success within me. I felt as if I’d achieved something monumental. Goosebumps skipped over my flesh, and I couldn’t keep from smiling.
“You’re one hell of a complicated little sparrow, you know that?” Sam smirked, then quickly sobered. Scanning the room to ensure we were truly alone, he pressed a hungry kiss to my lips.
I whimpered and wiggled out of his grasp enough to throw my arms around his neck and give back the same passionate kiss as he gave.
“Oh, lord. Don’t tell me you’ve lowered your standards to such a level that you’re banging all the interns now, Allisinda.”
Darnell’s condescending tone showered me in a blast of ice water. I jerked from Sam’s lips. My face blazed in anger and embarrassment as I peered over his shoulder. Both Darnell and Isaac stood in the portal, my ex wearing a smarmy smile, the hospital director staring in shock with his mouth agape.
Every muscle in Sam’s body turned to marble. His nostrils flared and his jaw ticked in anger. Slowly, he turned, and I watched as he stormed across the room and clutched Darnell’s shirt and part of his suit jacket in one beefy fist.
“As you can plainly see, I’m not an intern, Edmonton. I’m Allisinda’s lover, protector, companion, and friend. You have nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, to say to her ever again. You gave up the right to concern yourself with any part of her life a long, long time ago.”
Darnell’s eyes blazed in hatred.
“Dr. Brooks, you need to take your hands off Dr. Edmonton this instant,” Isaac demanded.
“No,” Sam replied in an arctic tone. “You need to do your homework on this low-life piece of shit, Isaac.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Darnell erupted.
“Oh?” Sam taunted. “What’s wrong, Edmonton? Afraid you’ll be found out before the ink’s dried on your contract here?”
“What are you insinuating, Brooks?” Isaac countered.
“I called the renowned neurosurgeon Nathan Noland. Father of our esteemed ER head nurse, Allisinda Noland, and personal friend of old Darnell here.”
I sucked in a gasp as the room began to spin. Sam had spoken to my father…about Darnell? My knees turned to rubber, and I plopped down on the wooden bench by my locker.
“You just had to stick your nose in someplace it didn’t belong, didn’t you?” Darnell spat.
“I think we need to take this conversation somewhere private,” Isaac suggested. “Like my office.”
“No,” I blurted out as I stood. “I need to know what’s going on. If this concerns my father, I have the right to know.”
Sam released Darnell with a little shove, then turned and smiled at me. “I’ll fill you in on all the details soon, sweetheart. You go on back to the unit. They need you there far more than this sack of shit will ever need you.”
“Come on, Edmonton. I think we need to have a more in-depth discussion.”
“You prick,” Darnell spat at Sam. As he turned his venomous gaze on me, his lips curled in a feral snarl. “I’ll take care of your big mouth soon, Allisinda.”
Sam let out a roar as he gripped Darnell by the neck. “You so much as breathe another word to her? And I’ll hunt you down, make you wish you’d never been born.”
“Gentlemen. Gentlemen. Please,” Isaac intervened, prying Sam’s hands off Darnell. “My office. Now.”
The man barked out the order like a Dominant. I almost laughed. Instead, I sat staring at the three men in stunned silence as they turned and stormed out of the room.
I took a couple deep breaths
and pulled myself together, then hurried back to the unit. Liz’s eyes were as big as saucers. “What the hell is going on? I just saw Sam and—”
“I don’t know. But Sam… Shit, he called my dad.”
“He what? Why? Wait…did you tell him about…”
“Yes, I did.”
“Whoa, damn. That’s huge for you, Cin.” Liz smiled.
“Sam means a lot to me, and I guess I mean a lot to him, too. I think that’s why he called Dad, so he could find out why Darnell isn’t working in New York anymore.”
“So did you get an answer to that yet?”
“No.” I sighed exasperatedly. “They were talking all cryptically and shit. Like they both knew the truth but didn’t spill the beans. Whatever Darnell is trying to hide, it must be big.”
“Oh, girl. When you find out, you’d better let me know ASAP, ’cause I have a feeling this is one juicy story,” Liz predicted with a giggle.
“I think you’re right. Maybe he slipped and his dick landed in a patient.” I snorted.
Liz let out a loud belly laugh just as Jeb and Freddy burst through the doors pushing a man on a gurney, covered in blood.
“Well, hell,” Liz mumbled. “I was hoping we could sneak up to Isaac’s office and listen through the door.”
“You’re a mess,” I laughed. “Come on. Let’s see what meals on wheels brought us now.”
And let’s just hope they don’t blow our little BDSM secret to the rest of the staff.
CHAPTER NINE
As I approached the pair of EMTs, my knees trembled. Still, I held my head high, projecting self-assurance. Neither Jeb nor Freddy let on that our paths had crossed at Genesis. They acted as they always did—cordial and professional. I exhaled an inward sigh of relief.
Focused on the patient, I watched Liz begin taking vitals while Metcalf surveyed the young man’s injuries. I keyed information Jeb read from the run sheet into my tablet. A rival gang had shot the seventeen-year-old male in the street, like a dog. Four bullet wounds riddled the boy’s body, but by some miracle, his numbers were strong. Metcalf barked out orders, like he always did, and in a matter of minutes, the patient was wheeled up to surgery.
With another crisis under control, I sipped a cup of coffee and stared at the door, as if I could will Sam’s return. When two uniformed officers entered the unit, I directed them to Sam’s patient, the beaten, pregnant woman in trauma three. I started to pull out my cell and send Sam a text when he sailed through the double doors. His expression was grim, but he shot me a quick wink as he strode by. My head knew he needed to be with the frightened woman, but my patience was running thin. I was tired of being in the dark in regard to Darnell. I wanted answers…starting with why Sam had phoned my father, of all people. And wouldn’t I have loved being a fly on the wall during that conversation. Had he told my father that we were dating? Probably not. My mother would have been burning up my cell phone. She’d either want to praise me for snagging a successful surgeon or chastise me for some unrelated and unacceptable failing.
Ugh. I didn’t want to participate in any conversation with her. With a heavy sigh, I made my way to the nurses’ station to start updating charts. My mind was heavy with questions, and I struggled to focus on my task. When a mother brought in her screaming toddler—with a high fever and wicked ear infection—I was almost relieved. At least I had something to focus on other than the myriad of questions clouding my brain.
After dropping off the toddler’s discharge papers, I caught sight of Sam’s familiar gait, his broad shoulders, and blond hair as he raced from the unit. As I sprinted toward the double doors, I saw the officers and Monica, who had her arm draped around a visibly battered woman, leaving the trauma room. Rushing out to find Sam, I spotted him waiting by the elevator.
“Sam! Wait up.”
“I’m sorry, Cin,” he began as the doors opened. He held up his hand, preempting the barrage of questions perched on the tip of my tongue. “I have an emergency surgery. I’ll fill you in on the other topic tonight. I promise.”
Before I could respond, the doors closed, and Sam was gone. “No. It’s not all right, dammit,” I grumbled at my reflection in the shiny metal. “Shit.”
As I turned to head back to the unit, the phone in my pocket buzzed.
Yanking the device from my scrubs without checking the caller ID, I pressed the phone to my ear. “Yeah, you’d better not fucking leave me hanging like that, mister…or you’ll have a tiger on your ass tonight,” I spat.
“Have you lost your mind, Allisinda? Your vulgar language is wholly unacceptable, young lady. Where in god’s name is your pride?” My mother’s incensed and arrogant tone made me cringe.
Shit.
Shit.
Shit.
“My deepest apologies, Mother. I thought you were someone else,” I explained, wishing I’d taken the time to see who was calling.
“Which makes your tawdry, uncouth verbiage even more inappropriate. What kind of gutter-snipe trash are you associating with that makes such repugnant words suitable?”
Hookers, pimps, and drug lords, of course. I pinched my lips together to keep from spewing that reply. “Did you need something, Mother?”
My question was met with several long seconds of silence and finally an angry huff.
“Is extending a pleasant tone to your own mother too difficult for you, Allisinda?”
I knew where this conversation was headed, and it wasn’t good. “I’m sorry, Mother, but I can’t talk right now. I’m at work. If you’d like to call me later tonight, we can discuss my offensive phone etiquette or whatever else you’d like.”
“Allisinda,” she snapped. “What is your—”
“Sorry. EMTs are coming through the door with a patient. I have to go. Bye.”
Disconnecting the call, I shoved my phone back in my pocket with a bitter sigh. I could have eventually wheedled the information I wanted about my ex from Mother. But I didn’t have the stomach to endure her crippling litany of my ineptness before arriving at the topic of Darnell. Just one of the many reasons I refused to be anything like my mother.
When my shift was over, I clocked out, grabbed my purse, and waited an extra ten minutes for Sam to show. When he didn’t, I trudged to the parking garage assuming he was still working the earlier emergency.
Looking forward to the next two days off, I planned to sleep in and tangle the sheets with Sam as often as possible. Making a mental note to shave my legs when I got home, I reached inside my purse and plucked out my keys. When I looked up, Darnell was standing directly in front of me wearing a confrontational expression. Startled, I sucked in a sharp breath and skidded to a halt.
“What are you doing here?” I loudly demanded. Though I hadn’t seen another soul in the garage, I prayed someone might be within earshot.
“I’m looking for your boyfriend,” Darnell replied with a malicious smile. “Where is he?”
A blast of icy fear slithered down my spine. Darnell’s polished veneer hadn’t only cracked before my eyes but had completely splintered.
I lifted my chin defiantly while inside I quaked with fear. “I have no idea. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going home.”
“No. There is no excuse for you, bitch,” he spat. “You set him up to do your dirty work, didn’t you? After you called your fucking father…that egotistical prick turned his back on me when I refused to marry his precious little daughter,” Darnell snarled. “I should have told him what a fucking ice queen you were, but then I’m sure he’s used to humping that iceberg you call Mother.”
Acting on reflex, I slapped him across the face with the same hand that held my keys. He issued a thunderous roar and gripped my wrist. Long, bloody scratches appeared on his face as his lips curled in a feral snarl.
“That’s going to cost you, whore,” he hissed between clenched teeth.
His expression was savage. Demented. Shoving my free hand inside my purse, I found my container of pepper spray. Gripping i
t tightly, I waited to see what Darnell planned to do next. Memories of Liz being drugged and kidnapped by her ex-boyfriend, Ryan, spooled through my head. No way was I going to leave this parking garage with Darnell. I’d fight him with every breath in my body before I’d let him take me away.
“I don’t give a shit what kind of trouble you’re in. You’re nothing but a bad memory to me. And for your information, I haven’t talked to my father in months. Whatever you did in New York is on you. Not me.” My heart drummed against my ribs as I tried to pry my wrist from his hand. “Let go of me this instant,” I demanded.
“Not until I get some fucking answers. You and your lily-white boyfriend just couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you?”
I didn’t remember Darnell ever having a prejudiced side, but then he’d fully unmasked himself. God only knew what other personality flaws he intended to reveal.
Once again, I tried to jerk free, but he held on even tighter. My fingers went numb as he pinched muscle to bone.
“I had nothing to do with whatever happened between you, Isaac, and Brooks.”
“Maybe not, but that white boy you’re fucking certainly did. How many white men have you let crawl inside you since me?”
“That’s none of your fucking business,” I spat. “How many whores are you subsidizing these days?”
“More than you’ll ever know.” He laughed in a chilling, maniacal tone.
His demeanor frightened me beyond words. I didn’t know what to do aside from keeping him talking in hopes someone—preferably a big, strapping linebacker—appeared in the garage to scare Darnell away.
Darting a furtive glance at the security camera over Darnell’s shoulder, I began to struggle harder, hoping to alert whomever was manning the security feed.
“Yes, fight me, bitch. I like it when you struggle. I bet that white boy doesn’t satisfy you like I used to. Does he?” Darnell pinned me with a smarmy smile, then leaned in and licked the side of my face. “You may have been an iceberg, but I rocked your world. I can do it again.”
Images of him slamming me over the hood of my car and raping me flashed through my brain. Over my dead body, I inwardly yelled. Flipping the safety lever on the container of pepper spray, I pulled the vial from my purse as I thrust my knee directly into Darnell’s balls. As he began to crumple to the ground, I hit him in the face with a steady stream of pepper spray. He landed on the ground coughing and screaming. I pressed the fob to unlock my doors as I sprinted to my car. Yanking the door open, I jumped into the driver’s seat and locked myself in before starting the ignition. I jerked a glance over my shoulder to see Darnell on his knees, hands pressed to his eyes. I could hear his screams and curses seeping through the rolled-up windows.
