Cheaters Anonymous

by Lacey Silks

  I hoped that was clear enough, but I doubted it. My body was beginning to shake, and if I were to bet, Scar not only saw my discomfort but also felt it.

  “I swear to God if I ever see you near her again, I will rip your throat out,” Scar said to him.

  “Whoa. Hold on there, tiger. I mean, I know she likes to get frisky, but there’s no need for violence.”

  “Did you just insult my girlfriend?” Scar asked. He took a step toward Brad and was totally in his face.

  I loved hearing those words come from Scar’s lips, but I didn’t like that it had to be under these circumstances.

  Brad lifted his hands in self defense and backed away. “Wait a minute. I didn’t mean to. I just get nervous around beautiful women. No harm done.”

  “You better get the fuck out before I shove your balls down your throat to shut you up.”

  The scary thing was that I actually believed Scar was capable of fulfilling his promise.

  Brad nodded without saying a word and left. While I could only hope that was the last time I saw him, something told me otherwise.

  CHAPTER 15

  “Jules, you should have told me Brad’s been following you.” Scar’s voice over the phone was gentle and full of concern. He wasn’t too thrilled about our run-in with Brad, and at one point said that I shouldn’t be alone at home. I insisted that Brad was just being stupid and there was nothing to worry about. Hey, I never implied I had street-smarts. But this was a boy I’d gone to high school with. He couldn’t possibly get any creepier, could he? Scar of course hired a private investigator to do a background check, and from the looks of it, Brad’s past of abuse in relationships wasn’t pretty – although Scar didn’t appear too surprised by this information.

  At the club, when I gave Scar more details about the first two times I’d run into Brad, at the strip club and at the park, Scar went out on a search for him. He spoke to each bouncer and to the security guy, but it seemed that Brad knew what was good for him and had left right away.

  “I thought it was a coincidence. I didn’t want to make a big deal out of nothing.” I grabbed the last sip of my morning coffee and bit into the toasted bagel. “We just reconnected and honestly, Brad was the last person on my mind.”

  “Is that a nice way of you telling me that I’ve been pre-occupying your mind?”

  “Yes, you have been,” I said with my mouth full.

  “Are you coming straight home after work?” he asked.

  “Yes, I’m coming...” I paused, as the meaning of the word sank in, and then chuckled, wondering whether he was planning to use my little device this afternoon again. According to Scar, controlling what happened between my legs was the highlight of his day. And I was willing to give him all the control he wanted in that department. I grabbed my car keys and headed toward my beat-up Honda.

  “I knew you’d get that right away,” he laughed. “Call me when you get home, and I’ll make sure you come.”

  “Shit!” I said.

  “What’s the matter?”

  “My tires are deflated.” I walked around the car. “All four of them.”

  “Fucking bastard!” I pictured Scar pacing back and forth. He huffed and puffed like the big bad wolf – except that I believed Scar could actually take down brick houses.

  That couldn’t be Brad’s doing, could it? I crouched closer to the ground and pulled my finger over the cut in the rubber. Shit! If it had been him, then Brad was the perfect definition of a stalker from hell.

  Well, there goes the benefit of doubt I gave him.

  And yeah, I guess he could get creepier after all. Maybe this was a sign that I should get a new car; preferably one that was bullet-proof as well. Did they make jerk-proof cars?

  “I think they were slashed.” My voice must have dropped an octave as tickles of fear and anger ran up my spine. I turned around looking down one end of the street, then the other, as if the cuprit would somehow appear from behind one of the parked cars.

  “Jules, I’m coming over.”

  I heard him hurrying and fumbling with something. In fact, I was sure that he tripped. The sound of clunking metal echoed in my ear.

  “No, wait. I have to go to work. I can take Zoey’s car. But if you can ask Ace to maybe keep her away from here until we figure this out, I’d really appreciate it.”

  The last thing I wanted was for Brad to try to get to me and find Zoey instead.

  “Fine. But you text me the minute you set your foot in that hospital.”

  “I will, I promise.”

  I left a note for Zoey that I’d borrowed her car and asked her not to open the door for anyone. Working dayshifts, I usually found time to spend the evenings with her, but since she’d been dating Ace, she filled her entire schedule with him. At least now I knew why she’d been away so much. While I had a feeling of disgust each time I thought about her current boyfriend, there was something about him being with Zoey that made me feel at ease. Maybe it was because he was Scar’s brother? If he was anything like Scar, he’d jump in fire before he let another man hurt her. Now if Ace could only help her find a decent job, maybe I’d give him a chance to crawl back into my respect zone.

  Once at work, I quickly typed a message to Scar, changed into my scrubs, and pulled my hair up in a ponytail. Committing my mind to my patients’ health was the best way to keep myself busy. Unfortunately, I never got the chance to start my day on the right foot. Chris ran in before the start of my shift and tugged on my arm.

  “There was a guy here asking about you.” Her nose scrunched up with confusion.

  “A patient?” I asked.

  “I don’t think so. He seemed kind of creepy.”

  That summed up a lot of people, but I only wanted to know whether it was one particular creep: Brad Watson. Chills swept through my body.

  “Did he leave a name? What did he look like?”

  “Dark hair, easy on the eyes. But no name.”

  Was it possible it could have been Scar? Had he decided to play bodyguard after all?

  “Did he have a tattoo on his arm?” I asked. If there was one thing I knew Chris would notice, it was a man with an interesting tattoo – especially since she’d said the guy was wearing a t-shirt. What I found even weirder, was that despite saying that the man was good looking, Chris wasn’t gushing over him. Her rules about doctors and patients not mixing and not crossing the line were as stringent as mine, but that didn’t stop her from joking behind closed doors. But she hadn’t made one inappropriate comment.

  “No, no tattoos.”

  That’s odd.

  “What did you tell him?”

  “Confidentiality and all that stuff. He said he’d catch you later.”

  A light knock on the door sounded and Olivia stuck her head from behind the door. “Doctor Blakely, you’re needed at the front.”

  “Thank you.”

  “How did your meeting go this week?” Chris asked, walking behind me.

  I froze half-way out the room. So much had happened that I haven’t even had a chance to tell her about me seeing Scar again at the club and clearing things up between us. Sometimes I felt like time chose to fly by at warp speed without warning me.

  “I owe you big time. It turns out the guy at the club with the girl was Scar’s brother. We’re really easing into this relationship with extra lube.”

  “You can never have enough lube.” She winked. “Especially with the equipment I saw on your guy. That will be one heck of a ride, Jules.”

  I forgot Chris had been here when Scar was admitted with the defective cock-pump.

  An image of me straddling Scar’s lap flashed through my mind, and I just wanted to yell out Yee, haw!. Instead, I said, “Scar’s been unbelievably understanding. It’s a nice change from me having to lay everything on your shoulders.”

  “Please don’t make me feel like an old shoe.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it that way. If it helps, you’re an old shoe I will never t
hrow out.”

  “I’ll take that,” she laughed. You know if you need a tattooed man out of the way, all you need to do is ask.”

  As much as Chris liked to joke around and flirt with men, she was tougher than The Hulk. I wasn’t sure whether Brad had any tattoos, but I knew I wouldn’t be introducing him to any of my friends.

  Friends! Shit!

  I was definitely not a good friend. I was supposed to call Trish and maybe talk to her about taking a break from her fiancé. But that would be playing with someone else’s fate, wouldn’t it?

  I shouldn’t influence her decision. She’s a grown woman. She knows what she’s getting into.

  Or did she? At one point in my life, I had been the one failing to make the right choices. And if it weren’t for friends like Chris, I doubted I’d be alive today.

  By this time, we’d caught up to Olivia, who was holding a tablet in her hands.

  “He sounds promising.” Chris’s brows rose up and down in a sequence. “Okay, you and me. Coffee on break. Hopefully no more cock-pumps this week.”

  Yeah, that image would stay a while with anyone who’d seen Scar the day he was admitted to the hospital.

  Olivia pulled the curtain away for me to see my next patient.

  “How are you feeling, Mrs…” I slid my finger over the tablet to find the patient’s name. “Watson?”

  Brad’s mother?

  All I got for a response was a moan of pain, but I didn’t think she recognized me. I set the tablet aside, saying, “I see you have some stomach pains. How long has this been going on?”

  I pressed into her stomach, gently at first, shifting my hand around the navel in a circular pattern.

  “Since last night.”

  “Any fever or constipation?”

  “No.”

  “Any recent surgeries?”

  “The last one I had was a C-section, almost thirty years ago.”

  “Yes, that’s definitely not the problem.”

  I let go of the pressure just underneath her belly button, and she screamed in pain.

  “Where did you feel it?” I asked.

  “To the right. It shoots to the right. Can you make an old lady young again?”

  “You’re still young, Mrs. Watson.” I scrolled through her files. Mrs. Watson hasn’t been to the hospital since the day Brad was born. The scanned paperwork from the clinic was the last record on file.

  “Are they up to date on the scanned paperwork?” I asked Olivia, while scribbling an ultrasound requisition. After the fertility clinic beside the hospital had flooded, the administration had been trying to scan whatever was saved into our system to get rid of the hundreds of boxes from the hospital basement.

  “Not all, but almost.”

  “Good. Mrs. Watson, I believe you may have appendicitis. We’ll draw some blood and send you for an ultrasound. In the meantime, would you like something to help with the pain?”

  “Please. Can you call my son? His name is Bradley. We haven’t spoken in a few years, but if I’m going to die, I’d like to clear the slate.”

  “You’re not going to die. And Olivia here will take good care of you.”

  There was no way I could fulfill her request. Feeling guilty for mixing business with my personal life, I stepped away, wondering whether Olivia would summon Brad to come to the hospital. And if so, how could I avoid him?

  I leaned back against the wall, wishing Brad had never shown up in my life.

  “Someone’s popular today.” Chris poked me with her manicured finger.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Another stud is asking for you. This one’s even hotter, and he won’t have any other doctor see him. Whatever prayer you’re saying, I want dibs. Are you okay?”

  “Yeah. I think so.” I pushed away from the wall and walked alongside Chris toward the front of the ER.

  “I’m gonna need to start keeping track of my business cards. This is an ER. We treat patients based on severity of their injuries – that’s it!”

  I wasn’t sure why I was being bothered by the sudden influx of popularity. In the back of my mind was the fact that I’d run into the same asshole three times that week and had my tires slashed that morning, which didn’t ease the anxiety, and now I had his mother asking me to call him. Whatever Karma I had to pay, she was definitely a bitch. If I couldn’t get a grip on this situation, I’d need to take a personal leave. The last thing I wanted was for my work to be affected by my personal life.

  “See what this hottie needs and next time feel free to give the hot ones my business cards.”

  As we neared the front, I peeked through the glass window of the triage area. Scar was the first one to come into view. He was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, which I assumed used to be white, which was stained with red blotches.

  “Shit.” I left Chris and set out running. In my mind I imagined all the horrible accidents Scar could have been in to get so much blood on himself. Did he get in a fight? Was he attacked? Did he go after Brad?

  I shot through the sliding door and ran to his side. “Scar, are you okay? What happened?”

  “This is nothing. I was just in a rush and I tripped.”

  I looked closer at his hands and took a whiff. “Wait… this isn’t blood?”

  What was Scar doing with so much red paint?

  “No, why would it be blood?”

  “Because you’re in the ER, Scar, looking like you just had a run-in with Freddie Krueger.”

  “It’s paint. I couldn’t just let you go to work when you got your tires slashed this morning. I came here as fast as I could, Jules.” He then eyed me from the bottom up, saying, “You look like a doctor.”

  “That’s because I am one. You didn’t have to rush in here right away. As you can see, there’s no fire.”

  “A psychopath is way worse than a fire. There’s no trace of Brad. Anywhere. There aren’t a lot of people who can disappear like that.”

  Would his mother be able to get in touch with him?

  “There’s no need to scare me any more than I already am, but honestly, this place is safe. I promise.”

  “How can I not be worried when he’s a freak? He’s obviously stalking you.”

  “You don’t even know it was him. Besides, he’s engaged.”

  “Who else could it be, then? And a deceitful promise he’s made to one girl doesn’t stop a psycho. He could have lied.”

  That was true. After all, I hadn’t actually seen Brad’s supposed fiancée.

  “Thank you for letting your concerns out, but I’ll be fine. So you’re not hurt?”

  His brows narrowed and his forehead creased. Whatever Scar was thinking, I wasn’t sure I’d like it.

  “Yes, I’m fine.”

  He sat up straight, his jaw tense. “Don’t be mad when I ask you this, but you didn’t give him a reason to be obsessed with you, did you?”

  “Eeww, Scar. How can you even go there?”

  “Because it’d be easier to accept his actions. Now I’m really worried. If you told him to fuck off already, and he hasn’t listened, what makes you think he will now?”

  “Shh, I’m at work, Scar,” I said without moving my mouth. He could be so frustrating at times.

  “I need to see you after work. When do you finish?”

  I looked at my watch. “I barely started, and I have another ten hours to go.”

  “Okay. I’ll be waiting here. Do not leave without me, Jules.”

  Did he make those puppy eyes because he knew I would argue against his offer? I could handle this situation on my own. Shit, there wasn’t even any situation to handle! We were overreacting, weren’t we? And if I couldn’t, then I was sure that the pepper spray in my purse would go into use the next time Brad “accidentally” ran into me.

  But how could I say no to that face? Scar looked like that plush toy from a fair you wanted to squeeze all night.

  “Okay, I’ll meet you here.”

  And there were
those puppy eyes again. He wouldn’t give up, would he? That irresistible charm he had was like a gift from the garden of perfection. Even in a paint-stained shirt, he looked like the hottest man in the world, and thinking about him for another ten hours before we were together made me wish for a time machine.

  “I’ll be out in ten hours.”

  “Okay, I’ll see you then.”

  I turned on my heel and walked back to the nurse’s station to check on my next patient. Fortunately, time flew by, and Brad never showed up to see his mother. I wanted to call him just so that I could smack him for being an asshole to the woman who had given birth to him. But again, I couldn’t cross that personal and business line.

  When my shift finished and I came back out, I froze. Scar was still in the same spot I had left him in. He had on a fresh shirt and was typing on his laptop, and when I came out he looked up with that sexy gaze that was hot enough to burst one of my ovaries on the spot – maybe even both.

  Instant swoon.

  “Did you stay here the entire time?” I asked.

  “Yes. Ace brought me some stuff over.” He pointed to the laptop and his fresh clothes. “I didn’t want to leave you alone.”

  As sweet as that sounded, I wasn’t alone. But instead of scowling at him, I smiled. It was one of the nicest things any man had ever done for me.

  “Scar, you do know that sick people come to the ER, right? You could catch something.”

  “You’re here all the time.”

  “My immune system is much stronger than yours. Besides, I’ve had all my vaccines.”

  “And what makes you think I haven’t?”

  “Is this gonna be one of those conversations where you don’t give up because you must have the last word?”

  “I highly doubt that’s even possible with you, Jules.”

  “Good.”

  He chuckled, took the backpack off my arm, and led me to the parking lot. As I looked around the lot, for a moment I thought I’d parked elsewhere. But that wasn’t possible. I always parked in one of the half dozen spots near the exit.

  “I can’t find Zoey’s car,” I said to myself.

  “Ace picked it up. You’re coming with me.” Scar pointed to the Hummer we were standing beside.