Warriors,Winners & Wicked Lies: 13 Book Excite Spice Military, Sports & Secret Baby Mega Bundle (Excite Spice Boxed Sets)

by Selena Kitt

  “I’m putting you on mandatory leave. If and when the charges are dropped or dismissed we can revisit this. In the meantime, you don’t work here.”

  “What about my patients?”

  “Foster?”

  “Sanders, Foster… all of them.”

  He scowled. “It’s too late for you to start worrying about them. The rest of use will take up the slack. I’ll evaluate Foster myself.”

  “That’s a bad idea.”

  “Why?”

  “How are you going to be professional with him under these circumstances? You’ve obviously got a grudge against him. You’ve decided I dumped you so I could sleep with him. The way you are talking it seems you’ve already convicted us both without looking at any evidence.”

  “I’ve seen evidence.”

  “Of what? That I’m attracted to him? Sure. I admit that. I came to you with that tidbit after my first session. You were the one who insisted I was professional enough for that not to be a problem.”

  “I seem to have been wrong.”

  “Based on what?”

  “Where there’s smoke…” Paul’s vague dismissal infuriated her.

  “How can you think I’d lie about this? How can you think I’d do this?”

  “I’ll take responsibility for your patients. You are not to have any contact with them, nor with this Tina Clarke, or whoever it is filed the charges. You will simply turn in all your notes and leave this office. Since you only need access to the base for work, I’ll be suspending your base pass as well.”

  She stood up. “Now that’s all very scientific and fair, Paul. I hope you find that acting like a vindictive teenager makes you feel better, but we both know that isn’t how it works. It will make you sour inside, poison you.”

  “Even if I believed you, I’m obligated to suspend you for the duration of the investigation.”

  The hard look in his eyes hurt. Part of that was her fault. His light-hearted nature had made her think he didn’t take things seriously, that he wouldn’t be devastated at her breaking up with him. She had been more wrong about that than she possibly have guessed. “You might not intend it, but you’ve clearly taken sides, Paul. Don’t worry, I’ll go to my office, get my things and go. My notes on the patients are up to date.”

  “That doesn’t matter, as we can’t use them. They are your judgments and right now that is extremely suspect. We only want them to ensure patient confidentiality.”

  “So you think I’d do something to hurt my patients? I can’t believe that you would extend your personal anger to our professional relationship. I thought better of you than that.”

  “And I thought better of you than it seems I should have.”

  There was no more to say. He wouldn’t hear anything anyway, so she got up. “Then I’ll go.” She left with his harsh words stinging, biting into her. They were worse than the act of being suspended. She had been accused of violating ethics, Paul felt she’d violated his trust, and now they didn’t trust her with her own patients’ records. She found herself drifting as she went into her office and numbly started putting her personal things in a briefcase.

  It didn’t surprise her that Tina Clarke had tried something, found a way to give her grief. But it surprised her to be put so much on the defensive, treated as if she’d committed a sin without being called to give her side of things. And it shocked her that her own boss, her ex lover, immediately acted as if she was guilty. All this on the say so of what Paul himself fondly called a looney tune.

  Responding to the charges would be difficult and she wasn’t even sure of the protocol or standards that had to be met. How did you prove you hadn’t done something? Even if Trevor swore it wasn’t true, even the date was the night she had Jacob for an alibi, and he was willing to testify to it, the stigma was there. People might assume they lied or that Tina simply got the date wrong. She was being held accountable for her conduct in general, not a specific time and place when she’d slept with her client. It seemed unlikely they’d assume she was telling the truth—if even Paul wouldn’t give her the benefit of the doubt, how likely was it that strangers would? That meant that the onus would be on her to prove nothing untoward had happened. And, unfortunately, if she were asked under oath if she had romantic feelings for Trevor, she’d have to admit them. That would look bad. Lying, and having Paul or someone else contradict her, would be a nail in her coffin.

  Now she was further away from Trevor, and likely to lose her career. She seethed with anger. It was a damn good thing she didn’t know where Tina lived.

  She emptied her desk, taking everything that was hers. After all, she had no idea when, if ever, she’d be let back in. She watched herself careful, being careful that everything she took was hers, not wanting to include even a paperclip that wasn’t hers. It was easy to think about things you’d been using for two years as your own. Even the laptop she used belonged to the Army, so she put in the file cabinet and locked it. They might want to go through her things, and really nail her to the wall if she even appeared to be taking their property. She’d heard of such cases.

  You are getting paranoid.

  But Paul was overreacting to an outrageous degree. Anything was possible. And her feelings were much more than paranoia. She didn’t think anyone but Tina was out to get her, but the encounter with Paul let her with a feeling of utter finality that closed over her like an executioner’s hood. She had done nothing wrong. She had every reason to believe that her name would be be cleared (and no reason to think that this incredible nonsense could stick) and she’d be working with patients again.

  As she went into the reception area, she smiled at her secretary and handed him the keys. “Would you give this to Col. Hastings. Tell him the laptop is in the file cabinet where it belongs.”

  The man nodded. She was sure he’d have been briefed.

  No one stopped her or checked her bags. They left her a shred of dignity. Walking to her car she felt a curtain fall—something had ended. Some chapter of her life was over. Certainly her lingering affection for Paul had been bloodied. But there was something else shifting inside her, a sense of profound change.

  She laughed bitterly. Just a few months ago she’d awakened to a desire for change. Well she had it now, and in spades.

  Had she finally lost an innocence she wasn’t even aware she’d still clung to? Had it taken this before she could see life for what it was? Or was it a matter of trust? She’d thought she could trust Paul. She’d hurt him and he’d turned on her. If thinking people wouldn’t cross you was innocence, what other betrayals lay ahead?

  She found herself wondering if this was anything at all like the emotions a survivor of combat felt. She hadn’t experienced the physical danger, but her existence as she knew it was under dire threat, and the pain that came with that was immense.

  Trevor put down his phone and turned to Tina. “Okay, I know you did something. But what the fuck did you do exactly?”

  He watched her, standing in his living room, staring at him, wondering at his anger. “About what?”

  “That was Diane’s boss. She’s suspended pending an ethics investigation and he is taking over my case. He wouldn’t explain the suspension, but I know you did it.”

  Her saw her relief. “Yes. Of course I did. I reported her to protect you. I stopped her.”

  “You protected me from my therapist? What the hell did you think you were stopping her from doing?”

  “Keeping you in limbo. All the crap she spewed out about taking her time to evaluate you properly… it was all a lie. She wanted to keep you around, for herself. That was her game, you know. If she pretended to need more time to evaluate you, that gave her time to snare you. I know that.”

  “She wasn’t trying to snare me. She wasn’t even letting me get close.”

  “I heard the way you talked about her.”

  “Desire isn’t necessarily success.”

  “I asked her to do the right thing, but the bitch wouldn’t
give me the time of day. She would have tricked you, made you fight my plan. She wanted you and hated our time together.”

  “She isn’t interested in me that way.”

  “I saw you.”

  He could see she was sincere. But about what? “Saw what, exactly?”

  “It’s okay, Trevor. I didn’t mind, not in a jealous way. I know you can’t settle for one woman.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I don’t care that you fucked her. But I just couldn’t let her interfere with our plan.”

  “I didn’t fuck her.”

  Her voice dropped to a soft whisper, comforting. “It’s okay, Trevor. I didn’t mind, but don’t lie. I saw you. I watched you fucking her. I came in and found you two in bed. You were fucking her and then you put your lovely cock in her ass and came in her. I watched you. I played with myself like you like and pretended you were coming in my ass.”

  “That didn’t happen.” Somehow he was sure she believed it.

  “I saw it.”

  “When was this?”

  “The night you wanted me to come over and I refused. Bobby went to bed early and I came over to surprise you.”

  He thought back. What had happened? The truth dawned on him. “Describe her.”

  “What?”

  “This woman you saw me fucking. What does Diane Anders look like, Tina?”

  Tina shrugged. “She’s attractive enough.”

  Trevor went over and grabbed her by her shoulders. “What color is her hair?”

  “Red.”

  Trevor shook his head. “You saw me with a woman all right, Tina, but that wasn’t Diane. She’s never even been in my apartment, much less my bed. The woman who offered me her fuckable ass was my neighbor, Frieda.”

  Tina walked to the bar and poured herself a drink. “No. It was that awful Diane. You told me how hot she was… Diane. You said you wanted her. I know you meant it. And she’d been here before. I smelled her perfume. Don’t lie to me.”

  “I admit Diane turns me on. That doesn’t mean I screwed her. She won’t even have a drink with me.”

  “But it was her. I know it.”

  “How?”

  “The next day, I called her. I told her what I’d seen and that I’d cause trouble if she didn’t sign your papers. All she had to do was put you back on active duty. She didn’t deny anything.”

  “She didn’t need to deny anything, you stupid little cunt. Since she hadn’t done it, she probably thought you were a nut case. And you are.”

  “I got her out of our way.”

  “And now, instead of getting my evaluation resolved, I get to start the process all over again, this time with Di’s boss. He doesn’t like me and he likes Diane. He might be even harder to deal with.”

  He saw that hadn’t occurred to her. “I was trying to help you, Trevor. I wanted to make sure we’d be together. She wasn’t going to let you go.”

  “And you needed her to let me go so I could join your little tour of America, right?”

  “Our tour. Yours. So I can make you famous. We would meet amazing people.”

  “Well, I already told you I won’t be doing it. I asked to go back to combat. I have no stomach for the little circus you’ve put together or any of that bullshit.”

  “But it’s done, Trevor. The Army promised. And I can make you famous… more famous and we will be together.”

  “I’m in charge of my life, Tina, not you.”

  “Of course, Trevor.”

  “Then why do I want you interfering with it?”

  “It’s to help you.”

  “You are so fucked up in the head Tina.” He stood and took her by the arm. “I don’t want to be famous. I don’t want to spend my life with you. I don’t want any of this.”

  “But Trevor…”

  “You need to make this right. You need to let them know you made a mistake.”

  “She’s a bitch, Trevor. You can’t see it because you want her and she is using that to cloud your vision. But she doesn’t love you. She only let you have her to keep you from raising the alarm about what she is doing.”

  “I didn’t fuck her. That was Frieda.”

  He watched her face pale, saw her neck turn red, and he wondered if she was having a stroke. She put her hands on his shoulders and pressed her body against his crotch. “It’s okay, Trevor. Really. I don’t mind that you fucked her. I really don’t. You can have anyone you want as long as they don’t keep us apart. I can’t let her come between us.”

  “It didn’t happen, Tina. You’ve made false charges against an innocent woman.”

  “But if you tell them it was her, that will make it all right, Trevor. They’ll believe you.”

  “You think I should lie because you did.”

  “No. She wanted it to be her. She did, Trevor.”

  He walked to the couch and sat down. Tina poured a drink and brought it to him. “It will be all right, Trevor. Once you get your orders then we’ll go around the country, together. At night you can use me anyway you want me. You’ll be in charge. I’ll do whatever you want.”

  Her eyes were oddly empty. Something had gone out of her and he felt sad. “Tina, I think you should go home now.”

  “Why, Trevor? Don’t you want me?”

  He forced himself to sound kinder than he felt. “No. Another time. You can go change the schedule. Diane’s boss wants to seem me tomorrow and it could take all day.”

  She smiled and kissed him. “Of course, darling Trevor. I can take care of that.”

  He drained his drink as he watched her go, then poured another one.

  Well, you fucked that up good, Trevor.

  Trevor saw the doctor’s mouth moving but had trouble relating to the words. “Why can’t you remove it? I don’t really understand why they left it in at all. They could’ve gotten it when they were in there digging out the other pieces.”

  The doctor stood slowly, then pointed at a chart showing the human muscle system. He tapped on the chart with his finger, pointing to a part of the shoulder near the spine. “It’s complicated. The shrapnel wasn’t removed during the first surgery because it was located in this area in your shoulder. Cutting in that area can do a great deal of damage. Out there on the front lines they lack a lot of the wonderful new equipment we have, so the doctors decided it was safest to leave it and see how it went. At first it seemed to encyst—your body just packaged it in scar tissue. We thought that would be fine. Have it just sitting there it wasn’t a problem. Apparently as you did your rehab, and began rebuilding muscle, adding bulk, it migrated moving closer to nerves. Now certain motions press it against a nerve and that’s causing the stabs of pain. Removing it could cause a lot of nerve damage and make you worse off than what you feel now. It isn’t likely to be a problem under normal conditions, although you will get those stabs of pain, but under extreme stress over a period of time, it could act the way tendonitis does, impinging on the nerve in a big way. Over time that could cost you the use of the arm.”

  “And what does that mean in practical terms? What can I do?”

  “Two things. You have to avoid overtaxing that arm. Fortunately you are right handed, but you’ll have to be cautious about using your left arm for anything strenuous. That will limit how much strength you can get back. You aren’t going to be one hundred percent. That means I’ll be giving you a medical discharge. There is no telling when or how that arm might act up. You couldn’t do combat training.”

  Trevor sat up straight, took in the words and then laughed. When he saw the look of shock on the doctor’s face, he laughed even louder. “That’s funny?”

  “No sir. But I’ve spent the last few months doing everything I could to get back to active duty. You guys thought I was doing fine, and I thought getting past the shrink would be the obstacle I had to overcome. There has been more drama around that concern than you can possibly imagine.”

  “Based on what?”

  “Concerns for my w
ell being… same as yours, actually. And now it turns out that the shrapnel in my arm that everyone thought would be no problem makes my mental state irrelevant. So it isn’t funny, but it is ironic.”

  The doctor blinked. “I see. So this pre-empts the psychologist’s decision.”

  “That’s about right.”

  “Well, the good news is that the shrapnel shouldn’t cause you problems in civilian life unless you work in construction or engage in other very physical activity.”

  “How about hard, sweaty sex?”

  The doctor laughed. “I think you’ll manage to survive short bursts of physical activity. If sex typically lasts more than an hour at a time then I’d recommend a specialist, but not for the nerve damage. If you ever need anything more than aspirin for that, I’ll be surprised.”