“Ok, no questions. So... how’s the new job going? I have a neighbor...remember that old ranch next to Pop’s? The one where that old crazy cat lady lived?”
“Yes.”
“I own all of the acreage around it but two hundred now. New owner is a trauma surgeon resident at FCGH. A Dr. McGareth?”
“Fiery blonde with a nice…attitude?”
“That’s her. She slammed my hat on my head and told me to get lost when I offered to buy her out.”
“I’ve seen her in action. She’s good, but has a real problem with men in authority. It’ll get her into trouble someday.”
“Probably will.” Travis wasn’t ready to tell his brother anything else about Lacy McGareth. Not until he had her figured out. “Still, she’s a damned fine sight for the eyes.”
“She’s like all the rest, I’m sure. Best keep your interest off of her. I suspect she’d tear a man in half without blinking.”
Well. That was a surprise. Rafe hadn’t always been so bitter.
What the hell had happened to his brother over there clear across the world?
And how was Travis supposed to help him acclimate?
9
Virat was invading her space. No surprise—the other surgeon liked to twig her out that way. He never meant anything by it. Virat just liked to tease her when he could. To be honest, of all the male physicians at FCGH that could get into her personal space, Virat was the one she minded the least.
He was the closest thing—outside of the Marshalls and Houghton Barratt—to a male friend she had. She trusted him. At least at work, she did.
He walked her to her car nearly every shift they worked together. She’d asked him about it once, and he’d told her he was using her as a little sister stand-in. Her and Jillian and especially sweet and shy Annie Gaines.
He had three younger sisters, all spread out around the state. It had been hard for him when he’d transferred to Finley Creek University several years ago. He hadn’t wanted to leave his sisters behind.
He hadn’t mentioned his parents much. Just his sisters. Said she, Jilly, and Annie were just like his sisters and he was going to keep them all as stand-ins as long as they’d let him.
“Spread out, Virat. You’re taking up my oxygen again.”
“I can’t help it. You smell so pretty.” He grinned down at her, though the mask covered his handsome face.
“Ha-ha.” They’d just finished with a scheduled surgery on a sixty-year-old man. The surgical nurses were finishing up with the patient now. She and Virat could step back and relax now. It had gone well. She hadn’t been certain that it would, but Virat was one hell of a surgeon. She’d learned something from him today.
After they were finished removing the sterile coverings that were now bloodied and had washed up, they met back up in the surgery ward waiting room. “I’ll buy you lunch, McGareth.”
“I’m game. But I want spicy today.”
“Ouch.” Virat did not do spicy well at all. He was more the pizza type. They tried to take turns. “I have something I want to discuss with you.”
“Oh?” He looked serious. She wasn’t used to that—at least not out of the operating room anyway. “What about?”
“Solpalmitraln.”
She hadn’t forgotten Mr. Kensington. She’d ordered the blood tests and had been set to follow-up when Dr. Jacobson had intervened, taking the man’s case for himself. Lacy hadn’t liked it, but Jacobson was her immediate supervisor and Mr. Kensington had asked for a male physician. It was about the patient, after all. “What about it?”
“We’ll talk about it outside of the hospital. I have some questions.”
10
There were few physicians he trusted as much as he did the pretty blonde resident in front of him. Virat had lied to her before, once he’d realized how frightened of men in general Lacy actually was. He’d been attracted from the first moment he’d met her—it was hard not to be, the woman was gorgeous, highly intelligent, and compassionate with a wonderful sense of humor.
He was still attracted to her, even now, three years later. Virat was smart enough to know that they’d never act on it. Lacy had a history, and it made it hard for the woman to trust a man. Any man. Despite what she said or thought.
And to be honest, while he thought she was damned near close to being his ideal woman, he doubted he was the type of man she needed in her life.
He was headstrong and difficult and just as dedicated to his career as she was hers. Lacy needed a man who could show her life outside FCGH.
Another physician wasn’t that man.
He paid for her lunch at a little Chinese infusion place near the hospital that she talked him into at least twice a month and they headed for their favorite table.
“Ok, Vir, what’s this about?”
“Solpalmitraln. How often do you prescribe it?”
Green eyes narrowed as Lacy studied his face. “Twice. To two patients that I know well. I know it goes against FCGH edict, but…I’ve not prescribed it since. There are far more reliable painkillers out there—ones we know about. I don’t like using my patients as guinea pigs. Why?”
“What were the side effects? Just humor me, will you?”
“None that were reported to me.” Except for Mr. Kensington. “We had a patient in a few days ago who is on it, having adverse reactions. But Jacobson took him further at the patient’s request.”
“Quick to anger? Inability to control their rage? Violent outbursts? I had a patient strike his fourteen-year-old son. First time it had ever happened. He’s so guilt-ridden he’s moved out of the house to protect his family.”
Lacy nodded. “Why?”
“I mentioned it in a paper last month. That paper has now been discredited. Hidden. And I’ve been given a not-so-friendly warning by the Chief of Surgery to keep my opinions on Solpalmitraln quiet.”
11
“Jacobson?” Lacy didn’t doubt Virat. Of anyone in her department, it was his experience and opinion she trusted the most. Second to him, was Allen Jacobson.
“Yes. Apparently, he’s been courted by Claireson Pharmaceuticals.” Virat’s mouth twisted and Lacy understood. It was an accepted practice for pharmaceutical companies to approach leaders in certain medical fields and offer them perks for helping spread the word about new drugs.
Far too many physicians, clinics, and hospitals did just that.
She didn’t. Virat apparently didn’t. It surprised her that her direct supervisor Allen Jacobson did. “Wow.”
“Banks Claireson, the guy that runs the company, was a good college buddy of Jacobson. Lanning, too, I think. A few years ahead of me. And Holden-Deane, though Holden-Deane graduated at the same time.”
After lunch, Lacy went in search of the woman who would know the most. Well, the one person she trusted that would know about the drug.
Fin was one of the original Finley’s of Finley Creek and she took the hospital her such-and-such great grandparents had founded very, very seriously. She kept her fingers on everything that could shed a good or bad light on FCGH.
She would know exactly what was going on with the Solpalmitraln study. She didn’t doubt that one bit.
In the meantime, she was going to see what the surgical department—the one most likely to prescribe Solpalmitraln—had on file. If she couldn’t find anything in the computer systems, then nothing was there, right?
That was something she was going to ask the first computer genius she saw.
12
The woman was right there when he and Hank walked into the ER. Travis stopped walking smack in the center of the lobby; all thoughts of finding his brother and having Rafe quickly stitch up this little problem for him evaporated.
He wasn’t above calling in family favors. He had things to do.
Instead, she was right there, giving orders to a team of professionals around her and looking sexy as hell.
She looked up and he saw the surprise go over her face. “Travis!�
��
“Hey doc, remember when I said you could repay the favor?”
Lacy handed the chart in her hands over to a sweet-looking brunette nurse and stepped closer. Her hands came up and brushed against his skin gently. “What did you do?”
“Boss cut himself on some old barbed wire running beneath the old fences on your place, ma’am,” Hank said. “Cut it pretty bad.”
“Get him into Trauma A, Annie. I’m going to finish up with Trauma C. Then I’ll take care of Travis.” She looked over at him. “Unless you’d rather I call your brother down here for you?”
Travis winced. “I’d far rather have those pretty hands of yours on me than Rafe’s dinner-plates. He’s not exactly all that gentle. And he’ll call me stupid or something. You must protect me. He can be really bossy.” Travis let the sweet-looking brunette nurse guide him into a trauma room. “I’m not cutting in line, am I, darlin’? I can wait, if Dr. McGareth is busy.”
She shook her head, then smiled softly. “She’s just finishing up now, Mr…”
“Worthington-Deane. Holden-Deane is my older brother. Lacy is my neighbor.”
“We have other doctors on staff,” a male voice said from behind the nurse. “You don’t have to wait for Dr. McGareth, Mr. Worthington-Deane.”
Travis looked passed her at the tall doctor behind her. The little nurse, she wasn’t any bigger than his late sister-in-law had been, stiffened and paled. Poor kid. She didn’t like this guy at all, did she?
“That’s ok, Dr. Lanning, is it?” Travis studied the guy closely. The guy was an inch or two shorter than Travis and at least five years older. And familiar. “We’ve met before, haven’t we? You went to school with my brothers, I think.”
“Yes. FCU. I’d be happy to take care of that for you.”
“I’ll do it,” someone else said from the door. “I saw you from the hallway. What the hell did you do now?”
There he was, crowding the nurse further into the small trauma room. Poor woman was trapped between three tall men—and obviously not liking it. Travis smirked at his big brother. “Hey, Rafe, I’ll have you know I saved a life today. It might have been canine, but the puppy is super appreciative.”
“I’m sure it was.” Rafe washed his hands before having the nurse flush the scratches on Travis’ arm. She was pretty and she was gentle—but he’d far prefer it be his favorite doctor. Still, Travis was a big boy. He wasn’t going to pout.
“Barbed wire has real teeth, bro,” Travis said as Rafe inspected the injuries. “But it was just a puppy. I’m not sure how he even got there. I heard him crying…uh…I don’t suppose you want a puppy? He’d keep your big feet warm at night.”
“Definitely not.”
“Marc probably won’t, either. Not that I’d subject a pup to the kids.”
“Probably not a bad idea.” Rafe was fast at stitches at least. Travis couldn’t complain.
“You always did stitch so prettily,” he said when his brother was finished and the nurse was applying the bandage.
“Can it. You’re up to date on tetanus, right?”
“Yes. So… What have you been up to? You are supposed to call your brother at least twice a week so he knows you’re still alive.”
“That was the deal when I was in Africa, not the same damned county.”
“Way I see it, we’re brothers, we’re supposed to keep track of each other,” Travis said, as the nurse finished. “Marc has no problem with that. But you…damn it, Rafe, you know you should keep a closer eye on me than you do. I may find myself in trouble.”
“No kidding.”
All joking aside, Rafe looked worse than Travis probably did. There were bruised circles under his brother’s dark brown eyes. Circles that worried him. “I sent Hank on back to the ranch. He had the pup in the truck and needed to get him out of the heat. You give me a lift?”
He had been planning to hang around and pester McGareth into feeling sorry for him. Travis had been hoping to get a ride from his pretty neighbor. But he suspected his brother might just need him more.
“It’ll be about an hour before I’m free.” Rafe glowered at him. “Don’t pester the nurses—or the female doctors—in my hospital while you wait.”
Travis grinned. “Would I do that?”
“In a heartbeat.”
“You know me too well, big brother.” But, there was only one female at FCGH that he wanted to pester. He just wasn’t going to tell his brother that.
13
Logan felt a small hand touch him lightly on the back and without turning, he suspected who it was.
Dr. McGareth. Come to check on that damned Deane brother. Why would she be so concerned with him?
It had only been a few moments since he’d last spoken with her.
Argued with her. Since she’d questioned him, a supervisor, over the prescription he’d written. The mere temerity of her actions had stunned him.
She’d acted as if she’d had the right to question the entire drug trial for Solpalmitraln. The drug worked—Logan was living proof of that.
But she’d seen it his way. She was prescribing the drug he’d ordered. Whether she wanted to or not.
She was really going to have to get a handle on her attitude and her willingness to flaunt authority at every chance she could.
He’d told her that, his voice rising.
He hadn’t meant to frighten her though. And he had. The instant his voice had risen and he’d inadvertently stepped closer to her, she’d flinched back. Her hand had come up between them. Told him a tight voice that her patients hadn’t signed up to be lab rats.
And then she’d scurried away.
Logan had just watched her, feeling like a bully for scaring her. It hadn’t been that long ago since she’d been victimized by a large man intent on hurting her. He should have remembered that.
She’d been beaten by a man bigger than him, after all.
She might be a pain in the ass sometimes, but he hadn’t wanted to scare her. Or remind her of that night. Hell, he didn’t want to remember it himself.
He ran a shaking hand over his brow as she stepped closer to the patient on the bed.
Holden-Deane’s younger brother. The rancher.
Worthington-Deane, he remembered the Deanes’ ridiculously pretentious last names, perked up the instant McGareth walked into the trauma bay.
Of course he would. The youngest Deane had always been a player, after all.
He’d even stolen one of Logan’s own romantic interests away when he’d been nothing but a nineteen-year-old punk trailing after his brothers.
The girl had only been eighteen at the time. Logan hadn’t known that when he’d first fallen for her. But it had stung to lose her to one of those damned Deanes.
He listened to the youngest Deane flirt with Dr. McGareth and the trauma nurse with disgust.
He had all he could take of Deanes for the day. Logan turned and walked away.
He had his own patients to see.
14
Rafe finished with Travis and watched as Annie, the nurse, gave his brother care instructions.
Travis couldn’t help himself, could he? By the time Rafe stepped out of the trauma room, the sweetly shy nurse was blushing, and smiling at his brother’s antics. His brother had always had that charm with women.
It used to drive him and Marcus nuts. The girls would flock to his younger brother, and it was all effortless for Travis.
Still, Travis wasn’t serious, and the women involved seemed to grasp that. “Leave the girl alone, Travis. She’s got a job to do,” Rafe said when he easily sensed Annie was getting overwhelmed.
She wasn’t the type a guy flirted with easily.
Before he could say anything else the curtain opened and Dr. McGareth stepped in, a look of real aggravation on her beautiful face.
Dr. Lanning stood behind her, his face red. Rafe crossed his arms over his chest as he studied the pair. They’d been having a disagreement, hadn’t they?
He’d had a few with both himself, in just the few weeks he’d been at FCGH. Dr. McGareth was too out of control at times, always willing to fight for what she believed in.
Rafe remembered being that zealous in what he believed once. Djibouti took that out of a man real fast. Still, he admired the fire in the woman, though she was the type to burn a man if he let his defenses down.
Logan Lanning was an entirely different ball of wax.
Rafe remembered him from his med school days. Logan was above average in intelligence, even for a physician. He just lacked the ability to see his own faults and adapt when needed. Lanning had always been disconnected in a way that Rafe didn’t personally feel was helpful in a physician.
But until the past two months or so, the man had been a noted surgeon. A reasonably adequate Chief of Medicine. Until a month after he’d returned from medical leave. It had been apparent that the man wasn’t up to the position of COM any longer.
What were Lanning and McGareth arguing about now?
“Travis? I’ll be back. Try not to cause too much trouble while I’m gone?”
His brother grinned. “Do I ever? I’ll just…job-shadow Dr. McGareth here. She’s pretty. And she likes me.”
Hell, Rafe almost snorted. A woman like Dr. Lacy McGareth would eat Travis alive. And his brother would lay down and let it happen—willingly.
Rafe almost couldn’t blame his brother. Almost.
Rafe had been just that foolish once. Never again.
15
Travis was a rancher to his boots, and that meant hard work. That didn’t change, even with him as the owner. He worked harder than his men and they respected that. He spent most of the work day with the horses, then spent a few hours in his office handling the business aspect of the ranch and the properties.
His experimental grass project had to take a backseat some of the time.
It delayed him, so that he got to the McGareth Ranch well past four to even begin working the acreage in the way he needed.
If the Dark Wins (Finley Creek Book 4) Page 4
