Rock Rhapsody

by Rachel Cross

  He frowned. “Watching women stuff their phone numbers in my pocket?”

  Could she handle that aspect of the life? He had never fully experienced jealousy until that horrible day in Los Angeles. He wouldn’t want to put her through that on a regular basis.

  He watched her swallow and take a sip of her lemonade.

  “Can you be faithful to me, Alec?” she asked, her serious green eyes searching.

  “Yes.” Of that he had no doubt.

  Her smile was radiant. “Then I’ll trust you.”

  • • •

  The morning light was coming through his bedroom windows. Kate could hear the unceasing crash of the surf, surprisingly loud, strangely comforting. She turned her head on the pillow and looked directly into Alec’s hot blue eyes. She stretched, caught his lascivious gaze and chuckled. “So now my problems don’t seem as overwhelming as they did on the beach, but there is one other thing I need to tell you about.”

  She told him everything that happened with Billingsly; the weird date, his calls and texts, seeing his car on her street, the incident in the storage closet, her complaint, meetings with human resources; and finally about being written up and likely fired.

  He went ballistic. She stared, open-mouthed as he leaped from the bed and prowled the room, naked and ranting. The overwhelming emotion of the previous day took its toll. She tried to suppress her snicker, but it slipped out. He paused mid-tirade, glowering at her.

  “What’s funny?” he snapped.

  “You.” She pointed at him. “Ranting and raving, stark naked I might add, about sexual harassment, stalking, and assault. Making threats to feed him his own balls.” Giggles overcame her.

  Eyes narrowed to slits, lips compressed into a thin line, he stared at her.

  “I don’t find it remotely funny.”

  That sent her off into fresh gales. When her laughter trailed off, he said darkly, “That son-of-a-bitch has messed with the wrong woman. Your reputation? Your reputation? I could … ” He made a throttling motion with his hands, apoplectic.

  “Yes, but what can we do?” she said, spreading her hands.

  “You will recall that I’m a fucking lawyer,” he half-shouted at her, expression incredulous.

  “Well, yes, but entertainment law?” She had to press her lips together to stifle more laughter at his affronted expression.

  He rubbed his hands together “Oh, I think I can handle both a stalking case and a sexual harassment case. The laws have toughened up around stalking, and I am very, very familiar with them.” His tone was silky. “I’m willing to bet people will come out of the woodwork once we get the ball rolling.”

  “Slow down, counselor. I’d like to keep my job and not have to deal with him. It might be harder than you think. He’s their golden boy, you know.”

  “Yeah. I’ve seen the billboard. What’s he doing in Cielito anyway?” he asked, eyes narrowed.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, what is a surgeon with his qualifications doing in a little town like Cielito at a community hospital?”

  She cocked her head. “That’s an excellent question. We’re a good hospital, but his qualifications and experience are well beyond us.”

  “I wonder if he got into trouble somewhere.”

  Her mouth fell open. “He’s done this before?”

  “Likely, yes.”

  She shot straight up in the bed. “And been fired?”

  He tilted his head. “Possibly, or he resigned, knowing what was coming. Stalkers are often serial offenders. He shouldn’t be too hard to nail.” He rubbed his hands together, clearly relishing the coming fight.

  She got to her knees. “Can you find out?”

  He gave her a hard kiss. It turned into a slow, sliding merging of lips and tongue. Breakfast could wait.

  Chapter 23

  Two days later, Kate followed Alec into the shower. One thing led to another, and they were scrambling to get dressed to make their appointment with hospital administration. He stepped out of the walk-in closet, nattily attired in a several thousand dollar conservative gray suit. Kate’s jaw fell open.

  Alec shot her a look. “You okay?”

  She shook her head to clear it. “I’m going to miss your lawyer costume when you go back into music,” she said sadly.

  He grinned. “I think you’ll like my rocker attire.”

  Kate’s eyes widened. “Leather pants?” she asked, hopefully.

  He burst out laughing. “You really do love the seventies, don’t you?” He shook his head.

  She tried Emma again. No answer. She’d emailed copies of the police reports to Emma. No response.

  An hour later, with barely time for a coffee stop, Kate led Alec to the hospital administration conference room.

  They were all there. The Director of Human Resources, the highest level administrators of the hospital, board members. Alec had filled her in on the basics of sexual harassment law. He’d explained that her hospital had done nearly everything wrong in dealing with her complaint.

  Alec had told her that most employers, including health care systems, hospitals, and practice groups, maintained in-house procedures aimed at enforcing anti-sexual harassment policies by investigating complaints and imposing appropriate disciplinary action on violators. Most states, including California, were required to report claims of sexual harassment to the Board of Physicians. That report could result in an action on the physician’s license by the Board, and ultimately suspension or revocation of the license.

  Alec had Billingsly investigated. Bingo. His investigator — the best in the business, he told Kate — hit the mother lode. There was a laundry list of previous filings by nurses and other subordinates at a number of hospitals, going all the way back to his residency. The reports included invasive touching and intrusive questions about the employees’ sexual practices, even stalking complaints. The hospital knew, or should have known, of his history and failed to take adequate measures to prevent future incidents. She was surprised to find that she was not even the first nurse at Cielito Community to make a complaint about Billingsly.

  It was cool and fascinating to watch her lover in action as an attorney.

  “Sexual harassment in the workplace is not a thing of the past. It continues to be a serious problem for working women. The way this hospital has handled complaints about a physician with a long history of sexual harassment and inappropriate relationships with subordinates is abhorrent.”

  She watched in awe as he took them to task.

  “Let’s see if what happened here constitutes sexual harassment.” He held up his hand and ticked off each item as he spoke. “One: made sexual advances to subordinates. Made solicitations. Made sexual requests. Demanded sexual compliance? All of that and more.”

  He chuckled but it was humorless. “He really is an over achiever, isn’t he? And the best part is, we have witness and accusers from this very hospital,” he paused. “He assaulted my client in a sexual manner in your facility. We’ll be filing a police report on that, by the way. We have testimony that individuals at this hospital requested HR intervention to make the behavior stop. You have policies in place that you have ignored, and that constitutes unlawful conduct. The actions of Billingsly were detestable, but your attempts to cover-up or ignore his unlawful behavior is atrocious and you should be ashamed.”

  Kate glanced around the room. Some administrators looked shaken; others, defiant.

  Here Alec paused, then dropped his other bombshell. “You knowingly hired someone with a history of validated complaints and who had been disciplined and fired for his harassing behavior not only at one previous hospital, but several. This man is a serial offender, and you welcomed him with open arms. Your human resources department tried to intimidate the employees who came to you for r
edress. Without much effort, we could present a case that will send a message to other hospitals and healthcare institutions that this type of behavior will not be ignored or tolerated. No one should have to endure this manner of degradation in the workplace.”

  “Now, I don’t want to put this nice little community hospital out of business with the kind of judgment I could get from a case like this. I really don’t. And your nurse here,” he indicated Kate with a wave of his hand, “certainly doesn’t. Ms. Gibson was born in this hospital. Her mother trusted the doctors here when she had cancer. The town needs this hospital. She has some loyalty.” Alec stopped and let his gaze rest on each and every person in the room, save Kate. Most could not meet his eyes. “So this is a warning, ladies and gentlemen, that you had better clean house and clean it well, or we will put you out of business.”

  The hospital attorney cleared his throat. “Mr. Sawyer, Ms. Gibson, please rest assured that we are doing everything in our power to investigate this situation. We’re as concerned as you are.”

  After the meeting, Kate watched the hospital attorney pull Alec aside. The two men conferred and Alec gave a short nod, gathered up his papers and stuffed them into his briefcase. Turning his back on the occupants of the room, he walked over to Kate and ushered her out of the room with a hand at her back.

  “Ready?”

  “Uh, sure.” Kate replied.

  “Don’t worry, babe. It’s all under control,” he said in her ear, steering her out to the parking lot.

  “Oh. That’s a relief.”

  “Next stop, police station and restraining order.”

  “Ugh.”

  He gave her a quick kiss and hustled her into his car.

  “Should we stop for a late lunch after?”

  “I’d love that. Anywhere but Chez Henri.”

  He grinned and started the engine.

  Alec had called the police station, and Lieutenant Stevenson had an interview room ready for them as soon as they arrived.

  “So you guys are an item?” he asked, with a nod to their joined hands.

  Her heart gave a little leap and she smiled. “Yep.”

  He frowned. “Were you together that day on the beach?”

  Alec shook his head. “No, we met there.”

  The lieutenant gave a low whistle. “No kidding. Not the most auspicious beginning.”

  Alec shrugged. Kate’s lips twitched.

  Another officer arrived and they began the interview. She ran through the series of events from the first time she met Billingsly to the incident in the supply closet, the pleading text messages and voicemails, the flowers. It was hard to remember all the times and places she’d seen his car, but she did her best. Alec pushed for and got the restraining order.

  Lieutenant Stevenson leaned back in the chair. “With cases like these, as your boyfriend has probably told you, it doesn’t pay to engage the man.”

  Kate nodded.

  “If he comes within one hundred yards of you, call nine-one-one.”

  “Got it.”

  He shot a shrewd look at Alec. “Same goes for you. Don’t get into it with him. That’s what we’re here for.”

  Alec gave him a wave of acknowledgement, expression grim.

  The Chief of Police opened the door and walked into the room. He greeted Kate and Alec and sat down. He took a moment to review the notes the Lieutenant had made. Then he reached across the table and took Kate’s hand.

  “I want you to know we’ll do whatever we have to do to take care of you, Kate. Just like we did with your mother.”

  Kate looked down, fighting tears. Alec found her hand under the table and gave it a squeeze.

  “I know, thanks, Chief.” Kate sighed. “I hate to bring this up, given all the trouble we’re putting you to with Billingsly, but I should warn you. My sister invited Matt Gibson to spend the holidays with us here in Cielito.”

  He blanched. “My God.”

  Kate pressed her lips together. “I know.”

  He gave Kate a hard look. “Then she can’t possibly know — ”

  Kate interrupted him with a meaningful glance at the Lieutenant, “No. She doesn’t. The fewer people who know about that, the better. I just wanted to give you guys a heads up.”

  The Chief shook his head. “I guess I can understand why you wouldn’t want to tell her, but he’s a manipulative son-of-a-bitch, Kate. Try to nip that in the bud.”

  “We are,” Alec said.

  “I’ll have my men keep an eye on him once he arrives.”

  They got back to the car, and Kate’s stomach rumbled. He looked over and laughed. “Hungry?”

  “Let’s just grab burritos and bring them home.”

  “Do you have a favorite place?”

  “There’s a great taqueria on Main.”

  “I know the place.” Alec steered the car out of the police station onto the quiet street.

  “Alec?”

  “Yeah, babe?”

  “Why me?”

  “Why you?”

  “Why is Billingsly interested in me? I mean, we went on this date where he spent the whole time looking at his phone, basically ignoring me, and suddenly he can’t leave me alone? It doesn’t make any sense.”

  He reached across and gave her hand a quick squeeze before he had to shift gears again. “I don’t have an answer for that. I can tell you that I’ve been affected by stalkers both personally and professionally. They may look all right on the outside, but inside they’re pretty unbalanced individuals.”

  “But he’s a brilliant surgeon. Successful. He’s not a madman.”

  “No.” He shrugged. “He probably can’t stand to be rejected. At least that’s the impression I get from everything you’ve told me about his past, his reaction to you leaving him at the restaurant, the texts. I’m no psychologist, but from what I understand, stalkers are often intelligent, vengeful, obsessive narcissists. Those characteristics don’t preclude him being a successful surgeon. Clearly, you’re not the first person to suffer his attentions, but hopefully you’ll be the last.”

  She compressed her lips and looked out the window, trying to stem the flow of tears.

  “Kate?”

  Alec cursed softly and pulled off onto a side street within walking distance of the restaurant.

  He reached for her, she leaned away.

  “I hate this. I hate that you have to do all this stuff for me,” she wailed. “We just got back together and you have all of my crap to deal with — ”

  “I love you, Kate. It doesn’t matter. Look at me.”

  Dashing tears away, she turned toward him.

  “You know what? I hate that you have to deal with this too, but I love that I’m able to help. And I’m not flailing around wondering how to protect you, Kate. Thanks to my job the last few years, I know how to help, and I’m grateful for that. I want to take care of you. It won’t always be like this. I promise.”

  He got out and walked around the car, opened her door, guided her out, closed and locked it. He hauled her into his strong embrace there on the sidewalk. He held her, just held her until she let herself relax in his arms.

  Chapter 24

  “Alec?” Kate searched his kitchen for the key ring for the Jonnards’ house. Where had she put them? Oh, right. Her purse.

  “Babe?” She hollered again. No reply. Hadn’t he said he might spend time in the studio this morning? Loathe to disturb him, she wrote a note and left it on the kitchen table.

  This was the third time in two days she’d gotten a call from the security company about the damn house. The alarm was having some kind of issue. The police had to deal with it yesterday and last night when she’d been working. If they got dispatched out again, the county policy was to bill her for their time.
That she did not need. Kate grabbed her cell phone and dialed the non-emergency police number.

  The dispatcher answered. “Cielito Police and Fire.”

  “Hi, this is Kate Gibson. I’m calling about the alarm you guys are getting on Luna Drive? I’m taking care of it. If it’s been dispatched, please cancel it.”

  “You all are having some issues over there, huh?”

  “Yeah. The company is coming out tomorrow to deal with it. If it goes off again, do me a favor and call me first? We can’t afford to get a bill from the county.”

  “No problem. Kate, right? And this is a good number, the one you’re calling from?”

  “Yeah. Thanks.”

  There had been no sign of her sister or Matt Gibson yesterday when she’d met the police to check the alarm. From her brief texts with Emma, Kate was pretty sure they arrived and were staying at the cottage. Maybe she would get lucky and catch Emma alone today. This alarm issue gave her a good excuse to go over there.

  She parked in the driveway. The car Emma was borrowing from the Morgans wasn’t there.

  Kate let herself into the main house, she checked the first floor, then wandered up the stairs to check the bedrooms on the second floor. Her nose twitched. It usually smelled musty inside, but today there was another odor. One she couldn’t place. Not unpleasant, just unfamiliar. Maybe she’d get the cleaning service back in here. With a shrug, she reset the alarm and let herself out of the house, locking the door behind her.

  She turned right into Craig Billingsly.

  A furious Craig Billingsly.

  Her heart leaped into her throat. She put her arms up defensively.

  “You little bitch,” he hissed. “I thought you were different. Who do you think you are complaining about me? Getting your boyfriend to get me fired?” He grabbed her by the arms and shook her, hard.

  She swung her ring of keys up and managed to catch him in the chin. The keys fell.

  “Hey.”

  Billingsly turned to look at the new arrival a few feet away.

  Kate stared. Is that my father?