She was fishing and he knew why. What would happen to them once he was gone? Would he return to Walnut River? Would she come to see him in Boston? Would he date other women? He couldn’t imagine ever dating anyone else. In fact, Isobel was the be-all and end-all of women for him. He found himself thinking about that house and picket fence and dreams he’d never imagined he could make come true.
Would she date other men? The thought of Isobel dating anyone else made his blood run cold.
“My condo has a great heating system.” He had to keep this light. He couldn’t get into anything deep, not tonight. All week he’d searched for ways to settle this investigation without using Isobel. But through his conference call with Derek yesterday, he’d realized there weren’t any.
“Is something wrong? You’re awfully quiet today.”
“No, nothing’s wrong. I’m just enjoying holding you like this. Besides, you wore me out yesterday, helping you get ready for the auction.”
“I didn’t wear you out. You were even running circles around Chad.”
“He’s a good kid. Did you know he’s thinking about becoming a pharmacist?”
“Really? He told you that?”
“When we were carrying all those boxes to the storeroom in the senior center,” he teased.
She lightly jabbed her elbow into his ribs.
Over the past week he’d learned her ticklish spots and he tickled her side. She squealed and wiggled away but he caught her and kissed her—longingly, sensually, almost desperately. When this was all over, how could he make her understand? How could he make her see that he was doing this for her, too? That if everything worked out, he’d clear her name and the hospital’s, as well as find out who the informant was.
When he finished kissing her, he needed her all over again.
“I have to go soon,” she murmured.
“Soon, but not now,” he protested gruffly, caressing her face, running his thumb over her lips.
“I wish I could spend all night with you.”
“You can.”
“No, I can’t. Dad would…he just wouldn’t think it was right. And if anyone saw that I stayed over with you—” She shook her head. “I can’t stay, Neil. I have to go home.”
He knew she was right, yet he wanted another whole night, too. He wanted endless nights. That thought unsettled him, almost as much as the depth of his feelings for her. His emotions had been frozen for so long, he wasn’t used to the happiness and the novelty of thinking about another person besides himself.
“Stay until dark,” he coaxed, drawing her body on top of his, feeling her breasts against his chest, her softness against his hardness, her legs stretched out on his.
“So nobody sees me leave?” she asked.
“No, so we have at least another hour.”
Isobel smiled at him. With her hands on his shoulders, she pushed herself up and straddled him. “Just what do you think can happen in another hour?”
“We can take each other to paradise.”
Moving down lower on him, she let her hair brush his navel, then below his navel. He groaned.
“How about if you start the journey first,” she suggested.
Then Neil couldn’t speak as her lips surrounded him. He vowed when it was Isobel’s turn, he had to make love to her as she’d never been made love to before.
If he did that, maybe when this was all over, she’d forgive him.
On Monday morning, at Northeastern HealthCare’s main office in Boston, Anna Wilder adjusted her charcoal suit jacket and stepped up to the receptionist’s desk in her boss’s office suite.
Anna plastered on her professional smile. “Mr. Daly buzzed me this morning when I got in. He said he wanted to see me immediately.” She shouldn’t be nervous about this meeting but she was. She’d had only two other face-to-face meetings with Alfred Daly. One when he hired her, the other for a six-month evaluation. So why today?
His receptionist nodded. “Go on back. He’s waiting for you.”
The NHC building was plush. The company’s logo was maroon and gray and the offices all kept that same theme, along with off-white leather furniture, contemporary artwork on the walls, and solid wood doors no one could hear through. That made her a little uneasy at times.
The door to Mr. Daly’s office was open. When he saw her, he motioned her inside.
Daly was in his fifties, with brown hair combed over his bald spot. He wore suits that cost more than a month of her salary. And his ties? Some of his ties should hang in an art museum—many were one of a kind. When she saw him around the building, he never stopped to chat with anyone. He was always on the move, not unfriendly, just focused. Right now he focused on her.
“Anna, have a seat.”
He stayed behind his monstrous mahogany desk, laid his reading glasses on the blotter and looked her straight in the eye. “I’ll keep this short and to the point. I want you to go to Walnut River.”
“Why?”
“There are many reasons, but mainly because you are a Wilder. Your sister and brothers are doctors at a hospital we want to bring into our family. Influential doctors. I know full well they’re against the merger, and you’ve got to change their minds.”
“I’ve talked to them many times. Their minds are set. I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do about it.”
“That kind of attitude won’t get you far here, Anna. I want you to make the merger between Northeastern HealthCare and Walnut River General happen.”
“Even if I could convince my brothers and sister, there are many other doctors who are against it, as well as administrative personnel. How do you think I’m going to influence all those people?”
“That’s my point, Anna. You have a job here for a reason. You’re a smart woman. It’s up to you to figure out how to accomplish the takeover. If you don’t complete the merger, you will no longer have a job here.”
Anna couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Her whole professional career depended on this one assignment?
The truth was, for years she’d felt inferior to Ella and David and Peter. Now she had the chance to prove she wasn’t. Now she had the chance to prove she could do what was asked of her and be successful in the hardest endeavor.
But what if she couldn’t be? What if nothing she said or did made a difference?
Old insecurities die hard. She couldn’t listen to them. “How soon do you want me to leave?”
“You and Holmes are working on the Carson Memorial Hospital merger. He tells me that’s going well and you should have loose ends tied up in about a week. Is that right?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“I don’t want you to drop the ball there. I know you were instrumental in making it happen. So take this week to close that deal. But then I want you in Walnut River. I know you can do this, Anna. Don’t let me down.”
Anna stood. “I won’t, sir.”
As she left the office, she knew all she had to do was make the impossible happen.
If she thought about it too much, panic would overtake her. For the next week, she’d concentrate on Carson Memorial. And then? She’d formulate a plan and go home to execute it.
Home. Where she didn’t belong any more…where she’d never quite fit in.
And completing the NHC takeover would ensure she never did.
When Isobel returned to Walnut River General from an outside appointment early Monday afternoon, there was an e-mail from her supervisor, Mrs. Palmer, asking Isobel to come to her office as soon as she got back.
Margaret Palmer had hired Isobel and she’d always gotten along well with the woman. Margaret was in her late forties, knew that her social workers were overworked, and tried to be fair about assignments and their caseloads.
Isobel tucked her purse into the drawer of her desk and went down a short hall to Margaret’s office. When she stepped inside, she was met by the most serious expression she’d ever seen on her supervisor’s face. Margaret’s ash-blond hair was
styled in a pageboy, her bangs brushed to the side. Her glasses gave her a professorial look. Right now, Isobel saw confusion in her eyes and a frown on her face.
“You wanted to see me?”
Margaret motioned to the chair in front of her desk. Once Isobel was seated, her supervisor leaned forward and crossed her arms on her blotter. “I had a troubling report given to me this morning by Neil Kane.”
A report from Neil? He hadn’t said anything to Isobel about it. She remembered how quiet he’d been yesterday. Her heart began hammering. “What was in the report?”
“Mr. Kane has been made aware of a complaint against you.”
“What?” Nothing could have surprised her more.
“A serious charge has been made against you, Isobel. Mr. Kane has received a complaint that you’re taking kickbacks from Pine Ridge Rehab.”
Isobel was so astonished, she couldn’t form a coherent thought, let alone a coherent sentence.
“I have to take this seriously,” Margaret went on, “especially since it’s coming from an investigator from the Attorney General’s Office. You’re going to have to face the hospital review board and defend yourself.” She hesitated.
“Your review is set in two weeks. I’ll have to suspend you until this is all cleared up.”
“Suspend me? I haven’t done anything wrong! All I’ve done is place patients the way I’m supposed to…in the best circumstances for them.”
As Margaret studied Isobel carefully, her expression became empathetic. “I know you’re a hard worker, Isobel. I know you’ll be able to clear this up.”
Could someone be setting her up? Doing more than delivering rumors? “Is there any proof of this charge?”
“Mr. Kane didn’t say if he has hard evidence or not. He’ll be turning over whatever he has to the board.”
“Don’t I have a right to know what it is?”
“I suppose you can discuss that with Mr. Kane. You’ll be receiving an official letter tomorrow. It will list the areas the review board will go over with you.”
“I suppose my pay will be suspended, too.”
“I’m sorry, Isobel, but yes it will be, until the review board makes a decision.”
Isobel was still in a state of shock when she walked out of her supervisor’s office fifteen minutes later after discussing who would work the cases under her supervision now. For the next half hour, she sorted her files and gave them to the case workers who would be attending to them. They shot her odd looks, and she wondered if they’d already heard about her review and suspension.
As she returned to her desk for her purse, she couldn’t understand why Neil hadn’t told her. Over the weeks he’d conducted his investigation, he’d come to believe the informant was giving him unfounded information. So why had he gone to her supervisor? Why was he pushing for a formal review? When she thought about the hours they’d spent together, the weekend they’d spent together, the emotional intimacy she’d never shared with anyone else, she felt betrayed and absolutely devastated. She was going to confront him to find out why he’d kept this from her, but she had to calm down. First, she’d visit her patients and tell them someone else would be handling their cases. She would assure them they were in good hands.
And then she’d go to Neil’s office and confront him.
The fourth floor was quiet when Isobel approached Neil’s office door. She was still shaken by what her supervisor had told her. The idea of confronting Neil hurt her heart. Why hadn’t he told her?
Determined to learn the answer, determined to find out if she’d meant anything to him at all except a diversion while he was in Walnut River, she sharply knocked on the door.
With a cordless phone at his ear, he opened it.
She thought she glimpsed a flicker of…something in his eyes, but then it was gone. His expression showed not one iota of what he was thinking or feeling.
He motioned her inside while he crossed to the far end of the office to finish his call.
But she didn’t sit. She unabashedly listened to his conversation as he said, “I have a few different options. I’ll call you when it’s over.”
After he clicked off the phone, he laid it on the table beside his computer and focused his attention on her. “Did you speak to your supervisor?”
All of the hurt and sense of betrayal was pushing against Isobel. It wanted to come rushing out, but she held it off. She thrust it behind a dam of resolve. When she did, anger stole hurt’s place. It fortified her and gave her the strength to meet Neil’s gaze head-on. Her voice clipped and even, she demanded, “Why didn’t you tell me there was a complaint against me?”
Still with no expression she could read, Neil suggested, “Calm down, Isobel. Sit down and we’ll go through this.”
“Don’t patronize me, Neil. If you had to go before a review board, you wouldn’t be calm, either. This could go to the state licensing board. Why didn’t you tell me about the complaint?” she repeated. “And how long have you known about it?”
Neil turned the chair toward her. “Please,” he said quietly.
She sat, not because he told her to, but because she was feeling shaky and didn’t want to fall apart in front of him.
He lodged himself on the corner of the table, much too close to her. In spite of everything, she wanted to touch him, to feel his arms around her, to feel his skin pressed against hers.
Never again. Once trust was broken…
“I had to tell your supervisor first because this is my job. It’s what I do. I have regulations to follow and I can’t let anything interfere with those.”
“How long?” She had to know if he’d been keeping this to himself while he’d made love to her. Had sex with her, she reminded herself. He couldn’t love her and do this to her.
This was the first time since she’d entered Neil’s office that he looked uncomfortable. “I learned about it last weekend. The call I received at my parents.”
Her hurt won the battle to be released. “I thought we were…close.”
“We were.” His jaw set.
“No. If we were close, you never could have kept it from me while we…while we were in bed.”
“I had to decide what to do about the information. I was hoping I’d find the mole and not even have to bring it to light. But by this weekend after talking with my supervisor—You’ve got to understand, I have to go by the book.”
Hurt beyond words, she kept silent.
“Isobel, I’m doing this for a reason. I hoped you’d trust me.”
“Trust you? I’d trust you if you’d told me about the complaint without going to Mrs. Palmer first.”
“If I had told you, you could have tampered with possible evidence—spoken to contacts at Pine Ridge, wiped your hard drive of correspondence. With this review, our investigation of you is official.”
Their eyes locked for a few seconds.
Neil’s voice gentled. “I don’t believe you’re guilty.”
That was something, she supposed, but not much. She understood about jobs and rules. To her, though, people came first. The people she loved came first.
Neil went on. “I want to use your stint in front of the review board to lure out the mole.”
“How is ruining my professional reputation going to do that?”
“Obviously, you’ll be able to answer every question and refute every charge. After you do, I’ll announce that the allegations against you are groundless, just like every other charge I’ve investigated. I’m hoping the mole will get desperate and up the ante, give us more, let something slip.”
“You’re going to go public with my review?”
“I’d like your permission to do that.”
She could see the merit in his idea. If the mole had a grudge…or if he was getting paid to aid NHC in the takeover, he wouldn’t stop. He’d want to stay in the fight and damage the hospital even more thoroughly. But Neil was using her career and her reputation as the means to his end.
“In other words, you want to use me as a pawn.”
He contradicted her. “You need to look at this differently. You’ll be my partner, not a pawn.”
“You’re using me, Neil. Don’t delude yourself that you aren’t. I understand why. You’re stumped. You don’t know where else to go. Walnut River General can’t fight this takeover attempt until you’re gone. Because of that, for the sake of the hospital, I’ll help you with this. I’ll do what you want. But on a personal level, I don’t want any more to do with you.”
She heard him call her name as she ran out of his office, as she kept running down the hall to the back stairway and took each step faster than she should have. Neil didn’t come after her and she wasn’t surprised. He didn’t care about her after all—he cared about his investigation. He saw her as an easy way to make the days in Walnut River go faster. She’d been the foolish one to fall head over heels in love with a man who saw her as a means to an end.
She could lose her job. Oh, maybe that wasn’t what he had in mind. Maybe that wasn’t what he’d intended. But anything could happen with something like this, especially if someone was trying to set her up to prove wrongdoing at Walnut River General. Why couldn’t Neil see that? Why couldn’t he see that if he’d come to her with the complaint, they could have figured out together what to do with it?
Now, she was suspended. Her dreams were yesterday’s news and Neil’s so-called ethics had betrayed her.
A small voice inside her challenged her. He’s just doing his job.
If doing her job meant hurting someone she cared about, she wouldn’t be able to do it. It was as simple as that. Black and white.
Neil looked at life in black and white, too. Obviously, rules and regulations came first with him.
At the bottom of the stairwell, she pushed open the outside door and stepped into the warmth of the May day. But she didn’t feel the warmth. She was cold inside. She needed to clear her head so she could start functioning again.
Her life would go on without Neil Kane in it. End of discussion.
When she reached Sycamore Street, she parked two houses down from her dad’s. She didn’t want him to know she was home. Some nights she was much later than this so he wouldn’t worry. Thank goodness she kept a duffel bag in the car with a change of clothes.
Her Mr. Right? Page 14
