Simon might be a newbie, but he’d learned fast that if you found a place to let kids run around, they’d exert enough energy to eventually collapse in exhaustion.

Even though the rain had stopped, puddles were everywhere, overflowing along the deep, pock-marked wet patches of ground. Simon decided that taking them to the beach would be a mistake in such muddy conditions. Instead, he got the brilliant idea to cart them around the farm to look at all the chickens and ducks.

Everything was fine until Simon started up a conversation with Gavin. He turned his back for maybe two minutes and then spotted the kids splashing in a shallow, muddy hole with Merlin right there egging them on.

He ran over to put a stop to it, but they were already filthy dirty.

Gavin stood there watching. “You’ll have to hose them off. Otherwise, you’ll never get the muck out of their hair. You can use my kids’ wagon to haul them back to the house.”

Which is how Simon ended up pulling an all-terrain red wagon all the way down the road until it dead-ended and back to his house.

“Don’t stand up,” he cautioned Delaney when she tried to get to her feet. “You sit right there until I get you cleaned up.”

By the time he reached the back porch, they’d smeared the mud onto each side so that he had a bigger mess than before.

“Who wants to go first?”

Jayden roared with laughter and hollered, “Me!”

“Me,” Delaney repeated.

“Together then,” Simon decided as he plopped them down one after the other on the concrete patio and went to unfurl the hose.

He set the nozzle to a gentle soak, but that didn’t do the job. He increased the pressure until their clothing was drenched and both kids were slightly mud-free. That’s when he realized he needed towels. Opening the back door, he herded them inside into the utility room where they both dripped water on the floor. He got them out of their wet clothes, dumping their outfits into the washer.

Jayden took off running into the kitchen and beyond, naked as the day he was born, while Simon scooped up Delaney. After putting her in a clean diaper and tugging on one of her new romper things, he had to dig in the massive bag Gilly had brought to find Jayden’s change of clothes. Then he had to chase down Jayden who refused to be caught and thought it was all a funny game.

Eventually Simon corralled the boy and persuaded him to stand still long enough to put on a clean pair of underwear with dinosaurs as a theme, a dry T-shirt, and shorts. “Thank goodness your mom brought you extra clothes.”

“Done,” Jayden pronounced and made a dive for his cars. When he saw Delaney picking one up, he yelled, “Mine,” and jerked it out of her hands.

Delaney started to pucker up and cry.

“They do belong to Jayden,” Simon pointed out, holding out the bear she’d become fond of dragging everywhere. “How about this? We’ll get you some cars of your own tomorrow. How does that sound?”

She hugged the blue bear to her chest. “Mine.”

“Yep. You learn fast. Bear is all yours.”

Simon turned his attention to fixing supper and decided he couldn’t look at macaroni again. He’d picked up dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets that were quick and easy to heat in the oven. And Gilly had mentioned that Jayden liked apricots served over rice. She swore that throwing everything into a bowl, the toddlers would gobble it up.

Simon was less than convinced. He used instant rice because the stuff cooked in five minutes. Once he took the chicken out of the oven, he cut it up into chunks and poured the apricots, juice and all, over the hot meat and served the concoction over the rice.

He stood back and waited for the kids to balk, but when they began to stuff their faces, he looked on in wonder. “You guys eat the weirdest things.”

“Weird but good,” Jayden stated.

Simon ruffled the boy’s hair. “That’s all that counts.”

When his cell phone rang, Simon looked at the display. “This is your mom.”

Gilly was almost breathless with worry on the other end. “Hey, how is everything going? Any problems?”

“We’re surviving. You were right about that chicken dish.”

“I know. It may sound disgusting to us, but I got the idea off the Internet.”

He told her about the tour of the farm and the consequences that followed.

“No problem, I’ve hosed Jayden off lots of times.”

“I never would’ve thought of it if Gavin hadn’t tossed out the idea. How’s your shift going?”

“Quiet so far. I have three patients who were admitted over the weekend so I’m not alone.”

“Do you ever get scared working there by yourself?”

“No. Thanks for putting that in my head, though.”

“Sorry, it’s just that I’ve been in isolated places and it’s a bit unnerving.”

“You were actually scared?”

“Sure. I’ve been afraid a bunch of times. Nothing wrong with admitting it.”

“I gotta go. Looks like Dr. Blackwood is here to do rounds. Remember, try to get Jayden in bed by eight-thirty, no later than nine. That is if you can. If not, don’t sweat it. He’ll run out of energy long before midnight.”

“Midnight?”

“Just kidding? Gotta go. Call if there’s a problem. Talk to you later.”

After making himself a ham sandwich and cleaning up the supper dishes, he loaded one of the music CDs that Gilly had packed in Jayden’s bag into the player. Jayden started dancing to tunes from They Might Be Giants, and then later hauled a bouncing Delaney around the room to the rhythm from another band called The Twigs.

Both kids were bobbing up and down and hopping until bedtime. Since they’d already been cleaned up, all Simon had to do was get them into pajamas.

He fixed Delaney a bottle and plopped down on the sofa to read them a bedtime story from a book Gilly had thought to bring. It made him realize that he needed to do some major shopping for Delaney. She had very few clothes and needed toys and books.

Getting both kids off to bed proved less of a challenge than he thought. Jayden nodded off halfway through the story and Delaney’s eyes kept fluttering before she finished her bottle. Simon simply carried both to their bedrooms.

Exhausted, he rewarded himself with a beer and sat down in his favorite chair to enjoy the silence.

 

 

Gilly stayed busy that evening. Murphy sliced open his hand on a box cutter and needed stitches. Abby Bonner brought her little girl in after she complained of a stomach ache. Joey Pierce had fallen into a patch of poison ivy and scratched himself until he’d made the rash bleed.

Lucky for the patients, Gilly had the skillset to handle each of these non-life-threatening emergencies without having to contact the doctors.

She stitched up Murphy’s hand and put a warm compress on the five-year-old’s belly until it stopped hurting.

She applied anti-itch cream to Joey’s ugly red lesions, sending him home with his dad along with instructions on how to keep them from getting infected.

“Thanks, Gilly,” Wally said as he signed paperwork.

“That’s what I’m here for.”

“And we’re mighty glad to have our own hospital. How’s Jayden?”

“Energetic as ever.”

“And your mom?”

Gilly had known Wally too long not to recognize concern. She brought him up to speed on the situation.

“I knew something was wrong. She brought her car in the other day and asked me to change the oil.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“She wrote down the make of the car as a Buick. Remember the Park Avenue. She thought that’s what she was driving. Connie hasn’t driven that thing since we had to worry about Y2K.”

Gilly’s heart dropped. “I don’t know what else to do except wait until she gets checked out. But it seems her condition is escalating.”

Wally wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “You need anything at all, you don’t hesitate to call. You shouldn’t go through something like this on your own.”

“Thanks, Wally. But I’ll be okay. You take good care of Joey.”

Around midnight, she had just sat down to take a break when she heard the double automatic doors open. Letting out a sigh, she got to her feet and went out to the registration desk. It took her a couple of seconds to realize that it was Ophelia Moore, face battered with black and blue marks on both cheeks, hand prints around her throat, a cut on her forehead, and a busted lip that just kept oozing blood.

“Who on earth did this to you?” Gilly asked as she ushered the woman into an exam room.

“Please don’t tell anybody,” Ophelia moaned, holding her ribs.

“Who did this?” Gilly demanded, more emphatic this time.

“I think I hurt my side,” Ophelia stated, ignoring Gilly’s requests for information.

Gilly examined the cut over her eye and got out antiseptic from the cabinet. “It won’t need stitches but it’s still a deep slash on a very noticeable place on your face. Made from a ring I’m guessing.”

“How did you know?”

 “I can still see the imprint.”

“He wears this stupid twenty-four-karat-gold ring with flashy diamonds in an onyx setting.”

“Drug dealer?”

“No, just rich. He comes from a family that has more money than they know what to do with.”

 “And his name, Ophelia, is…?”

She started to cry. “My ex-boyfriend, Robby Ogilvie. Robert. He seems to think he can bully me into getting back together with him. I thought moving here he’d get the message.”

“Bullies never just get the message. And I say that from experience. Where is he now?”

“Let’s hope he’s headed back to Santa Cruz.”

“How long ago did this happen?”

“About an hour. My side started hurting or I would’ve taken care of it myself.”

“Let’s get you into X-ray. You do realize I’ll have to report this to Brent.”

“No. No. Please don’t. It’s embarrassing enough that I’ll have to call in sick tomorrow.”

Gilly took her chin. “Makeup might cover the purple, but it won’t do anything about the gash on your forehead. Let’s make sure your head’s okay before we talk about work tomorrow.”

After studying the film, Gilly put in a call to Dr. Blackwood. With the late hour, it took several rings before Quentin picked up the phone.

“Sorry to bother you this time of night, but I have a female patient who’s been badly beaten about the face and head. Domestic violence situation. Her head X-ray looks okay to me, but I think you should make a determination for the record because she also has a cracked rib. And she doesn’t want me calling Brent even though I told her it was required by law.”

“Make the call to Brent. I think it’s Eastlyn who’s on duty tonight. Give me ten minutes.”

After making the call to Eastlyn, Gilly turned to prep the young teacher and let her know that the police would be here soon to take her report. “He’s done this before, I take it?”

“A few times, that’s why I tried moving away.”

“Then you know he won’t stop beating on you until you report it and press charges.”

“No. Don’t make me do that because it won’t do any good. His family has money. They’ll get him off.”

“You have to take a stand, Ophelia. And I have to follow the law. Eastlyn Richmond will be walking in that door any minute to take your statement. You’ve been attacked and beaten so badly you may not be able to go to work tomorrow. That’s serious…and it’s wrong for you not to be able to feel safe in your own home.”

“But he’ll kill me if I report this. He said so.”

“And he’ll kill you eventually if you don’t put a stop to it. If you need somewhere safe to go, there are plenty of people who’ll help you.”

“Gilly’s right,” Eastlyn said from the doorway of the exam room. She wore her blond hair short and was dressed in a crisp blue uniform with a Glock 22 strapped to her waist. “All bullies threaten their victims to keep them silent. It’s how they maintain control and keep the manipulation going. ‘If you don’t do what I say,’” she mimicked. “They use threats as a control thing, a ‘fill in the blank’ situation. ‘I’ll kill you, kill the kids, kill your parents,’ that sort of thing. Obviously, he made a serious threat against you and we don’t take that lightly.”

“But I don’t have children. Just the ones in my charge at the daycare center. And my mom and dad live in Lake Tahoe.”

“Then it sounds like you’re his main target,” Eastlyn supplied. “Tell me what triggered the incident.”

Ophelia took a shaky breath. “He showed up at my house around nine, begging me to come with him. He’d been drinking. When I refused, he turned mean. He always turns mean when he doesn’t get his way.”

Dr. Blackwood listened from the hallway and cleared his throat before making his way to the side of Ophelia’s exam table. He’d seen her around town but hadn’t yet met her. He held out his hand. “Quentin Blackwood. How are you feeling?”

“Stupid. I always feel stupid after he beats me up. This time he threw me against a wall.”

Quentin studied the X-rays Gilly had attached to the screen. “Is that how he damaged the ribs?”

“No, that happened when he punched me.”

“Do you think he’s still in town?” Eastlyn said, raising her voice at that kind of brutal attack taking place on her watch. “What does he drive?”

“I’m pretty sure he took off…probably in his brand-new Porsche, one of those 911s. I have the license plate number at home if it’ll help.”

“That’s good, but how about taking me through the details of what happened?”

Quentin held up a hand and turned to Ophelia. “Are we talking about rape here?”

Ophelia shook her head and wiped her nose. “No. But it wasn’t for lack of trying. I fought him.”

“Okay,” he grunted and shifted back to Eastlyn. “Maybe you could question her after the examination. She suffered one broken rib, but also two others have hairline fractures, all three are around the lung.”

Gilly stepped closer to the monitor. “Oh, wow. I’m glad I called you. I missed those other two.”

“It’s easy enough to do. See the two very thin lines, very faint. They’re worrisome because they may cause her some breathing difficulty since they’re in the same vicinity. It’s as though this guy smashed her hard with his fist. See the circular pattern?”

“I do now,” Gilly admitted.

He pivoted toward Eastlyn. “It might be easier for her to talk once I get the area wrapped. The longer I wait, the more pain she’ll experience.”

“Sure, Doc,” Eastlyn said. “You do what you have to do and let me know when I can finish up.”

Quentin swung back to the patient, got out his little flashlight, and looked into her eyes. “Pupils are fine. Any headache?”

“Maybe in the back.”

“Do you remember whether or not you hit your head on the wall or the floor?”

“Both, I think. To tell you the truth I was too busy fighting him off. I know I ended up on the floor and he was on top of me, that’s when he went for my face.”

“We’ll do a CT scan as a precaution. I’m going to admit you, Ophelia. Mainly because we’ll need to watch you for any signs of concussion. Plus, you’re in for several days of extreme pain. We want to make sure you’re able to get that under control. After that, you’ll have to deal with considerable soreness every time you move. I won’t lie, rib fractures are bad, especially this close to the lung. The damage is mostly to your left side. Let us know if you have any problems breathing. And you’ll need to limit your physical activity until you heal completely. Six weeks.”

“Really? That long? But do I have to stay in the hospital tonight?”

“Do you have anyone at home who’ll take care of you? Look after you?”

She shook her head. “No. But I’m friends with Abby Anderson. She works at the Marine Rescue Center. I could ask her if I could stay at her place.”

“Tomorrow,” Quentin insisted. “Abby might need to pick you up.”

“I drove myself here. My car’s parked outside.”

“We’ll see if you can drive tomorrow. For now, I see Gilly has already treated your cuts and bruises. The nasty gash on the head might not need stitches but it will require changing the bandage often.” He patted her hand. “We’ll get the CT scan out of the way and then you can rest. Afterward, Gilly will give you a shot for pain so you’re able to get a good night’s sleep.”

He angled toward Eastlyn. “She’s all yours after that. We appreciate you waiting.”

“No problem. I’ve already taken a few face and throat pics for evidence, but I’ll take more of the ribs. Then I’ll take it to a judge to get a warrant. I’ll drive over to Santa Cruz myself if I have to and pick up the rich SOB.”

“Let me know when you have him in custody. I’d like to see what kind of man does this to a woman.”

Before Quentin headed home, he took Gilly aside in the hallway. “Great job with the diagnosis.”

“Really? But I missed those hairlines.”

“Easy to do. I’m glad you called me in to evaluate.”

“I hesitated since it was so late, but I decided in the end you should see the whole picture for yourself.”

“Don’t ever hesitate calling me. Same is true for Gideon. It comes with the territory and we know that going in. We’re lucky to have you.”

“Thanks for that. I feel so bad for Ophelia. He could’ve killed her. I wanted to quiz her more, find out why he stopped the attack? Find out why he left so abruptly? But I thought maybe Eastlyn would find that out...later.”

“I’m betting on Eastlyn.”

After things quieted down, Gilly asked Eastlyn those very questions.

The cop twisted up her mouth. “Ophelia says he stopped choking her because someone banged on the front door. He ran off like the big chicken he is.”

“Who was at the door?”

“I’m guessing Emma Colter, Ophelia’s next-door neighbor. But because Ophelia didn’t answer the door, Emma went back home.”

“It’s a shame Emma didn’t call the police. Ophelia could’ve used a ride to the hospital.”

“Be glad she got herself here and started the ball rolling to end this,” Eastlyn stated. “Now the system just has to show her it works and not let her down.”

“Go get him, girl,” Gilly rooted. “If you need anything from me, I could be a witness, I’m here for her.”

The calm settled in, and nearing four a.m., she handed off the reins to Aubree who came on duty, yawning. After giving her the rundown on each patient, Gilly grabbed her purse. But Aubree was in the mood to talk.

“Any chance we might possibly get these hours readjusted, rethink this whole twelve-hour shift thing? I’m having trouble with getting here at four a.m. and staying until four in the afternoon. Makes for a very long day.”

“Tell me about it. Maybe we should bring it up to Dr. Blackwood,” Gilly said in agreement. “I’m not exactly in a position to complain, though.”

“Me either. I need this job,” Aubree admitted. “Maybe ten-hour shifts, four days a week would work better, though.”

“I don’t know. I love having those four days off.”

“Not exactly like it’s advertised, though, is it? Or maybe it just goes by way too fast.”

“We could approach Sydney about it. Look, Aub, I’m sorry, but I gotta get some sleep. My mother’s having…issues. I had to leave Jayden with Simon Bremmer last night.”

Aubree’s jaw dropped, her interest piqued. “Oh. My. God. Do I detect Gilly Grant inching toward an actual relationship with a man? Alert the media.”

“Too early to tell,” Gilly said, her mouth falling open in a huge yawn. “I’m dragging myself home and sleeping for…” she glanced at the clock on the wall. “…five glorious hours.”