WHILE HEADING TO the back entrance of the hospital, an inconspicuous man interrupted my stride and approached me. His eyes were fixated on me like I owed him lunch money last week and had been dodging the opportunity to pay up.
“Can I help you?” I asked when he decided to walk dead in my path.
“Are you Dr. Eric Brenton?”
I looked down at my white coat with my name embroidered on the chest and then back up at him with a smirk.
“You’ve been served.” He shoved papers at my chest and walked away.
I opened them and found an order of protection.
Fuck everything Charlie warned me against doing. Staying at a distance was different than legally demanding the distance. My distance was temporary. Now she wanted something legally binding? No. She was mine. Every inch of her.
Picking up my phone from the pocket of my white coat, I called Nikki only to be greeted with a recorded message: “This phone number has been disconnected,” over and over again. It was idiotic of her to disconnect her phone when I knew she’d never leave the house her mother gave her.
Seemed Nikki needed to be reminded, yet again, of whom she belonged to. I couldn’t care less about what Charlie wanted. I couldn't protect her if I wasn’t with her.
“THE CMO WANTS TO see you when you’re done,” Aimee said after impatiently waiting for Dr. Carlson to hand over his patients to me.
“She can wait. I have a patient that needs to be transferred and another that’s waiting on a consultation.”
“I don’t know if she—” Aimee stopped mid-sentence when Janet appeared out of nowhere, pointing her finger in my face while she shook with tears. She continuously sputtered, unable to convey whatever the hell it was she needed to express to me.
Giving her my panty-moistening smile, I curved a brow at her. “Janet, is there something you need?”
“I’m not a violent person.” She finally began to speak intelligibly. “But I want to hit you so badly right now, Eric. How could you do this to her—to Nikki’s mom? She knew you would do this. I didn’t. I hoped for the best with you. I wished the best for you. Neither of us want—wanted this for Nikki. Not at all.”
Though angry, she couldn’t raise her voice at me. It’s one of the things that drew me to Janet; she was mild-mannered and very easy to control. It was an aspect of her personality that became very useful.
Unfortunately for Janet, Aimee’s ears were homing in on something I didn’t want her to know about. Grabbing Janet’s arm, I dragged her down the hall to the supply closet. Pulling the door open, I shoved her inside.
“Don’t ever fucking do that again,” I warned, slamming the door closed behind me. “I’m on the floor, not a street corner. Even if I was, what goes on with me and Nikki is far from your business.”
Walking backward, she didn’t stop until her back hit the metal supply shelves. “This isn’t right, Eric. Nikki is fragile—”
Laughing, I took two long strides toward her and reached up to slip my fingers between the metal bars, blocking her in. “Gossip didn’t get up to the third level of the hospital, huh? Reached everywhere else. Here’s news you can use: I have three stitches in my head because of the ever-fragile Nikki. Not to mention, she stabbed me once.” With a wry smile, I added sarcastically, “But, yes, Nikki is so very fucking fragile.”
Tears ran down her cheeks, making her makeup streak down her face. “I just spent the last hour picking glass out of one of her hands and both of her feet because of you. I’m getting her away from you. Far away.”
Away. Far away. Those words were enough to ensure impetuous anger. Growling, I gripped her shoulders, slamming her into the cabinets hard enough to make the contents fall around us—some came down on top of her head. The sudden fire in her eyes was replaced by consternation.
Casting a chilling look her way, I kept my voice low and quiet. “You don’t want to do that, Janet. Because if you get in the middle of me and what belongs to me, it won’t end well for you. If you need a little motivation to make a smart decision about this, I want you to think about Tamala and Estelle. Where the fuck are they now? Don’t mistake me, I’m not saying I did or didn’t do anything to them, but people who piss me off usually end up dead…or disappeared. Do you think—in the grand scheme of things—you would somehow become an exception? You’re nothing to me. You’ve made yourself completely insignificant by becoming completely useless. My suggestion? Become useful again, or so help me, Janet…” I stopped short and gave her a slow-creeping grin. “I. Will. End. You.”
She shook so hard I could barely maintain my grip on her. The splatter of water called my attention downward. When I looked between us, the corner of my mouth turned up. “Oh, Janet.” I pressed my lips together to stifle a laugh. “Sweet, lovable, mild-mannered Janet. That’s very cute. I made you so scared, you pissed yourself.” I fingered a tear as it descended her cheek. “I don’t think you’ve ever looked more beautiful than the way you do now.” I cupped her face as she continued to shake like Bambi. “I’m not usually one for the overtly weak, but…there are things I can do to you. Things I want to do to you—You don’t want me to do those things, do you, Janet?”
“N-No,” she stammered.
“Good. You’ll make yourself useful then, won’t you? Because I feel like I can admit this to you, since you pissed yourself in front of me. I can’t lose Nikki. I…need her. The people who helped her get away from me will be the very first ones I knock down. Now that I’ve educated you on how to stay alive, are we good?”
Her head shook violently; I couldn’t decipher if she was nodding or shaking her head.
“I need a verbal confirmation, sweetheart,” I requested in my kindest tone with a friendly smile.
“Y-yes.”
“Good.” Slanting away from her, I gave her room to collect herself. “Phone?”
She began to sob and circle the pocket of her pants with her hand. “I-in my pocket.”
“Call her.”
With her hands trembling, she reached inside her pocket and took out her phone. Nodding through constant tremors, she became tachypneic. The woman also appeared on the verge of shitting herself.
“Breathe,” I whispered. “I don’t want you to pass out on me before you’ve done what I’ve told you to do.” I mimicked a regular breathing rate and she followed, getting her respiration rate down to a more manageable level. “Now, put on an award-winning performance and convince Nikki to meet me somewhere.”
I watched her like a hawk as she called Nikki and carried on a conversation with her. I fed her information when needed, and she followed my directions to the letter.
In the middle of telling Janet where Nikki should meet me, she handed me the phone. “S-she wants to talk to you.”
“What the fuck?” I mouthed, none too happy.
She shook her head and pushed her phone my way.
“Nikki?” I answered cheerfully.
“I’m making dinner tonight. I thought—I’d like to talk.”
I observed her tone, trying to pull something out of it. I couldn’t. She was cold, very cold. “You don’t sound too down on yourself, considering you have a restraining order against me. Considering the—you know—restraining order, how the hell am I supposed to meet you at home?”
“I was scared, Eric. I really want to talk to you tonight. I’ll tell you everything you want to know. No games.”
“Tonight,” I promised. “No games.”
After hanging up, I gave Janet back her phone. “You can go.”
She scattered out of the room so fast, she slipped on her piss spot.
“Oh, and Janet?”
Keeping as still as a statue, she turned to look at me from the doorway.
“You’ll continue to do right by me, correct? You won’t say…skip town or maybe help Nikki leave. Because”—my eyes darkened along with my tone of voice—“I’d really like to avoid killing you.”
Tears rolled down her cheeks as she nodded.
“You’re not a two-year-old. Words, Janet.”
“Y-yes, Eric.”
“We’re no longer on a first name basis.” I dropped my chin, giving her a glare that made her body shiver just a little bit more. “You might want to try that again. My patience is really fucking nonexistent right now.”
“Yes, Dr. Brenton.”
I gave her a nod, granting her permission to leave.