Chapter 5
Dillon
I sat across the couch from Piper, trying not to blush as I told her the story about my pseudo-date the night before. We were supposed to be drinking and painting our nails, but the nail polish had been pushed away long before we’d even finished the first cocktail.
“So you were totally dickstracted.”
“What the fuck?” I shook my head and laughed. “Where do you come up with this stuff Piper?”
She grinned and took another sip of her drink. “I heard it from a friend. Just admit it; you’ve wondered what his package looks like.”
I shook my head harder. “You’re insane, you know that?” She pinned me with a look. “And I, maybedon’thavetowonderwhathispackagelookslike,” mumbled quickly. I took a drink and stared down at my glass.
“What!?” she screeched.
I shrugged. “Things just…happened. Very fun things, but it was just there and I was horny.”
She moved across the couch until she was right next to me, totally in my bubble. “No, hell no. I want the whole damn story, hooker. His penis was not just there, you touched it didn’t you?”
The satisfaction I took in making her drag this out of me was sickening. “He really does have an awesome cock.” She shrieked in laughter. “But I shouldn’t have done it. God, if my boss found out he would kill me.” I paused for a second. Will had practically told me to fuck him to get the story; maybe he wouldn’t kill me as long as I got the information I needed. “Just being around Zane makes me do crazy things.”
She cocked her head to the side. “It’s not like you ever had an issue having sex with someone before.”
“Not that, it’s rushing through things. I’m not a sleep with the guy on the first date kind of girl, but I’m not prude. He excited me though.”
“I bet he does,” she teased. I shoved at her.
I’d thought a lot about this. “It’s just…He’s the person I’m supposed to be investigating. Hell, he’s probably the ringleader of this whole ESEC issue and as far as I know I could be sleeping with the enemy.”
“You’re kidding me.”
She was shocked. We both were. I needed more information, but with everything I’d found so far, things weren’t looking good for Zane. Somehow, I didn’t think he was guilty though. He was cocky as hell, but I didn’t think he would stoop to selling drugs to kids.
“I wish I was. This is bad. Dr. Hottie is the same hot guy from the club and now I’m investigating him.” I took a big drink of my wine hoping that some of the alcohol would help numb the panic starting to creep in. “What the hell am I going to do, Piper?”
“Well, not do your usual ‘it’s just sex’ thing.” I pinned her with a look and she grinned. “I’m just sayin’.”
“I hate you.”
“No you don’t. You love me; otherwise you wouldn’t be asking me for advice.”
“I’m desperate,” I said petulantly.
She shook her head and bit down on her bottom lip to hide her smile. “What do you want to do since you think my advice is shit?”
I groaned and threw myself back on the couch. “I don’t know. The problem is my head quits working when I’m around him. All I want to do is jump him because we have this insane sexual chemistry going on.”
Piper took a drink of her margarita. “Can you still investigate him objectively? Even after the fact that you had his cock in your mouth?”
I glared at her and pursed my lips. “Yes, I’m a fucking professional. I can separate sex and my job.”
I think.
“Well then, keep him a dirty little secret and get some really good orgasms out of the deal. Then figure out if you’re going to write an expose on the dirty bastard. If he really is behind the drug ring then you’ll have to take him down.”
“Are things always this cut and dry with you? Because I honest to God can’t remember the last time you met a grey area that actually bothered you.”
She took a sip of her drink. “Honey, I live in the grey areas. My moral compass is a little more skewed than most people's. Honestly, I just don’t give a fuck.”
I considered her for a second, my head cocked to the side. “I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.”
She scowled. “You don’t actually care what people think of you, so why the hesitation now?”
I sat up and set my drink down on the coffee table. “Piper, this isn’t a guy I’m screwing for a few dinners. We’re talking about crossing some major ethical lines that would cause me to lose all the credibility I’ve earned in a job I love.”
“Look, your boss told you to do whatever it took as long as you kept your emotions in check, right?”
“Yeah,” I drawled. “But that doesn’t mean—”
“What’s got your panties in a bunch then?” she demanded. “You’re obviously attracted to the guy. Is that what bothers you so much about this?”
I sighed. “Maybe. I don’t think it would matter so much if he wasn’t the guy from the club. It was like that meeting set the tone for everything.”
“Are you telling me you had feelings for that guy? After talking to him for less than five minutes in a club? Did you planned to love him forever and not take him back to your apartment and have your wild way with him?”
I snorted a laugh. “Hardly. Something about this guy gets under my skin though.” She gave me a pointed look. “I’m just going to have to try harder to stay in public places with him—around people—Damn it, I just can’t be alone with Zane at all.”
Piper smirked. “He’s Zane now huh?”
I slapped myself in the forehead in exasperation. Of course she would pick up on that. “Dr. Turner, Dr. Hottie, hot bar guy, Zane, whatever the fuck you want to call him tonight.”
She downed the rest of her wine and put her glass down on the coffee table. Obviously trying to make life changing decisions while two sheets to the wind wasn’t a great idea for anyone involved.
“I’ll bet you a hundred bucks that you don’t even make it a week before he’s fucking you blind.” She smirked and held out her hand to shake mine. The only problem was, I wasn’t sure that was a bet I should make.
* * *
I opened the door to my office and laughed at something one of my coworkers said as I flipped on the light. The laughter caught in my throat as I noticed the huge bouquet of peonies sitting on my desk. Who would bother sending me flowers to the office when I came in once a week? My fingers shook as I plucked the card from the center of the beautiful light pink blooms.
I had fun last night. Here’s to many more nights like it.
I wanted to ignore this and pretend like these gorgeous flowers—which were my favorite by the way—hadn’t shown up at my office. Zane was playing hardball and I wasn’t even in the game yet. This man was going to be trouble. He was hooded eyes, a sexy jawline covered in dark stubble, and a breathtaking smile, all wrapped up with a pretty little bow of heartache. As much as I loathed admitting it to myself, I liked him.
And that was a problem.
A major problem.
Will’s sharp whistle pierced the air as my boss walked by my office. He stuck his head inside and arched a brow. “Looks like you’re making quick work of this piece, Hart. Is he eating out of the palm of your hand yet?”
“Something like that,” I mumbled while reading the card again.
“I’m glad to see that you’re making progress. I have a feeling this is going to get bigger than you and me. Something huge is coming and I want you to be the one to break it.”
I crumpled the note in my hand and turned to Will.
“We’re getting the story. One way or another, I’ll have it on your desk by the end of the month.”
* * *
I rested my elbows on my desk and put my head in my hands. There was no way around it; I had to get my hands on Zane’s prescription pads. If I could get access to those I would know if the pills were coming from him, or someone trying to frame him.
I really hoped it was the latter.
My gut told me it was, but I hadn’t known him long and I’d been wrong before. Not often. And I had a feeling I wasn’t wrong this time either. Things didn’t line up for him to be the one giving fake prescriptions to local thugs so they could make a quick buck. He didn’t have motive for one. Two, he just got to town a year ago. Things had been going on for longer than that, but they ramped up about the time he came back. Maybe he’d joined in after he came back to town, but something told me that was wrong too.
Why would he get involved in something like that? Zane was cocky as hell—his surgical record gave him the right to be that way, as did his reputation with patients—but his history was impeccable. Patients absolutely loved him, he did charity work with Doctors Without Borders every few years, and he had the highest recommendations possible from the hospital that he did his fellowship with. He might be an asshole to his staff and sleep with everything in a skirt, but none of that added up to a drug dealer.
I needed to get into Zane’s office, preferably without him there. That would be where he would keep his script pads. Hopefully. God, they would probably be locked up in a desk drawer. This would take some special planning. A tight skirt and a view of my cleavage wouldn’t get me this one.
I took a deep breath, picked up my phone and called Zane’s office. His receptionist scheduled me a meeting for the next day. I’d spent a ton of time in the hospital, watching unnoticed, trying to get the information I needed. The girl practically ran his life. She was efficient and had a way of dealing with Zane. He would be lost without her and from what I could tell; she was the only one he never got grumpy with. Zane was a charmer when he needed to be.
The women he worked with all seemed to either love him or hate him. There was no in between. I was willing to bet that he hadn’t slept with the ones that loved him. But if I continued with that theory, that meant he’d slept with a lot of the women that worked at the hospital. That thought didn’t exactly make me happy, not that I was a lily white virgin either, but still.
I wanted Zane to be a good guy. It wasn’t that I was making excuses for him or that I wanted to cover it up if he was guilty. I just had a feeling he was…lonely. Or maybe he was just lost. Being the best in such a competitive field could make him feel alienated. No matter how much success you achieve, there was an ache that you didn’t have anyone to share it with. That’s how I felt anyway. And maybe whoever was actually behind the drugs was trying to play into those insecurities.
My head pounded as I stared at my laptop. It was time to go home and take some aspirin. The longer I stayed in this ugly undecorated office, the more frustrated I would get as I tried to dig deeper into Zane’s past. That led me back to my original idea. A prescription—or if nothing else, I needed to see his signature—because then I would know for sure if he was being framed.
If I found out Zane wasn’t behind the drugs, I had a much bigger issue on my hands. One that might potentially include him in my investigation, and could possibly break up his entire family if my theory was right.
I really hoped I wasn’t right.