In Pieces (Unethical #1)

Prologue

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“ Y ou’re sure he said, Delta Jacobs? That Delta Jacobs?”

My receptionist, Courtney, glowers in response.

I should probably be offended. I am her boss and a certain level of respect is generally called upon when interacting with the person who signs your paychecks.

That being said, I can hardly blame her.

It’s the third time today that I’ve confirmed that the VIP consult coming in any minute is who I think she is.

It’s not exactly a common name, but still?—

“I don’t have any information for you that I didn’t tell you two hours ago, the last time you asked. ” Done with me, Courtney turns her office chair to face the waiting room. The empty waiting room.

I wish I could say that it’s been an abnormally light day, but in the months since I set up this practice with my friends from residency, Jenna and Caleb, business has been slow.

At best. Most of our patients are overflow from the larger offices in the area, and while we’re not completely financially fucked yet , business could certainly be better.

At the very least, it would be nice to cut myself a paycheck and move out of my brother’s spare bedroom in the next decade.

Believe it or not, there are only so many times a grown man with a supposedly high-powered job can tolerate being woken up in the middle of the night to the sounds of his younger sibling having sex through a wall before he loses his mind.

It was probably na?ve, but going into this, I thought being an excellent surgeon was enough .

After working my ass off through four years of medical school and five years of residency, I was offered a position at the largest hospital in my hometown of Denver.

I built a reputation for myself in the three years I worked there, all while saving enough to afford my share of starting this practice.

We finally made the leap earlier this year, and things have yet to look up.

A high-profile patient would help.

I’m about to turn back toward my office when movement catches my eye and Courtney and I both freeze, craning our necks to see through the waiting room window as a black SUV enters the parking lot, circles once, and parks.

“Holy shit, is that them?” Caleb asks, appearing at the office door.

We watch in silence as the driver’s door opens, and a man steps out, looking around appraisingly.

He’s tall and blonde, with a short beard and eyes that seem intensely focused even from a distance.

We’ve never met, but I’d know who he was even if I wasn’t expecting him here tonight.

River Jacobs .

The passenger door opens as well, and a teenager hops out, pulling a bright pink hat low over her ears.

Delta Jacobs.

I back out of the office, swallowing the sudden tightness in my throat, and it’s disconcerting to realize that I’m fucking nervous .

I don’t get nervous. Born into a family of big personalities and loud feelings, I’ve always been the odd man out.

It was never difficult for me to set aside my shit and focus on the task at hand.

I’ve been called cold, detached, a robot.

Today, though… it’s bizarre and completely illogical, but I’m more anxious than I have been at any other point in my career.

Then again, it’s not every day that you meet two members of an Olympic dynasty.

River Jacobs is one of the founding fathers of snowboarding.

He won about a dozen Olympic medals and countless international championships before retiring, marrying a famously beautiful bikini model, and having three kids who were probably flying down mountains before they could walk.

Delta, the youngest, appears to be the only one who inherited her father’s raw, natural talent.

At only seventeen, she’s fresh off her first Olympic games, bringing home a gold and two bronze medals for Team USA.

Last night in the grocery store, I almost bumped into a life-sized cardboard cutout of her holding a box of cereal in one hand and a snowboard in the other, grinning toothily from beneath a red, white, and blue knit hat.

Delta is young, beautiful, a second-generation gold medalist, and one of the most gifted athletes of her generation.

To say the media is obsessed with her would be the understatement of the century, and she’s about to be my patient.

Maybe .

I linger in my office, drumming my fingers on the edge of my desk and straining to hear through the crack in the door. Our nurse’s voice floats back to me, smoothly telling the Jacobs’s that Doctor Harrison cleared his schedule and made sure the clinic was empty for their privacy.

He’s getting a raise if this amounts to anything.

Though I obviously want to address her medical concerns, today isn’t really about Delta, it’s about River.

He isn’t just a former Olympian and the father of another.

He’s also the head coach and owner of one of the top professional snowboarding clubs in the world.

He and his team bring in talented kids from all over the nation and train them at a facility just down the road.

River has been behind more Olympic team members than any other coach in the country, and becoming his go-to surgeon would be one hell of an opportunity.

Breaking into the closed circle of elite athletes that populate this corner of Colorado would be a game changer for my career, my practice, my business—the bottom line is that a lot is riding on this consult and when our nurse, Matt, pokes his head into my office to tell me they’re waiting for me, I take an extra second alone to steady myself.

I haven’t felt so self-conscious about my lack of interpersonal skills since I was a child.

I’m excellent at what I do, but the last few months have proven that surgical prowess isn’t enough.

River Jacobs wouldn’t have sought me out if my reputation wasn’t impeccable.

He doesn’t need a friend, he needs someone who can treat his athletes.

Still, it wouldn’t hurt to appear friendly…

“Hi, I’m Doctor Harrison,” I mutter to the empty room, holding out a hand to thin air. Do I always sound like that? Christ, I’m losing my shit. “Hi, River. I’m Doctor Harrison. ”

“Hello?” I jump, looking around wildly. When Matt left, he didn’t close my office door and now a young woman is standing in the hall just outside, lips pressed together to stop herself from laughing, wide eyes glinting with amusement.

Delta Jacobs.

In person, she looks like any other seventeen-year-old girl.

Dressed in jeans and an oversized, faded t-shirt, her hair is arranged in two long braids, and freckles are scattered over her golden brown skin.

She’s petite, probably barely clearing my chin, and there’s nothing about her which suggests she’s currently the best female snowboarder in the world.

“Uh—” I make a choking noise, taken aback.

The corners of her lips twitch. “I’m sorry to bother you. I was just looking for the bathroom. Your nurse said it was down here.”

“Two doors down.” I stand, edging past her into the hallway to point it out.

Delta doesn’t move, though. She’s staring at me appraisingly, through eyes I can now see are an unusual shade of gray.

There’s something unsettling about the intensity of her gaze, as though she’s seeing a lot more than I want her to. I clear my throat. “Well…”

“Don’t kiss his ass.” I still, shocked to silence as Delta blinks up at me.

“My dad? He likes to pretend he’s above the yes-men, so if you make a big deal over flattering him or me, it’ll be game over.

He was already rolling his eyes over what your nurse said about you canceling all your other appointments for us.

He doesn’t like too much pushback, though.

So if he says something too off the wall, circle back to it later once he’s had the chance to win a few points.

He’s heard you’re no bullshit. He appreciates that. ”

She’s giving me tips on how to deal with her father? On how to get her as a patient? “Why are you telling me all this?”

Delta shrugs and leans against the door frame, a lazy smile playing on her full lips. “I guess I like you.”

“You don’t know me. I might be an asshole,” I point out, utterly bemused.

I said all of three words to her before she gave me the inside scoop on River, and I have been described as a controlling dick on more than one occasion.

Being likable isn’t a priority for me, and I’ve never put much energy into it.

In fact, I’m pretty sure Delta Jacobs is the first person in my entire life to so easily declare she likes me .

She cocks her head and the little smirk she’s been wearing blooms into a full smile. I don’t understand why I feel almost defensive at the sight of it. “ Are you an asshole?”

Sometimes. “Um?—”

“Take it or leave it, Doc. I’m just trying to help.

Plus, your office is right across the street from this place that makes the most incredible garlic bread.

It’ll change your life. Or take your life, considering there’s a frankly unnecessary amount of bacon on it.

Okay, I’m lying, all the bacon is necessary. ”

“Over there?” I nod distractedly toward the strip mall across the street. Because of a soul-sucking number of hours spent staring out the window the past few months, I know for a fact there is not an Italian restaurant in that plaza.

“Yup.” She pushes off the door frame and moves past me to the bathroom.

“Tell the ladies at the Chinese food restaurant that Delta sent you. They’ll know what to do.

” She vanishes through the door with one last sly smile, and I’m so flustered by the whole interaction that I duck back into my office and close the door.

I don’t know what to make of her.

In the days before this appointment, I’d gone down an internet wormhole, trying to pull together any scraps of information I could on River or Delta that might help me.

I watched her gold medal run, the post-game interviews, and almost every significant event she competed in the last few years.

The Delta Jacobs I saw on TV came off as hyper, bold, and more than a little cocky.

I was expecting a spoiled, snowboarding princess with a superiority complex.

I wasn’t prepared for cheeky and kind.

Once I’m sure Delta has finished in the bathroom and safely returned to the exam room, I glance one more time at the notes my partners and I worked out for the consultation and throw them in the trash.

They’re riddled with not-so-subtle comments designed to flatter River’s ego and googled snowboarding slang as if I could ever in a million years pass myself off as cool .

Delta said River appreciated the fact I’m no bullshit, so I’ll give him no bullshit.

It’s probably stupid to blindly accept the advice of a teenage girl who may or may not be a spoiled brat, but my instincts are rarely wrong, and right now, they’re telling me to trust Delta Jacobs.