Chapter 22
22
“What was that idiot doing?”
Justin turned at the question. He knew who it was. “I think he just got in over his head with that girl. And did something stupid.”
Doug had been fucking stupid. There was no other real way to put it. That Hiller girl wasn’t worth throwing away his damned life. Doug had screwed up everything for himself—he’d lose his license for what happened, and he was probably going to go to prison for several years. If he didn’t, there would be a mental health facility involved, most likely.
He’d stabbed that nurse. Just stabbed her. Right there for everyone to see.
Why would he throw everything away on a nurse like that? Justin had known Doug was hung up on that Hiller nurse, but…he hadn’t thought his friend had been that out of it. Maybe he should have seen, done something to help Doug somehow. Instead of being caught up in his own problems.
“The last thing we need are the cops poking around this place because good old Dougie couldn’t just fuck the woman he wanted and forget about her,” Dale said. The man was probably the closest thing to a sociopath Justin had ever met. Dale Howard cared about no one. Just himself. And just the money he was amassing on the side.
Justin regretted ever knowing him. Dale hadn’t always been this way, though. He hadn’t.
Dale was going to face consequences someday.
Then Justin would be able to breathe, to focus on what he wanted for his own career.
But the devil never died—that was an expression Justin’s grandmother had used when Justin had been just a boy. He hadn’t believed in the devil—until Dale had changed so much. “I think it was more complicated than that girl.”
“Whatever, just make sure that the cops won’t find anything. People have been asking questions.”
“You mean Dr. Fisher has been asking questions. I know…what you did last night.” Justin wouldn’t admit aloud, not to this man, but he was concerned for her. He had seen her the night before. After Doug’s attack. She had been covered with blood. Everyone could see how much she had been hurt. And how much she cared about her friend. And rumor had it someone in a big blue truck had been the one to break in her door and windows and spray paint her living room. Everyone was talking about it.
And Dale got his balls off scaring women now. He’d probably been spray painting all over Aubrey’s living room while she’d still been getting stitches after Doug’s attack. He wouldn’t put it past Dale at all. Just for the hell of it.
Because Dale hated women, and Aubrey was the woman about to discover Dale’s secrets. Ever since Dale’s wife had left, he’d been…horrible. Hate-filled.
Hell. Justin was concerned about Doug, too. The other man was a good man at heart. One who’d truly cared about his patients and his friends. Doug had been there for Justin when his grandmother had died. Hands down.
But a part of Justin was afraid to even ask how the other man was doing. Like people would think he was condoning what had happened. Was he supposed to not care about a man who had been friends with him since med school?
“Who else? Everyone knows she’s the one who really does Alvaro’s dirty work around here, now that he is busy sucking daddy-in-law-dearest’s ass.”
Dale Howard had a real problem with Caine Alvaro. And an even bigger problem with the woman who had beat Dale for the assistant COM position.
Ever since Caine Alvaro had gotten the COM position, and then hired Aubrey as his assistant, Dale had been pissed. The power those positions had represented had been what Dale wanted. Bad. Justin could understand that.
But he was glad it was Caine Alvaro and Aubrey Fisher running the hospital, honestly. Dale would have been a horrible boss to work under.
He’d seen that through Mandy all the time. Dale was horrible.
Alvaro would catch on to what Dale was doing behind his back eventually. It was just a matter of time. Justin was just going to have to make certain he wasn’t one of the ones who got caught up in the same net.
Movement behind Dale caught his attention.
Mandy. Looking perfect and perky and…pressed. She took a great deal of care in her appearance. And she knew what she did to members of the opposite sex.
“Boys, having a little chitchat?” she almost purred the question, deliberately brushing against Justin’s chest. The scent of her shampoo surrounded him. His body tightened. This woman did something to him, and she knew it. He was going to have to make a point of addressing that something very, very soon.
Hell. He should just marry her and get it over with. No other woman he had ever been with understood him as well as this one. Didn’t that mean something?
“Just giving your boyfriend here a reminder.” Dale wrapped his hand around Mandy’s forearm and pulled her into his own sphere. He ran a finger over her cheek. Justin didn’t miss the way she shuddered. In fear. Mandy didn’t like Dale, and she’d made that very clear to Justin in the past.
And Dale knew it. He enjoyed toying with Mandy when he could.
Justin deliberately pulled her away from the other man and sent him a warning look. “It’s not our asses on the line here, Dale. I don’t have anything to hide; neither does Mandy.”
He wasn’t going to say more. Not in front of Mandy. He was going to protect her however he could. And Justin wasn’t a fool. He knew who the fall guy would be in this.
He was just making damned sure it was going to be Dale, and not him. Dale was the one doing it, anyway.
“And keep your hands off Mandy. You won’t like the consequences if you don’t.”
Justin never wanted to see that kind of fear of a man in Mandy’s eyes ever again.