42. Alex
CHAPTER 42
ALEX
“O kay, I’m confused.” Chief Wallace inclined his head and arched an eyebrow. “Didn’t you say you were spending your leave on Ibiza?”
“I did.” I grinned. “And that’s exactly where I went.”
“Okay, but…” He gestured wildly at me. “You don’t look like someone who spent an hour, let alone four fucking days, on Ibiza.”
I looked down at myself, then back at him. “Well, Chief, I don’t know about you, but I don’t wear my utilities on vacation, and I don’t wear my vacation clothes to work, so…”
He rolled his eyes. “Not your clothes, dumbass.” He flailed a hand at my face. “No sunburn. No tan. And no green. How, HM1? How? ”
A laugh tried to bubble up. No, I hadn’t gotten much sun and I hadn’t done much drinking. The longest, most romantic weekend of my life had left me feeling amazing instead of sun-scorched or hungover like most Americans who came back from Ibiza.
“I don’t know, Chief.” I flashed a toothy grin. “Maybe some of us can just hold our liquor better than others.”
“Oh, shut up.” He rolled his eyes. “Just… get to work.”
I snickered and got to work. I was glad I wasn’t hungover and sunburned all to hell, too, because the day was a busy one. Especially after Chief left for a meeting, I was slammed with patients, paperwork, and emails. Same shit, different day, but at least it kept the time going by. The more I did and the less I sat around being bored, the less likely I was to get lost in thoughts of the man who had rocked—and then become—my world.
Good God, I am stupid for him.
And it feels amazing.
And I felt amazing… right up until I was coming back from lunch and found exactly one person in my waiting area.
“Well, well.” Tobias rose, eyeing me with a sardonic grin on his lips. “Enjoy your weekend away?”
I so did not have time for him. I also wasn’t about to let him ruin my good mood, so I just smiled. “I had a great time. Guess I should’ve taken you up on going to Ibiza when we were together. Except…” I quirked my lips and pretended to give it actual thought. “Nah. Pretty sure I wouldn’t have enjoyed it nearly as much.”
That barb definitely hit what I was aiming for, judging by the tightness of his jaw. “Did Lieutenant Commander Marks enjoy it as much as you did?”
I ignored the reflexive internal panic and stared blankly at him. “Sorry, what?”
He scoffed. “Oh, please. You were there with him.”
“Uh, no? I wasn’t?” I shook my head. Then I smirked. “I mean, unless he was one of the very long parade of men in that back alley, but I was pretty drunk and only saw their dicks, so…” I shrugged flippantly.
His cheeks colored as his jaw tightened, but only for a second. With a caustic laugh, he said, “That does sound like you—enough of a slut to keep sucking dick, but not good enough to make anyone stick around to see your face.”
Not long ago, that would’ve hit me in a tender spot, but not this time. I was far too galvanized by the man who’d not only told me he loved me, he’d shown it by taking massive risks and jumping through all kinds of hoops just to be with me.
Your bullshit can’t touch me anymore, Tobias.
I laughed. “So I’m a slut who can’t keep anyone around, but you’re so hung up on me that you can’t let me go.” I stepped closer and narrowed my eyes. “What does that say about you, sweetheart? Because I doubt it’s anything flattering.”
I had about two seconds to be intensely proud of finally—fucking finally —standing up to him and throwing his own poison back in his face.
Only about two seconds, though.
Because after that time was up, Tobias backhanded me hard enough to send me stumbling into one of the waiting area’s chairs. I cracked my shin against the seat, then grabbed the back of the chair for balance.
Tobias’s hand materialized on the back of my neck, gripping painfully tight, and he hissed in my ear, “You might want to watch yourself, you worthless fucking whore.”
Then he shoved me away, nearly toppling me into another chair, before he stalked out of Radiology.
I turned around and dropped into the chair, my knees shaking and my heart pounding. Somewhere inside, I could feel the hollow spot where that momentary pride had been. Now there was nothing but confusion and fear.
My face throbbed. A faint itch on my upper lip suggested my nose was bleeding, and when I touched it—yep. Blood.
Holy shit. My head swam with panic and disbelief and…
And I might’ve had a concussion. He’d hit me hard, and it didn’t take much to concuss someone.
I shakily pushed myself to my feet. Given how dizzy that made me—yeah, a concussion was possible. Or it was just an adrenaline crash. Either or.
Rationally, I thought I should call base security. But mostly, I wanted to go down to medical. I didn’t even think I was seriously hurt, though I did take concussions seriously. Truth be told, my health wasn’t what was screaming at me to get my ass down to medical.
It was the way I couldn’t quite catch my breath. The way my vision started tunneling and my heart started pounding. The way an inkling of “oh fuck, I’m having a heart attack” crept into the back of my mind, even though on some level, I knew that wasn’t what was happening.
I closed my eyes and took a few slow, deep breaths, but it wasn’t helping.
The impact to my face hadn’t caused any serious injury, but it had stirred up an all too familiar feeling. In my mind, I already heard myself pleading with a corpsmen to let me see one doctor and one doctor only, ideally before this panic attack completely took hold.
Fuck it.
I grabbed a wad of tissues so I wouldn’t get any blood—well, any more blood—on my utilities. With shaking hands, I texted both Chief and Fox to let them know I needed to take myself down to medical, and that I would explain later.
Then I slapped the Be Back Later sign on Radiology’s door and took my ass down to medical.