Dr Feel Good (Royal Harlots MC – Kansas City, KS #1)

Chapter One - FelixAthena

Snapping the folder shut, I pushed away from my desk and got to my feet, hours away from the start of my weeklong seclusion at my cabin with only the forest, wild animals, and much-needed silence surrounding me.

Whistling softly, I threw my stack of mail into my briefcase, then grabbed my coat and shrugged into it before glancing at my wall clock.

Without warning, my door opened, and Ian Purdue walked in.

He was my best friend and an OB/GYN, with an office in the same building where my practice was located.

Unlike him, I opted for a field that brought me the most money and prestige.

Plastic surgery to people who would and could pay top dollar to improve themselves.

I promoted high-maintenance beauty standards and a luxury lifestyle.

Originally, I wanted to be a trauma surgeon, urged on by Iris, my ex-wife, until she ruined my fucking life and turned me against her and everything her type represented.

“Glad I caught you,” Ian said. “I wanted to talk to you about Kali, Felix.”

Tightening my lips, I nodded to the folder. “I’ve finished drafting her disciplinary report. Her third ,” I said with meaning. “I’m terminating her. If she ran to you, she’s really out of her mind. I don’t like gossips, and I especially hate mayhem.”

Ian visibly gritted his teeth, not a stickler for rules like me. Without law and order, chaos descended.

My family created enough of that. My hedge fund father with mistresses, bastards, and scandals.

My attorney sister with six ex-husbands, no children, and a string of lovers.

My CEO brother with seven children, no wives, and no morals.

And my assistant DA brother with a wife, a mistress, a friend with benefits, and no conscience.

Of course, I couldn’t leave out my mega-preacher mother, warped, flawed, holy, and narcissistic.

“After we cleared up her last mishap, you agreed that if Kali was written up three times in twelve months, you’d let her go,” Ian started. “She has two weeks left before that timeline resets.”

“She could have a day, and I wouldn’t give a damn,” I stressed.

“What did Kali do?”

“Scheduled three patients at the same damn time. And one, one, is a nitpicker about time and chewed me out that she had to wait an hour over her appointment time.”

Ian opened his mouth, closed it, and opened it again, finally settling on scratching his jaw. “Can I talk you into giving her one more chance? She must’ve had a good reason for the overbooking. I got her the job. I feel responsible for her.”

“Her ‘reason’ that two of the patients are constant cancellers doesn’t excuse her insubordination.”

“Kali can be a little flaky,” Ian said, deciding to cop to the woman’s issues. “But she isn’t unruly, your staff and patients like her, and she tries to do better.”

Turning away, I walked to the mirror on the other side of my spacious office and adjusted my tie. “Tell me you’re not sleeping with her anymore.”

“I’m not,” Ian said without hesitation. “She is very happy with the man she met six or seven months ago.”

I took my comb out of my coat’s interior pocket and neatened my dark hair.

“I want to go on vacation with no loose ends. Leaving Kali in her position definitely counts as one.”

Ian released a frustrated growl, and I sighed, meeting his gaze in the mirror.

“She has two little kids.”

“Out of wedlock and by two different men. Maybe if she’d married, she wouldn’t have such a challenging time.”

“Can you get off your fucking self-righteous soapbox for one fucking minute?”

Abandoning the mirror, I turned and faced my friend.

Ian—my opposite in every way—was also my conscience, the bleeding heart who opened his practice to the morally and financially challenged.

He didn’t believe in commitment; I didn’t believe in love and preferred business arrangements with defined expectations and financial rewards.

“If you insist on letting Kali go, I’m writing her a letter of recommendation, you’re providing references, and we’re giving her a severance package.”

“Absolutely not! She doesn’t even work in your goddamn office.”

“I can’t have an ex-lover working in my fucking office, Felix.”

If he asked me, I’d tell him he had feelings for Kali. Since I didn’t believe in love or marriage and he hadn’t asked, I kept my opinion to myself.

“Your roaming cock isn’t my damn problem. You aren’t fucking her now, so hire her yourself.”

“I don’t need that drama. She might get the wrong idea.”

“Didn’t you just tell me she’s happy with whoever, fuckhead?”

Ian shrugged. “She is, but why rock the boat?”

I squinted. “What aren’t you telling me? What crazy woman are you fucking now?”

He smirked at me. “None of your fucking business. Now, about Kali.”

Ian didn’t intend to let this go. Unfortunately, he knew my cabin’s location. If I walked out, he’d follow me there, not caring about the travel time.

Frustrated, I thrust my hand through my hair, ruining the neatness I’d just achieved. “If I give in, she doesn’t get a reset for twelve months.”

“That isn’t fair.”

“Neither is your request, Ian. You know it was shoddy work to schedule three patients at once, no matter the reason. At least admit that.”

“Fine,” he gritted. “She didn’t make the best decision in this instance.”

“Thank you.” Shifting my weight, I buttoned the top button on my coat. “Do you accept my terms?”

“I could drive to your cabin and convince you of all the reasons you’re a fuckhead for this ultimatum and harp at it for the entire weekend. By the time I left Sunday night, you would’ve changed your fucking mind.”

“I intend to hunt. Which you don’t like. Remember?”

“I don’t have to stalk the woods for poor, indefensible creatures. I can relax at your cabin while you kill them.”

“My patience is wearing thin,” I said. “You aren’t changing my mind on this.”

“Fine. I accept your terms, asshole.”

“Lovely. Anything else?”

Ian eyed me and pursed his lips. Immediately, I knew he had something else to tell me that I wouldn’t like.

“Are you familiar with the Royal Bastards?”

“Who isn’t?” I scoffed. “A passel of lawless thugs.” As was their sister club, the Royal Harlots. An even worse travesty for women to go down the path of rack and ruin, violence, and viciousness.

“I wouldn’t say that around them. They may not take too kindly to it.”

“Luckily, I won’t have an occasion to be in their presence.”

“Arthel got me to see one of her sister’s daycare workers. The father of her baby is a Royal Bastard.”

My mouth fell open in cartoonish shock. If my jaw could’ve unhinged, it would’ve hit the floor.

I couldn’t believe Ian allowed one of those criminals into our building.

If he wanted to risk his law-abiding patients, that was between him and his clients.

Mine were high-brow and high-class. “You’re kidding me. ”

“I’m dead serious. His name is Reese Sinclair. He’s the club’s sergeant-at-arms.”

“And you accepted her as a patient?”

“I didn’t know about her connection to the club until her first visit. Apparently, Arthel didn’t either. Her sister and brother-in-law intended to pay for the girl’s care.”

“That sounds like Tess and Big Poppa.” I liked those two, a God-fearing couple who attended my mother’s church.

“I agreed to match their money and had intended to talk to you, Shawn, and the others about pitching in.”

“I’m not part of your fucking practice,” I growled for the umpteenth time.

“Yeah, but you are my fucking friend.”

“Let me guess. This biker woman isn’t married to the motorcycle man?”

“Stop fucking focusing on wrong shit,” Ian snapped. “I like her. She’s twenty-one years old and in need of help.”

“I’m not a damn charitable organization.

Neither is your practice. We’re for-profit businesses.

Yet, in the last twenty minutes, you’ve stood there and pleaded the case of a woman because she has two small kids and another woman who is young, unwed, and pregnant.

Neither of which is your problem. Unless you want to fuck her. ”

Ian glared at me. He wasn’t one to cross that ethical line. “The girl is my patient. Nothing more. Nothing less. Reese Sinclair opened an expense account for her. I don’t know what he thinks, but he deposited enough to cover three pregnancies.”

Annoyance robbed me of air, and I drew in deep breaths.

When I returned, I’d start the search for a new location.

I couldn’t remain in a building that allowed the likes of Reese Sinclair and his one-percenter outlaw club.

It would be too tempting to alert my brother, Brandon, and bring those lowlifes down.

“Reese Sinclair isn’t a man to be crossed, Felix,” Ian warned, knowing me well. “Whatever is going through your fucking narrow mind, toss it the fuck out.”

What could I say? Ian had already accepted money from criminals. He kept my secrets, so I’d keep his.

For now.

“I’m headed to the hospital to check on her. She was admitted yesterday after an altercation of some sort.”

“And so it begins,” I sneered tightly. “Anything else?”

“Just be careful on the road. Heavy snow is expected overnight.”

Too livid to respond, I snatched my keys from my desk, my overcoat from the rack, and stormed out.

“What’s the old coot doing?”

I followed the direction Fendi, my VP, nodded to where Razor, the president of the Kansas City chapter of the Royal Bastards, stood, chatting up one of their bike hoppers.

Halloween decorations hung around the Devil’s Pit.

Fake cobwebs crisscrossed the ceiling with plastic spiders of assorted sizes.

Skeletons, witches, and bats hung from the rafters.

An animated witch standing in front of a steaming cauldron stood in the pool table area.

Crystal balls and bowls of peanuts lined the bar, and orange lightbulbs replaced the clubhouse’s infamous red ones.