Chapter Thirty-Six
Damned bitch.
Carter glowered at the Camry he’d parked next to in the clinic’s lot. If he found out she had played him . . .
What the hell was he thinking, if!
She would regret this.
He tossed back a couple of Vicodins, shoved out of his BMW, and stalked up to the entrance.
He’d tried to find her ass last night. But she’d ignored his calls.
She wasn’t stupid. She’d likely figured out that he’d heard from CJ about the autopsy report.
Well, if she thought she could avoid answering his questions, she was insane.
Despite the lack of vehicles in the parking lot, the waiting room was jam-packed. Pathetic losers. The poor from neighborhoods all around the clinic’s North Huntsville location walked here each Saturday. To see the stupid bitch.
Carter cut through the line at the reception desk and elbowed his way to the front. “Tell Lusk I need to see her outside,” he ordered the girl behind the desk. No way was he speaking to her in here.
The harried receptionist stared up at him as if he’d lost his mind. “What?”
Carter glanced at the lengthening line in front of her desk. “Never mind. I’ll find her.”
When he got his hands on Lusk . . . his body shook with rage. He pushed through the door leading to the exam rooms and came face-to-face with the object of his fury.
Surprise flared in her eyes. “Cost. What’re you doing here?” She closed the chart in her hands.
“What the hell did you do?”
She blinked, glanced around the corridor. “What’re you talking about?”
He backed her into the closest room. The patient seated on the exam table looked from him to Lusk.
“Get out,” Carter demanded.
The startled woman hopped off the table, pulled the paper gown around her more tightly, and hurried from the room.
“You can’t come in here—” Lusk began.
Carter slammed the door, cutting her off. “She wasn’t pregnant!”
A hint of fear flashed in the bitch’s eyes. “What?”
Fury exploded inside him. “Don’t you try that shit with me,” he roared. “Shelley wasn’t pregnant. The ME found no evidence whatsoever of a pregnancy.”
The fear vanished, replaced by a smug smile. “I guess the lab made a mistake.”
Desperation, outrage, too many emotions to label coalesced inside him. He fisted his fingers in her blouse and shoved the bitch against the wall. “You played me! She was never pregnant. You did this to get back at me.”
She had the audacity to laugh. “Worked, didn’t it?”
The desperation overpowered all else. “Do you have any idea what you put me through? You made me think I’d gotten that whore pregnant!”
“You, of all people, should know how to practice safe sex, Doctor.”
He shook his head. Wanted to kill her. “You don’t know what you’ve done.”
Lusk stared into his eyes, amusement twinkling in hers. “Don’t I?”
“I’ll get you for this.” He released her, turned his back, and hauled the door open.
CJ stood in the corridor, the shock on her face confirming she’d heard the entire conversation.
She stared at him. Just stared.
“If you’re finished,” Lusk snapped, pushing him aside to get out the door, “I have patients—” She drew up short. “Patterson?”
CJ shifted her furious stare from Carter to Lusk. “My sister trusted you.”
Lusk dropped the chart she’d been hanging on to and held up her hands. “Wait. I didn’t—”
“Yes,” CJ accused, her voice shaking with fury, “you did. I heard every word the two of you said.” She moved closer to Carter, looked him dead in the eye.
“Shelley was not your entertainment. She was a person.” She shook her head, fell back the step she’d taken. “You’ll both regret what you’ve done.”
When she rushed out the door, Carter resisted the impulse to go after her.
It was no use.
He was screwed.