CHAPTER TWELVE
Alden took the seat at the bar facing the Gulf of Mexico. It was a beautiful, sunny, warm day with breezes coming in across the water, the smell of sand and surf filling his senses. The open-air bar and restaurant was exactly what his soul needed in the moment.
He missed this. He missed being able to afford top tier hotels, first class flights, and all the women he wanted. Oh. And the drugs. Although technically those had always been free for him.
He sold some, gave some away, but much of what was taken belonged to him. The nurses were simple. Eager to bag a doctor, they were happy to give him a little more than the recommended amount from the drug lockers. Pharmacists were the same.
He even had to resort to giving blow jobs to a male pharmacist to get the fentanyl and oxycodone. It wasn’t awful. The guy was good-looking but his preference was a female.
When the nurses started to become suspicious of him, he’d move on to another hospital. He never counted on the nurse in his new hospital knowing one from the old hospital. So, he had to get creative and the chunky monkey, Marnie, was his ticket to paradise.
Or so he thought.
She seemed reserved and quiet at first, but the more he spoke to her, the more he realized she was just lonely. Lonely and pudgy. That was the right word for her in his mind. Too bad she was also smart. He hadn’t counted on that.
She questioned everything he did and she refused to back down. Even when he repeatedly hit on her, touched her, rubbed against her, she suspected something. She wasn’t hideous, she just was more than he wanted in his bed.
Then the bitch really turned on him. Called the hospital administrators, went to the review board, and finally appeared at his medical licensing hearing. He got lucky. No jail time.
They couldn’t prove that he intentionally gave the wrong dose to the patient. He did, of course. The bastard wanted to buy drugs from him and tracked him down to the hospital. He had to get rid of him.
On probation for five years and no medical license, he had no option but to seek revenge and other sources of revenue. After all, he wanted his cut, but so did someone else.
“Hello, darling,” said the woman taking the seat beside him. “Really, Alden? Sitting at the bar? I’m not some college girl on spring break. I’m your mother. Can’t we have a proper table?”
“Mother, I like these seats. I like seeing the water and the sun and sand.”
“I see you finally got the ankle monitor off,” she smirked.
“Yes, no thanks to you. You said you’d be at the house in Gulf Shores when I arrived. I had to break into the garden shed to get the tools to get it off. It’s in a parcel on the way to Hong Kong as we speak. That should keep them busy for a while.”
“I suspected that was you who broke the glass to my shed,” she smirked. The bartender asked for her order and she smiled, looking the young man up and down. “Dirty martini.”
“Lady, I got wine, beer, frozen drinks, or on the rocks. I don’t do all the other stuff.”
“Lovely. A frozen whatever that pink stuff is,” she said pointing to the machine.
“Great. A frozen guava margarita.”
“Sounds disgusting,” smirked Alden. “But I’m sure you’ll manage downing it.”
“Do you have my order?” she asked quietly, crossing her legs in the ridiculous Yves Saint Laurent suit. Eighty degrees outside, they were sitting at a beach bar and his mother arrived in a nine-thousand-dollar suit. Plus the two-thousand-dollar pumps.
“Mother, in case you’ve forgotten, I don’t work in the hospital any longer. I’m trying but without a license it’s a bit difficult. I may have to go to another country. Somewhere small and needing assistance,” he frowned.
“That’s a horrible thought,” she said sipping the frozen concoction. She raised her brows, licking her lips. “Not as bad as I expected.”
“Mother, I need money.”
“Yes, dear. I know. Lawrence is being very tight with the purse strings right now and my ladies group is becoming more and more demanding. They need their medications.”
“It’s not medication for them, mother. It’s recreational drugs.”
She slammed her hand on the wooden bar and everyone in the place jumped. Calmly, she brushed back an imaginary stray strand of hair and smiled at the observers.
“I am well aware of what it is I’m asking for,” she said quietly. “As you can tell from my unusual outburst, I’m in need of assistance as well. These women pay you very good money to get what they need. Many are in pain.”
“They’re not in pain, mother, they’re trying to kill their husbands. What is this number five or six for Mrs. Wallace? And poor Lawrence, I know he’s your fourth. Has he been feeling ill lately?”
“Watch your tone young man. Lawrence is a sickly man and he’s nearly eighty, or maybe older. I don’t know, I haven’t been keeping track. Anyway, he doesn’t have long in this world.”
“Not if you have any say in the matter,” said Alden. She gripped his arm, digging her claws into his flesh.
“I need some assistance,” she said with a clenched jaw. “Desperately.”
“I’m working on it.” They sat for a while in silence as she sipped her drink, her shaking hands finally beginning to settle thanks to the alcohol. “I’ve found the woman. She’s working at a small hospital in the middle of nowhere in south Louisiana.”
“Well, then. Take care of that matter.”
“It’s not that easy. The hospital is well guarded and it’s surrounded by gates and security walls. It must be a military hospital or something secret.”
“She has to leave there sooner or later. If she’s dead, there’s no one to testify against you at the final hearings. She could die of an accidental overdose and the whole thing turns on her, proving it was her that took the items.”
He stared at the woman, shaking his head. She was something else.
“You can’t even say it, can you? You refuse to say the word drugs. It’s supply, product, items. Anything but drugs. It’s what they are mother. Drugs. You and your ladies group are buying drugs. Illegally.”
“Shut your mouth!” she seethed looking around them.
“There’s no one here that gives a damn about you and your country club addicts, mother.”
“You would think you’d be more willing to help the woman that sacrificed her youth for you, so that you could go to medical school.”
“You were twenty-two and chose to marry a man thirty years your senior because he was rich and gave you whatever you wanted. Don’t blame me for that shit. You didn’t tell him you were six weeks pregnant. Thank God I was a tiny baby.”
“He was a monster,” she said staring at the water.
“Why? Because he refused to give you whatever you wanted all the time? He was a good man and good father to me. But that didn’t matter to you. You wanted more. You found someone with a bigger house, better car, bigger bank account. Then, we were moving on. Five years later, we moved again.
“You’re never satisfied mother. That’s why we’re in this predicament. The drugs I was giving you weren’t enough. You wanted more. Stronger. Faster. Better. You and all your little old lady friends.”
She stood dumping the ice-cold drink in his lap. He just laughed, shaking his head.
“I need money, mother. I can’t get to Marnie if I don’t have cash. Then I’ll figure out your ‘supply’ issue.”
She slid an envelope toward him and started to walk away but turned and kissed his cheek.
“I do love you, Alden. You’re just very frustrating sometimes.”
“Yeah, I know, mother. I know.” He watched her walk to the brand-new Rolls Royce, sliding behind the wheel like the queen of Sheba.
“Like mother like son.”