PROLOGUE #2
“The results came back, and everything looks fine with no cancer detected,” I told my sister with a huge grin. I was fighting back tears when I said, “It’s been ten years now.”
“That means I’m in the clear and will finally be released.”
I rubbed my sister’s knuckles as I stared at our joined hands. “That doesn’t mean things will always be clear, but for now . . .”
“Roscoe, I’m not Mom.”
“I know that, dork.”
“I know you chose to be a doctor so you could save me since no one could save her, but you’re not going to have to do that.”
“You think I became a doctor to save you? Pfft. I did it so I could fill my garage with luxury cars and pick up hot nurses.”
“How’s that working out for you so far?”
“The nurses, yes. The cars, not even close.”
“You’re still a baby doctor. Someday, in about a million years, you’ll be a big boy doctor with your own practice. You’ve still got time to fill up a garage.”
“Speaking of babies . . .”
“I’ll get a copy of my report for the agency, and then we’ll go from there.”
“You should mail a copy to Dipshit.” I hated my sister’s ex with a burning passion.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t do anything about that at the risk of losing my license and everything I’d worked so hard for.
I might not be able to punish him the way he deserved, but I could dream about the day karma would fuck him up as bad as he’d fucked over my sister.
I just hoped that karma was armed with something large and abrasive, and there was no lube in sight.
Holly laughed, and I was happy to see that she had finally found some humor in her failed marriage before she said, “I realized just how well that name really suited him after we split up.”
“He wasn’t worthy of you, and we all knew it.”
“If you ask him, I am the one that’s not worthy since I can’t have children.”
“We’re living proof that kids don’t have to be yours biologically for you to give them a good home and all the love in your heart. Someday, children will come into your life, and you’ll show them that just like Dad and Papa did for us.”
“Someday,” Holly whispered, ever hopeful that she’d have a family of her own.
Because she was my big sister and giving me shit had been a hobby of hers my entire life, she said, “As the second in line for the throne in our branch of the Hamilton family tree, it falls to you to create a new generation of heirs to the crown.”
“Don’t curse me, Holly,” I ordered as I let go of her hand, knowing that the serious part of the discussion was over now. “There are too many nurses and not enough time, big sister. That task is going to have to fall on one of the other kids.”
“If we don’t get started soon, Gamma’s going to put her magic potion in the water like she did all those years ago.”
“We all know that their libidos had everything to do with all those kids and nothing to do with magic,” I argued. “Gamma’s a sweet, innocent woman, and I won’t have anyone disparaging her character.”
Holly and I started laughing, knowing that Martha Forrester wasn’t nearly as sweet and innocent as we liked to pretend.
If there was a way to spike the tap water so she could have more babies to dote on, she’d find it and use it until she and Grammy, her best friend Sandra, had another bustling generation of Knights and Kings running around.
I was going to do everything in my power to help Holly adopt because kids weren’t in my future anytime soon, if ever. Until I found a woman who looked at me the way Gamma looked at Smokey or Dad looked at Papa, I wasn’t even going to waste my time considering it.
I had high standards. After watching my dads and the other couples in our family hold each other through both the good and the bad, I would never be able to settle for anything less.
◆◆◆
FIVE YEARS AGO
ROSCOE
“I can’t believe we’re really about to do this,” I said in awe as I looked around the office my sisters had decorated for me.
“You better believe it since we open for business tomorrow morning,” Spruce Parker said as he settled into a chair on the other side of my desk. I’d known him since we were kids, and he just so happened to also be one of the doctors my dad was happy to have in the family.
Spruce’s brother, Terran, a neurologist who was also a partner in our practice, said, “I have to admit that it is a little terrifying.”
“You feel it too?”
“We’re going into business with two of the most volatile women on the planet, Roscoe. Of course I feel it.”
“I heard that!” Jewel, Spruce and Terran’s sister, who was a general practitioner, called out from her office.
“Terran’s right. We’re fucked,” Spruce grumbled as he leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling.
“Speaking of fucked, I feel like we should establish some boundaries that weren’t enforced during our time at the various hospitals where we spent our residencies and practiced over the last few years.” When Spruce and I stared at Terran in confusion, he said, “No fraternizing with the nurses.”
“I don’t fraternize,” I assured him.
“Neither do I,” Spruce told his brother with a grin.
“Do I look like I’m joking right now?” Terran asked.
“You never joke about anything,” I reminded him. I sighed when he glared at me in silence and waited for Spruce to stop laughing before I said, “I, Roscoe Hamilton, solemnly swear that I will not fraternize, flirt with, touch inappropriately, or sleep with any employee of our practice.”
“The majority of the nurses who will be working here have known us forever, so we wouldn’t have a chance anyway,” Spruce reminded Terran.
“If you break your promise, I’m going to unleash the hellhound and won’t lift a single finger to help as she rips you limb from limb,” Terran assured us.
“Which one of us are you calling a hellhound?” my cousin Amethyst, a pediatrician in our practice, asked as she breezed into my office. “I know it’s not me, because I’m a sweetheart.”
“You weren’t even sweet when you were a baby,” Terran said as he looked at his niece with a bored expression.
We weren’t just friends in this practice, we were family - in a few different ways.
Amethyst was my cousin, but she was also one of the Parker siblings' nieces. It didn’t make all of us related, but close enough, since we were raised as family.
“Most of the time, I would say it’s a bad idea to go into business with family, but I believe that we’ll all work well together. ”
“I’m waiting for an answer to the hellhound question,” Amethyst said as she crossed her arms and glared at Terran.
“Excuse me. I misspoke,” Terran said with a fake smile. He looked at me and then Spruce before he said, “I’ll unleash both of the hellhounds on you if you break your promise to leave the nursing staff alone.”
Amethyst’s expression turned stormier than usual, and she stared daggers at Terran as she said, “I’m offended.”
“Luckily, it looks good on you,” Terran said, giving her one of the backhanded compliments he was known for. He stood and walked out into the hall as he called over his shoulder, “You’ll get over it.”
“Why am I excited and terrified at the same time? It’s not like we’re new at this!”
“We’re not, but this is the first time that our names will be on the sign out front. If this fails, we’re all fucked,” I said as I slumped down in my chair with a sigh. “I don’t think I want to be a grown-up anymore.”
“Welcome to the club. Life was so much easier when we were chasing her and the other heathens around without a care in the world other than what sort of trouble we could get into,” Spruce said as he motioned toward Amethyst. “I thought the days of being forced to spend time with you and my siblings were over, yet here I am, putting down roots and going into business with you crazy fuckers.”
“As nervous as I am, I know it’s going to be great!” I admitted. “Who’d have thought that any of us wild kids would end up here?”
“Hamilton Parker Medical Clinic,” Amethyst said with a big smile. “We’re not just family, we’re a team!”
“Dammit!” Jewel yelled from down the hall. Suddenly, an alarm sounded, and Jewel roared with outrage. “I am going to throw this piece of shit through the window!”
“She’s programming the Pyxis,” Amethyst explained. “If we hide in here, Terran will deal with her.”
“Someone give me a hammer!” Jewel screamed.
“And so it begins.”
◆◆◆
SERANA
I caught another glimpse of the woman on the seat across from mine just as the bus came to a stop outside of the tall gates.
She was looking at the razor wire that ringed the top of the fence that went as far as the eye could see, probably wondering how badly it would cut her if she tried to scale it.
Considering she couldn’t sit still and had been picking at the sores on her arm since we were herded onto the transport bus, I knew she was really considering it and willing to go through whatever pain it might cause just to find a fix.
I leaned my head back against the seat and thanked my lucky stars that I had been clean since my wreck almost a year ago, so I wasn’t going to have to go through detox in a cold and unfeeling prison surrounded by people I couldn’t trust. It had been bad enough, being cuffed to a bed during my recovery in the hospital.
I wondered how soon I could find a meeting inside the prison that was about to become my new home for the next four to six years.
“She’s about to fucking lose it,” a woman behind me muttered right before the woman across the aisle from me started fighting her restraints in an attempt to escape.
Her screams pierced the air as the bus pulled through the gates.
I looked down at my feet, wondering how long we’d be stuck here while they tried to get her under control. “Shit. We’re gonna miss lunch now.”
I looked over my shoulder at the woman and grimaced before I said, “As hungry as I am, I’m not sure it would even make a difference.”
“Isn’t that the truth?” she asked before she gave me a tight smile and said, “Looks like we’re gonna be here for a while, so we might as well chat it up since there’s no chance of sleeping anymore.”
“You’re right. I’m Serana. What’s your name?”
“I’m Moe.”
“I would say it’s a pleasure to meet you, but that would be a lie,” I said honestly.
Moe barked out a laugh but abruptly stopped when the bus ground to a halt outside a drab gray building, and four guards rushed through the open doors to subdue the inmate who was still screaming.
“Aw, look! They sent a welcome party!”
“Yeah,” I scoffed. “I feel really welcome.”