10. May

10

MAY

“Well, tell me all about him,” my favorite patient says when I walk in to see her.

“Who?” I ask.

Rachel is a sixty-year-old woman that has been in and out of the hospital a lot recently. This time she’s scheduled to have a stent put in her heart. It seems since her husband passed a few months ago, her own health is now declining.

She throws her hands in the air. “Who? Your boyfriend, of course.”

“My boyfriend?” I look at her closed door, trying to figure out how she even knows anything about Aiden. “How do you—“ I start, but before I can even finish asking how she knows I have a boyfriend, she leans forward. “Betsy told Anna, and Anna told Carlita, who was leaving this morning when you came in, and she told Katie. And well, Katie brought me in some magazines and told me that your boyfriend came in this morning, and all the nurses, young, old, and even married are going crazy about how nice looking he is.”

I can feel my face heat. There’s no sense denying it. Aiden is definitely handsome. I start to laugh. “It sounds like you already know a lot about him.”

She sits up a little straighter. “Come on, be nice to an old lady. Since my Jeb died, I need to hear a love story. How’d you meet?”

I sit down on the edge of the bed. There’s no way I can just tell Rachel I’m busy and walk out of here. I know she’s lonely since her husband died. If she wants a love story, I’ll tell her one.

“Well, he’s actually one of my brother’s best friends, and they work together.”

Her eyes get big. “Ooooh, what did your brother think about that?”

I shrug. “I don’t think he likes it very well, but he’ll come around. He knows that Aiden is a good man.”

Rachel lifts and lowers her eyebrows quickly. “How good is he?”

I playfully nudge her on the leg. “Oh, you, I’m not giving you all those details. But I will tell you that he’s handsome—which you’ve already heard—but he’s also very protective and fun.” I lean in and whisper, “And he wants to marry me. But don’t you tell anyone because he hasn’t officially asked yet or anything.”

Rachel’s hand goes to her heart. “Oh, May, I’m so happy for you. Will you say yes? When he does ask?”

I stand up then and start fixing the covers over her legs. “Absolutely. I mean, come on, how could I not?”

She laughs with me, and it’s so nice to see her smiling again. After she makes me promise to invite her to the wedding, I continue on with my rounds of checking in on patients. It’s so nice to be carefree at work again. It seems like lately I’ve been so stressed out avoiding Dr. Lassiter and being worried that he’s going to show up around every corner. It’s nice to know that he’s out of town for a few days.

My name is called over the loudspeaker to report to an operating room, and I drop off my clipboard at the nurse’s station before heading that way. It hardly ever happens, but sometimes I’m called in unexpectantly to help out on a surgery if something needs cleaned up or they just need another hand.

I hurry to the surgery wing, and I am not prepared at all for what happens next. As soon as I walk into the room, the first thing I notice is the empty operating table, and then when I turn to leave, Dr. Lassiter is at the door, shutting and locking it.

I walk backwards farther into the room to put some distance between us. He’s looking at me in a way that brings bile up my throat. “I thought you were in Florida.”

He shakes his head. “No, but that was a good way to throw Dr. Johnson off my track, don’t you think?”

I keep my face guarded, not wanting to give anything away. “What do you mean?”

“I mean... I know you went to him the other day to tell him I’d been harassing you.”

“You were. You are right now.”

“No. I’m not,” he says, shaking his head. “I’ve watched you for months, May. You’re always smiling and happy. I know you’re just playing hard to get. I want you to know how serious I am about you. I know your type, and you’re not just a fun-time girl. You want to settle down, and you probably thought I was just playing with you... but I’m not. I’m committed to you.”

He starts walking toward me, and I put my hands up. “But... I’m sorry, Dr. Lassiter...”

“Call me Mike,” he demands.

“Mike, I’m sorry if you got the wrong idea, but I wasn’t playing hard to get. I don’t think of you like that. Look, if you let me get back to work, we can forget this ever happened. I won’t tell anyone.” I’m not a good liar, but right now, I’ll promise him anything if he’ll let me walk out of here.

I see another nurse looking through the window, and her eyes widen when she sees my face and Dr. Lassiter coming toward me. I hear the jiggle of the door, but Dr. Lassiter doesn’t even acknowledge her as she pounds on it. When she can’t get it open, she disappears, and I’m hoping and praying it’s so she can go get help.

"You're cheating on me," he says.

He’s crazy. That’s all there is to it. I’ve never led him on; I’ve refused all of his advances. This is not good because obviously in his head we have a relationship, and we don’t. I clench my eyes shut tightly. He has to be deranged. I take a deep breath. I’ve been trained to deal with things like this, but I’m drawing a blank of what I should be doing.

There's definitely something wrong with him, and when I don't answer, he continues, "You never went home last night. Who were you with?"

I cross my arms over my chest, refusing to engage in conversation with him. He just shrugs like it's not a big deal. "I know who you were with. It's that same man that's been sniffing around you forever now. I thought that you were a smart woman. You have to know what kind of guy he is. He's just using you. I'm the real deal. I'm the one that can give you the future that you want, that you deserve. We could be so good together."

Don't engage , I keep telling myself over and over, but the more he talks and the more asinine things he says, the harder it is to keep my mouth shut. "There's nothing between you and me. We don’t have a relationship, and we never will."

"Bullshit," he yells. "We're a team, you and I. We work well together."

I nod. "Yes, as doctor and nurse, we are a team, but there's nothing outside of this hospital that will ever happen between the two of us." He looks almost shocked as my words soak in.

He has one hand in his pocket. And from the imprint, I can tell that it's a gun. I try to keep myself calm, because I know that in situations like this, that's the most important thing to do. I try to keep him talking. "What about your family? You know you won’t get away with this. Won’t your parents”—heck, I don’t know anything about him—“or your kids or someone be upset if you go to prison? I’m sure they will."

"No, I don’t have any family. I only have you. I've been searching for you all night in Whiskey Run."

I don't tell him where I was at or that I was with Aiden. I'm sure he already knows that. "So what's your plan here? How do you plan to get out of here?"

He gestures at me, “When we get out of here, we are going to go to my secret house up in the mountains. No one knows about it, and they won’t find us there. I’m going to keep you there and show you just how good we can be together. Trust me, you’ll see.”

I want to shake my head. I want to scream at him, but I know I need to keep calm. My very life may depend on it. I swallow, hard. I don’t want to hear any more of this. I don’t want the details of what he plans to do to me or exactly how he plans to show me we can be good together. “Uh, no, I mean how are you planning on getting out of the hospital?”

"You're going to get me out." He pulls the gun from his pocket, and everything starts to flash before my eyes. There's no way that this can be happening. Everything that happened last night with Aiden. The fact that we confessed our love for one another, it was so perfect. And what? Now this?

I can hear the announcements at the hospital calling for a Code Violet, and at that point, I begin to wonder if I'm going to die. Dr. Lassiter laughs when he hears the code called because he knows it means that there is an intruder that is going to cause harm. He's looking at me smiling, as if he's getting off on my fear, so I try to rein it in. "You won't get out of here," I tell him.

He starts to laugh, and I swear it’s the most sinister thing I’ve ever heard. "You work here. You know about the lack of security at the hospital. There've been budget cuts, and I know that we're right in the middle of a shift change. And you also know that we only have a few that are on call.” He laughs again. The way he’s acting, he thinks this is a game or something. “What you probably don’t know is that Cary, head of security, is on his way to the hospital, but he had a flat tire and is going to be running late. And the other security guard, surprisingly, had a flat tire this morning also, so that's definitely going to buy me enough time to get out of here."

He walks toward me, and I start to back up. "Don't move," he says, cocking the gun.

He stops in front of me and stares down at me. I try to rein in my fear, but I can feel my lip trembling. He leans down, and I can smell his rancid breath as he puts his lips to mine. I whimper, and he smiles against my lips. Don't cry , I tell myself. Figure out a way to get out of this .

He pulls me to him, and he's excited by the kiss or the fear in my voice. I want to strike him, but I can’t. The gun is still pointed at me, and so I stand as still as I possibly can. My stomach rolls as I feel his erection push into my hip. I force my hips back, trying to get away.

"You're right," he says. "We should be somewhere private for this." He pulls me into his arms and holds the gun up to my head. He has me unlock the door and then pushes me out into the hallway. There are a few nurses out there standing, and they're all looking wide-eyed and scared. My friend from earlier is giving me a pointed look, and I know she's trying to tell me something. All I can tell is that she's trying to give me some kind of reassurance, and it does help settle me some. I know she went for help.

He goes to the stairwell, and we go down the steps into the back of the hospital. I can’t get into a car with him. I know it will be bad if I do, so I start to mentally prepare myself. As soon as we get outside, I’m going to fight back and fight until I can’t fight anymore.

He pushes me out the door first, and I can see he's not ready for it, because as soon as we get outside, we're surrounded. Not only are the security guards and the police here, but the first person that I see is Aiden. He's standing unarmed with his hands up, and he smiles at me. "Hey, baby," he says calmly.

That pisses Dr. Lassiter off, and he jerks me tighter against him.

I whimper, and Aiden's jaw stiffens. He shakes his head. "I can't let you leave with her."

Dr. Lasseter pushes the gun toward my head. "You can't stop me."

He turns, walking backward toward the parking lot, where I know he parks his car. "Stop," Aiden says, and at least Dr. Lassiter starts to slow down, but he doesn’t stop. Aiden follows us slowly, his hands still up in the air.

It’s like there’s a hush among the crowd around him. I spot my brother, Colt, who has a gun aimed at us. And then I notice Nash and Dylan and Walker and the rest of the guys all around also. It’s like they’ve formed a “u” surrounding us.

Aiden starts to talk, and my eyes go back to him. "You remember my old dog, Jesse. You loved him. I need you to be Jesse," Aiden says.

"Shut up," Dr. Lassiter screams at Aiden, but that doesn't stop him.

He says it again with a pointed look and louder this time. Aiden always keeps his cool, but right now, it’s like he’s losing some of his composure. "Honey, I need you to do this, okay?"

My mind goes crazy, thinking about his old beagle. It was so sad when he died, and I remember how much that devastated Aiden. What is he trying to tell me? I search my mind, trying to figure it out when Aiden gives me another clue. "It was his best trick," he says, and instantly, I know what he's talking about.

He must see the recognition on my face because he says, "Now, May." And as soon as he does, I put my complete trust in him and let myself fall and play dead. That was Jesse's best trick, and I hope that I'm doing the right thing, because I let my whole body weight pull me to the ground. It must stun Dr. Lassiter because he can't keep his hold on me. As soon as I feel myself hit the ground, I hear the shot. I have my eyes clenched shut, and then I hear the umph of a man falling behind me.