She spread her hands. “I’m in a bind here. I think you can appreciate that.”
“I can’t, but why don’t you try and convince me?”
She laughed softly. “For starters, it isn’t illegal to hire a private investigator. It’s in bad taste, of course, but not illegal. So I don’t have any sort of legal route to go here.”
“I’m not really interested in a legal route.”
“I could ban him from the hospital grounds, but he’d still follow you outside of this place, and I imagine it would only look like we’re trying to cover up your mess. That wouldn’t play in court.”
I clenched my jaw. “There’s no mess to cover up. They knew the risks.”
“And you knew that the surgery would incredibly unlikely to work, and never should have done it.” She waved a hand when I went to argue. “We don’t need to rehash this. I wanted to bring you in here and explain why the hospital will not be stepping in with this private investigator issue.”
“I already know why,” I said. “The Tippetts are rich and you don’t want to risk pissing off their rich friends. If we lose their support, the hospital will lose a lot of donations.”
“Donations do save lives,” she said, shrugging.
“And so do I.”
“I know that,” she said, “which is the only reason you haven’t been fired. Piers, you have an incredible record, you’ve done things most men your age only dream about doing, but I can’t step in here. I’m very much in a bind.”
“Why did you call me up here, Caroline? If you can’t do anything, why would you bother?”
“I wanted to ask you about your new resident.”
That surprised me. I leaned back in the chair and frowned at her for a long moment, gathering myself. I’d been thinking more and more about Lori lately, thinking about her technique, about her smell when I leaned close to her, about kissing her lips or brushing my knuckles against her cheek.
And our little deal. She held a lot of power over me, which didn’t sit well, not at all.
I needed the damn girl. There weren’t many people in this world that would vouch for me. I wasn’t exactly unaware of the way I acted around people. I was sort of an asshole, or if I was in a charitable mood, I’d call myself grumpy. I’d alienated most of the people in positions of power that could help me, all because of my relentless drive to be the best. I was obsessed, and that made me a dick.
Lori didn’t have a set opinion yet—or at least not one that couldn’t be changed, sooner or later. I wanted to show her that I wasn’t some bastard.
And admittedly, it wasn’t only because of the lawsuit. The more time I spent around her, the more I wanted her to like me, her in particular. It felt good to think that one person in this world didn’t think I was a total lost cause.
“She’s doing fine,” I said reluctantly. I wasn’t about to air all that out to Caroline.
“Her cousin’s very interested in her progress.”
“Tell him she’s doing well. I’ll train the girl. She’ll be ready.”
“Good.” Caroline nodded. “Say what you will about your bedside manner, Dr. Hood, but you’re very skilled. I’m sure you’ll pass on those skills to Dr. Court.”
“My bedside manner isn’t the problem.” I crossed my arms. “It’s my issue with authority.”
She gave me a bland smile. “I’m sure it is. You have to understand though, I walk a delicate line. The hospital is a business—”
“But it shouldn’t be,” I said, interrupting her.
She shrugged slightly, as if that were beside the point. “But it is a business, and I need to make sure it brings in revenue. Without money, the hospital stops seeing patients, and more people end up sick and hurt. You see that, don’t you?”
“I see a bureaucracy that cares more about extending its own lifespan for the benefit of its insiders than a group of people that gives a damn about patients.”
She laughs lightly, as if I were joking. “Be careful with Lori, please, that’s all I wanted to say. She’s important to this hospital, and she’s important to your future.”
I let that one linger in the air between us. I understood the implication: fuck up, and I was finished.
Even after all the good press I’d brought to the hospital by being one of the best surgeons in the world, even after all the lives I’d saved, all the countless bits of praise, it still wasn’t enough for them. The administrators always wanted more, in the end, it was always about getting more.
“Is that all?”
“That’s all. Have a great day, Dr. Hood.”
I stood and left. I felt like I had eyes on me as I rode the elevators down and headed out onto the street. I played that conversation over in my mind, again and again, and kept coming to one conclusion.
Caroline wanted to threaten me, but she was too proper to outright say it.
That was how these businesspeople worked, coming at things sideways so you could never quite pin them down.
The message was clear enough though. I had to work with Lori and turn her into a decent surgeon, or else I was finished.
Good thing he already wanted to do that. For once, his marching orders and his own desires matched up perfectly.
I found Lori in the laundromat, sitting on top of a dryer with her legs crossed, reading a book again. It looked like she’d never left that spot, like she’d been doing laundry there her entire life. She didn’t notice me at first, and she was alone in the place, sitting in a beam of sunlight, her hair shimmering as she adjusted her head, tilting it slightly, turning the page, licking her fingers—a hint of pink tongue, her lips parted—and her eyebrows knit down in concentration. I felt spellbound, like I couldn’t move, and all I wanted to do was watch her all day, watch her reading,
