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“Alric, you aremaking a mess on my floor. What the hell have you done now?”The towering black man with bulging muscles and tattoos gave her asheepish look, the grimace of pain evident on his sweaty face.
“The old ladywas cleaning the gun, and it went off, I swear.”
“GSW? You knowI will have to report it to the police.”
“I was hopingto avoid something like that.” He swayed slightly, teethgritted.
“No way aroundit. Come with me.” She glimpsed the new doctor standing justinside the doorway. “I will take care of it. Go back to yourpatients.”
*****
She just needed aminute, and she was taking it, Brooke decided as she stretched fulllength on the cot and closed her eyes. She had been running aroundtreating patients for hours and needed the break. She had to admitthe new doctor seemed to know his thing and was happy she did nothave to hold his hand.
The waiting room waspractically cleared out; it was only three in the afternoon. What wasleft were the runny noses and the allergies the season was famousfor. Brooke could feel a low-grade headache at the back of her skulland was determined to ignore it.
She hated taking anyform of medication, and it had to be dire for her even to considerit. That had been the case even when she was a child. Her brotherwould say that she was a classic case. “You prescribemedications to people daily, and yet you refuse to take any.”
“I am a doctor;I don’t need medicine.” She had retorted loftily. Turningher head at the knock on the door, she watched when it was pushedopen, and Cooper Rochester stepped in.
“I see you havedecided to remove the lab coat.”
“I had to afterI was thrown up on twice. And I think a very adorable baby girl wipedsomething questionable on the sleeve. Am I disturbing you?”
“Yes.What is it?”
“Are you alwaysthis friendly?”
Brooke had to biteback the grin at his sarcasm. “This is my good day. How may Ihelp you?”
“What do you dofor a meal around here?”
“Miranda wassupposed to be dealing with that. Two local cafes and two restaurantsin the area provide meals for us as part of their contribution to theclinic. They would not want their doctors or support staff starvingto death.”
Swinging her legs offthe bed, she stretched with her hands over her head, making him awareof the shape of her small breasts against the ash-gray top she hadon. She was the most irritating female he had ever encountered,certainly the rudest.
Still, seeing herworking tirelessly with these people, considered the dregs ofsociety, he had gained his grudging admiration. Not to mention thatshe was stunning; she was not wearing any makeup whatsoever, not eventhe sheen of lipstick on her full and generous lips.
Her braids wereuntidy and piled on her head with little sense of style. But her skinwas the most flawless he had ever seen, and combined with thewideness of her eyes and the shape of her face, he wondered if shehad any idea that she was quite a looker. Probably not, he thought insurprise.
“Is theresomething else?” The calm and cultured voice broke into hisreverie.
“No. Sorry fordisturbing you.”
Brooke watched as hestepped out and closed the door behind him. Of course, she knew whohe was; how could she not? Billionaire son of an empire playingdoctor, she thought with a smirk.
She was probablythinking that saving lives would make him feel better that hispharmaceutical company had thrived on the backs of suffering people.
She had no time forbig pharma, and even though she was a doctor, she hated the medicinesthe pharmaceutical companies produced with the pretense of caringabout getting people better.
She saw it for whatit was - a money-making venture, with the companies bent on profit.Get the people hooked on the drugs and insist that they would have tolive on these same drugs for the rest of their lives.
It was a sick plan,but one that was working out very well. Shoving off the bed, sheslipped her feet into the comfortable Crocs and left the room. First,she would find something to eat and then update her patients’charts. It had slowed down somewhat, but the evening crowd still hadto be dealt with.
*****
When Cooperreluctantly agreed to fill in as a favor for Carl Graham at adowntown free clinic, he thought it would be a disaster. The placelooked dilapidated and desolate; the paved parking lot had cracksrunning from one end to the other, not to mention the buildingitself, which needed a paint job.
He had almost turnedback, but he had committed and was a man of his word. The red sportscar he had arrived in was curiously out of place in such surroundingsand, despite the sophisticated alarm system, would most likely bestolen or scrapped for parts.
