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For a moment there in that elevator, I thought I saw past his anger, to someone deeper inside—someone that wanted recognition, but also wanted an equal, a peer to be with him, to push him to be a better man.
I didn’t know if that was me, but I thought I might try.
8
Piers
Caroline Pincher’s office was on the top floor, tucked in the back of the administration wing. Her secretary gave me a foul look as I sat in a small waiting room chair, legs crossed, staring up at the ceiling, annoyed as all hell that she was wasting my time like this.
“Piers.” Caroline stood in her office door and beckoned me. She was an older woman, in her mid-fifties, with fake blonde hair and a big smile. She wore sensible dark clothes and always seemed to jingle when she walked from all the bracelets she wore crammed on her thin wrists.
“What can I do for you, Caroline?”
She walked around her desk and sat. The room was the epitome of corporate power: large windows, leather-bound books on the shelves, papers and binders neatly arranged, a couple of green plants hanging in the light. She tilted her head and smiled, steepling her fingers.
“Gina told me you two spoke.”
“Did she?” I raised an eyebrow, unable to hide my surprise.
“Of course. Gina felt that your conversation warranted some attention.” Caroline continued to give me that bland, ruthless smile.
“And what kind of attention are you going to lavish on me, Caroline?”
Her smile didn’t falter. I knew it wouldn’t, no matter how surly I got. She was a consummate professional, I had to admit.
“I understand you’re having an issue with a private investigator.”
“Tippett hired him,” I said. “He’s been stalking me all over the campus.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“But you’re not going to do anything about it.”
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.
