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I don’t even know why I’m wasting my breath explaining what I do to him when he doesn’t care, which annoys me even more.
“Yet here I am dying and you won’t do anything,” Gabe says.
Now I know where Suzannah gets her flair for the melodramatic.
“Oh, I think you’ll live,” I tell him as I go on my way.
And if he doesn’t, maybe that’s not the worst that could happen.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Gabe agrees. “After all, only the good die young, right? And we both know I’m not good. Rotten men like me, we live on to keep torturing our loved ones and make more of a mess of the world, sometimes thanks to noble doctors like you.”
I stop and turn around. What did he say?
“You say you save lives,” Gabe goes on. “But what if the life you saved didn’t deserve to be saved?”
A lump forms in my throat as I remember the patient who filed a suit against me. I swallow it.
“Be quiet, Northup.”
But he ignores me. “Have you ever thought that by saving one life, you’re making more people suffer?”
My fingers tighten around the rifle in my hands. “I said be qui – ”
“I mean, look at what your father did,” he goes on. “He saved my father’s life, right? If not for him, Samuel Northup would have been long dead and then a lot of shit wouldn’t have happened.”
I let out a breath. So he was talking about my father, his father.
“You can’t blame someone else for shit that happens to you,” I tell him.
“But I do blame him,” Gabe says. “If he hadn’t kept meddling with my life, trying to tell me what to do, I probably wouldn’t be thrice divorced by now.”
I snort. “Your first wife left you because you worked and drank too much. You left your second wife because she was spending too much of your money, and the third one left because you couldn’t keep your hands off other women. None of that was Samuel’s fault.”
Gabe chuckles. “You’re right. I have bad taste in women.”
Did he hear anything I said?
“I should marry someone younger, more adventurous, but also someone I can easily wrap around my finger.” He lifts his finger. “Someone who’s too nice to leave me.”
I frown. Whoever that woman is, I feel sorry for her already.
“You know, like that woman at the party last night in the blue dress. The one with the glasses.”
Every muscle in my body stiffens.
“She seemed real nice. Looked nice, too.” He grins and points to his eyes. “I might have been drunk but my eyes still worked fine.”
Eyes I feel like punching right now.
“That woman is off limits, Northup,” I warn him.
“Really?”
“Your vision must not have been that good or you would have seen the ring on her finger.”
“Ring? She’s married?” Gabe laughs. “Well, that’s perfect. Married women are more experienced, and they’re usually dissatisfied. I know. I was married to one.”
Is he still drunk? Well, drunk or not, I’m this close to beating the shit out of him.
“Leave her alone, Northup.”
“I’m going to make sure she’s satisfied,” he continues. “So satisfied she’ll leave whatever loser she’s sleeping with.”
My jaw clenches.
Gabe gives a sickening grin. “You know me, I’ve got my ways.”
My temper shoots up. My rifle slips from my hands. In the next moment, my fist flies. My knuckles land squarely on Gabriel’s jaw. I hear a crack just before he stumbles backwards and falls into the snow.
~
“You punched Gabriel Northup?” Ellis looks at me with disbelief in her wide eyes as she rises off the edge of the bed.
I rub my knuckles. “Don’t worry. My hand’s fine. I can still do surgery.”
I was wearing a thick glove which absorbed some of the impact. Unfortunately for Gabriel, he didn’t have anything on his face to do the same.
“And Gabriel?” Ellis asks.
I look at her. Ha. So she’s not worried about me at all.
I sit down and take off my boots. “He’ll live.”
Her hands go to her hips. “Rainier…”
“He doesn’t even need surgery. His jaw got dislocated, but – ”
“That’s not the point,” Ellis cuts me off. “You punched a man.”
I give her a puzzled look. Why does she look so upset? Does she care about that asshole that much?
“Only because he asked for it,” I tell her. “What? Do you think I’d hit someone and risk getting my hand injured just for the fun of it?”
“No, but you haven’t made it a secret that you hate the Northups.”
“So you think I just went ahead and punched his face because I couldn’t stand it?”
She doesn’t answer, which only tells me I’m right. Unbelievable.
“I can’t believe you’re defending Gabriel Northup.”
“I’m not.”
I stand up. “Why are you taking his side, hmm? Are you in love with him?”
“No,” Ellis says firmly.
“What is it, then?”
“I… just…”
She looks away. I tap my foot as I wait for her answer.
