Combust: A Devil Chaser's MC Romance (12 page)

“Seriously?” I shout. “I can’t believe you just said that!”

“There she is. Love my angry angel,” he says as he bends down and places his hands behind my knees, lifting me over his shoulder. Before I can even protest, my ass is up in the air, and my face is at his back. I twist and squirm, trying to free myself as he heads towards his room. I turn my head to the side and see everyone in the bar is watching us, smiling and pointing. My face turns three shades of red when I notice Tessa and the girls sitting at the bar, laughing hysterically. I try to give them my angry face, but end up rolling my eyes and smiling back at them. Something tells me this isn’t the first time this sort of thing has happened around here. My attention is drawn back to Dillon when he starts down the hallway.

“Dillon, put me down!” I shout out as I kick my feet back and forth. He reaches up and smacks my ass… hard! “Dillon!!!”

“I’ve been wanting to do that for weeks, Angel. Better get used to it,” he says. My body tingles all over as his threat excites me. I never know what to expect with him, and I love it. The next thing I know, I am being thrown on Dillon’s bed as the door slams shut behind us. He stands silent at the edge of the bed, just staring at me with wonder in his eyes.

“Dillon?”

“You’re really something, you know that?” he says as he continues to look at me with lust in his eyes.

“Really? I’m a little worried about you, Dillon. I just acted like the biggest neurotic, jealous girlfriend ever, and you liked it.”

“I loved it,” he says as he leans down to kiss my neck. His warm breath tickles my skin as he whispers, “Liked that you were jealous.”

“I was definitely jealous. What do you expect? Brandi’s a knock-out.”

“She’s nothing compared to you, Angel.” His lips trail along the edge of my neck to my jaw. “Nothing compares to you. Nothing.” I let out a little whimper as he rests his hips between my thighs. “You’re all I want, all I need.” He looks down at me, his mouth hovering over mine and says, “I love you, Ana.” His lips crash down on mine, stealing my breath away.

Chapter 15

Sheppard

“I never heard how things turned out with the Black Diamonds,” I tell Bobby.

“Nothing left of them. After you got shot, we took the rest of them out,” he tells me as he looks to the floor. “We spent hours looking for you, but….”

“I know, Bobby. It’s okay.”

“Something in my gut told me you were still alive, so I couldn’t give up,” Bobby tells me, but he won’t look me in the eye. It’s still hard for him to talk about it.

“It means a lot to me, brother. I’m sure you would’ve found me sooner or later,” I tell him as I pat him on the shoulder. I can hear the sincerity in his voice as he speaks, and it really does mean a great deal to me.

“I looked it up last night. Did you know that Ana’s house is less than two miles away from the Calvert City dock? You were just two miles away from us,” Bobby explains. He looks distraught as he thinks back to that day. I hate seeing him like this.

“Listen, Crack Nut. It could have turned out differently, but I’m here now. That’s all that matters. I guess it’s a good thing Ana decided not to let me die out there in that lake,’ I say with a laugh, trying to break the tension in the room.

“We owe her a lot for bringing you back here,” Bobby says looking up at me. “You know… Courtney really likes her. She hasn’t stopped talking about her.”

“Ana likes her, too. She’s spent all morning trying to come up with more slut jokes, but none of them are as good as Court’s.”

“I don’t know where she comes up with that shit, but damn… it’s funny. The look on Brandi’s face… she was so pissed,” Bobby says, laughing.

“Do you know what Courtney did to Cindy?” I ask him out of curiosity. Knowing Courtney, there’s no telling what she did, but I can guarantee Cindy won’t forget it.

“No idea. Believe me... I’ve tried to find out, but no one’s talking,” he says as he walks over to his desk. His mood instantly changes when the screen lights up… serious and ready to work. “Did you bring Ana’s notes with you?”

“Yeah, but there’s not much to them. She’s written a few questions down, but she wasn’t able to follow up on anything after she was suspended,” I say as I hand him the notebook. It’s just a thin black medical journal with sporadic notes she’d taken while she was working at the hospital. I just hope Bobby can make some sense of it.

“What reasons did the hospital give for suspending her?” Bobby asks as he starts to flip through the pages of the journal.

“Just a bunch of bullshit. Something about her cheating on some of her old exams, and that she mixed-up some lady’s medication, causing her to get sick… and some shit about her having an affair with some married surgeon. None of it was true.” Anger surges through me when I think about what they said about her. I’m going to make those fuckers pay for hurting her. Every last one of them.

“Did she take it up with the Hospital Board?” he asks, his eyes still focused on the writing in the journal.

“They denied her request for a hearing. No one would listen to her,” I explain. “She’s stuck, and the threats against her are only getting worse. There is something to all this.”

Bobby quickly scans the pages in the journal, and as he looks through it, he pauses several times to write notes of his own. “This is going to take some time,” Bobby tells me.

“Do you think you’ll be able to figure this thing out?” I ask him as I look around his room. I have to say that it’s a bit intimidating. The guy has every techno gadget known to man. I have no idea what he does with all this stuff, but I do know he’s good at what he does. If anybody can find out what’s going on, it will be him.

“I don’t know yet. I’m going to start with the first three names on her list. There has to be some connection that Ana missed,” Bobby says as he starts typing on his computer. “Can you come back in a couple of hours?”

“I’m not going anywhere, Crack Nut. Just tell me what I can do to help,” I tell him. I plan on being here every step of the way until we find a way to help Ana.

“We need to get a folder started for each person on the list, with their names, addresses, medical history, and financial status,” he says, pointing over to his other desk.

“I can do that,” I say as I get up to collect the folders he was motioning to. I grab several colors, one for each name on the list.

“Once I get into the hospital’s network, we can print off each of their records. Their address and phone numbers should be on the forms.”

“Maybe Doc can help us with some of the medical stuff,” I suggest.

“Good idea. We’ll need that once I get everything together.” With just a few taps on the keyboard, he has the Grandview Hospital Database pulled up on his computer screen, and he is scanning through all of the pages on the site. I smile to myself as I watch Bobby’s knee bouncing like a jack rabbit under his desk. The man is excited. I may have no idea how he does it, but he loves this shit.

“What’s the first name on the list?” Bobby asks as he continues to work feverishly, searching through endless pages of information.

I grab the journal and look for the first name. “It’s Evelyn McDermott.”

The sounds of typing fill the room as he clicks through the site finding everything we might need. “Got it. Go grab those pages off the printer,” he tells me.

I walk over to the desk, and I’m surprised by the amount of paper spouting out into the tray. “What is all this stuff?” I ask.

“Don’t know yet. Just put it in the folder,” he orders.

Once I’ve placed the enormous stack of paper into the folder, he asks for the second and third name. Each person ends up with large pile of papers added to their folder. I flip through the pages, and it all looks like a foreign language to me.

“We need to see if there are any irregularities in their medical treatment. See if you can get Ana and Doc in here to start sorting through all that paperwork,” Bobby tells me.

I nod and head out to find them.

When I walk into the kitchen, Ana is standing there with John Warren sitting on her hip. He has a strand of her blonde hair in one hand and a cookie in the other. She’s whispering something to him, but I can’t make out what she’s saying. Her facial expressions are just too damn cute. I want to stand here and watch her, but Bobby is waiting.

“Ana?” I call out to her. She turns to face me, and her face lights up with a bright smile when she sees me standing there.

“Hey, babe,” she answers as she brushes the cookie crumbs off John Warren’s shirt. “We’re just having a snack. Lily asked me to watch him while she did inventory.”

“You look good holding him like that,” I tell her.

Her cheeks turn a light shade of pink as she looks down at John Warren. “I like hanging out with him. He’s such a sweet baby.”

“I want kids, Angel. Lots of them… soon.”

“Umm… okay… I want that, too. Is that what you came in here to tell me?” she asks in surprise.

“Bobby’s got some stuff for you to look over,” I explain.

A serious look crosses her face before she says, “I’ll be right there. Let me take JW back to Lily first.” She takes his sippy cup off of the counter and starts walking towards me. “He’s so cute. I could spend hours playing with him.”

“Let’s get this shit sorted, Angel. Then you can spend all the time you want with him, and we can talk about starting a family of our own,” I tell her, owning her with my eyes as I lean down and kiss her on her forehead. 

“I’d like that,” she says, leaning into me and smiling. “Give me five minutes, and I’ll meet you in Bobby’s room.”

“I’m going to get Doc. Maybe he can help.”

“Good idea,” she says before she walks out.

We all meet back in Bobby’s room, and Ana and Doc start going through the first folder. Ana spreads out the papers all over Bobby’s bed as she frantically reads each and every page, searching for anything that might help us end this.

“So this Evelyn McDermott… was she the first patient you were concerned about?” Doc asks Ana.

“Yes. When we were doing rounds, I noticed that they were running several unnecessary tests on her. I asked Jason about it, but he just blew me off. I even asked the Chief of Staff. He told me to tend to my own patients and leave it alone.”

“What kind of tests?” Bobby asks.

“Some of them were just routine checks for her scheduled hysterectomy… urinalysis, an ultrasound, basic blood work. But the tissue sample… that’s what caught my attention. There was just no need for tissue type for a basic hysterectomy. She had no signs of cancer, or any other irregularities, so I didn’t see the need for it.”

“Tissue type?” I ask. She’s talking over my head with all this medical stuff, but I hate to slow her down by asking a bunch of trivial questions.

“It’s used to match the number of antigens that an organ donor has with the recipient share.”

“English, babe. No idea what you’re talking about.”

“The antigens recognize the differences between two people’s body tissues. They are like markers… they help tell which donor is the best match. For a successful transplant, you need six out of six matches,” she explains.

“I think she's on to something here," Doc says. “These guys are definitely up to something… something big.”

Ana and Doc make a list of all the testing done on the patients that she had in her journal. Doc pushes up his reading glasses as he sorts through his stack of papers and asks Ana, “Did you see this?” He hands her a piece of paper and says, “Looks like Evelyn’s family requested an autopsy. It’s dated around the time you were suspended.”

“Damn…” Ana whispers as she looks at the sheet of paper. “Do you see the actual autopsy?”

“No… I don’t see it,” Doc tells her as he flips through his stack of papers. “Bobby, can you check the pathology department? See if they have any record of it there.”

“On it,” Bobby says as he turns back to his computer.

Chapter 16

Ana

It’s official… I have a migraine, the migraine to end all migraines. I could feel it creeping up on me when we were going through all that paperwork, but I didn’t think it would get this bad. I finally had to leave it for a little while and come lay down in Dillon’s bed. I should feel relieved; for the first time, someone is really listening to me, but I don’t. Instead, it’s like all of my worries and doubts are being confirmed… one by one. I just don’t know where it’s all going to end.

I need to talk to my dad… just hear his voice for a minute, so I roll over and grab my phone.

“Hey, Dad.”

“Hey there, sweetheart. I’ve been wondering when I was going to hear from you. How are things going?” he asks.

“They’re good… really good,” I say, trying to mask the fact that I am freaking out.

“That doesn’t sound very convincing, Ana. What’s going on?” he asks.

“It’s nothing. We’re just going through some of the stuff from the hospital. I got a little overwhelmed and had to get away from it all for a minute,” I tell him.

“It will all work out, honey. You just have to be patient. Don’t get too worked up and get one of those damn headaches of yours.” I smile, thinking how he knows me too well.

“Okay, Daddy. I’ll do my best,” I tell him. “How’s Steven today?”

“He’s actually coming around. He’ll be in the hospital for a few more days, but I think he’ll be okay.”

“Did you tell him why I’m not there?” I ask. I roll over on my side and try to use my arm to shield my eyes. The light coming through the blinds is excruciating, making my headache worse.

“He understands, Ana. He just wants you to be safe,” he tells me. “That’s what we both want. Hopefully, Dillon knows what he’s up against. Tell him to call me if he needs anything.”

“I will, and keep me posted on Steven. Tell him I asked about him.”

“I will. You do the same.”

“Okay… I love you, Daddy.” I miss him… more than I’d realized.

“I love you too, sweetheart. Talk to you soon,” he says just before he hangs up the phone. Tears instantly fill my eyes. I hate feeling sorry for myself, but these headaches bring it out in me. I close my eyes and try to block out all the crazy thoughts racing through my head. After a few minutes, I finally manage to fall asleep.