Surrender My Love (16 page)

Sometime
later, Chloe snatched up her pen and started scribbling. “I found another one. This patient had complained of trouble hearing also. So much so that he’d been scheduled to see ENT for a consultation.”

Brad straightened in the chair, hooking an ankle over his knee. So far all of the patients had documented confusion. There were a total of seven charts. Six out of the seven had acute confusion before they died. And now Chloe found a
fourth patient, including Mr. Barkley and Mr. Prescott, who’d complained of a hearing or inner ear issue. He folded his arms across his chest. It was all very interesting, but not unusual since these patients were all elderly. The symptoms themselves weren’t what concerned him, but the cluster and timing in this particular demographic. None of the patients had been on medications made by Omega. Chloe seemed to accept the information, but he could tell she was still very bothered by what she’d heard at the lecture.

“Do you think you could request Mr. Kaplan’s chart?” she asked hopefully.

Brad shrugged. “I suppose I can. It would probably take a few days. I have an OR case this afternoon, but I’ll have Bea take care of it.”

Chloe nodded and he saw her gaze scan the volume of loose papers covering his desk. “That’s okay. There’s a lot here to go through still. It’s much more than I
expected and very time consuming.”

“Now you know why I didn’t get far.”

She glanced at her watch, then stood and started to stuff papers back into the charts and stack them into a neat pile. Brad rose from his seat, consulting the time. Had it been two hours already? His first patient wasn’t for another half an hour.

“You don’t have to go.”
He stopped short.
Hmmm…have I ever said those words to a woman?

She finished stacking the l
ast chart and grabbed her purse, stuffing her things back into it. He had the absurd urge to grab it away from her, and like a kid, hold it high over her head so she couldn’t reach it. She’d have to stay a while longer.

“No,
I have to go. I’m working tonight and need to get some rest,” she explained.

She fidgeted, not meeting his gaze
, and he had the feeling she wasn’t being entirely honest. Was she meeting her boyfriend? Brad shook his head, annoyed with his musings. He was starting to sound like Larry! He still had her shredded panties in his underwear drawer for God’s sake! He had to cut this shit out.

He
was walking her to the door when she stopped and turned to him. She favored him with one of those rare smiles she reserved for her friends. “Thank you.”

He nodded and she continued,
“No, really. Thanks for ….indulging me. I know you probably think I’ve lost my mind. I’d like to come by and finish going through the charts at some point.”

“Any
time. Anything you need.”

“
This week is a little hectic for me. Maybe sometime next week.”

“Next week works for me too.”

He stepped close to her, sweeping a wisp that had escaped her ponytail behind her ear. His fingers lingered on the delicate shell, tracing the satiny curve. Her skin was gossamer soft, and the urge to follow his fingers with his tongue was overwhelming. She bowed her head demurely and took a step back, her gaze drifting towards the floor. Brad smirked and dropped his hand. Was this the same woman who’d been so passionate two weeks ago, so eager to have him?

“I’ll let
you know when is good next week,” she said quickly before disappearing through the door.

Brad smiled and
pulled at his tie. Chloe was a complex woman, but he sensed that her modest innocence was more of a defense than anything. Clearly there was fire beneath the frumpy clothes, starched uniforms, and rosy blushes.

He approached his desk and
his gaze landed on the stack of charts. His forehead tightened as he thought about the fact that there’d been someone in one of the patients’ rooms, and he became increasing concerned because he didn’t know what to make of it. His mind traveled back to Mr. Barkley and the night of his Code Blue. The poor man. His flaccid body, his sallow skin growing bluer by the minute, his vacant eyes…blotchy and red. Brad’s head jerked up. Mr. Barkley’s eyes had been filled with petechial hemorrhages. Brad had assumed they’d been from the efforts of reviving him. He stroked along his jaw, his thoughts twisting and turning a circuitous path. At the end of that path was a red-eyed devil.

Chloe
clicked off the phone with Nurse Wall and looked at her bedside clock. She’d barely gotten two hours of sleep. Her supervisor wanted her to come in for a meeting at four-thirty. Apparently they’d learned some new information and had a few more questions.

She threw the sheets off her legs and scooted to the edge of her bed. With a belly yawn, she wondered what Nigel had said to them. They would have spoken to him by now. He might not have caught the person fleeing from the room, but maybe he’d seen enough to give a description. At the very least, he’d help corroborate her story that someone had been on the unit that night. Chloe stifled another yawn and tried to shake away her fatigue. After leaving Brad’s office, she’d gone by her mother’s apartment to check on her and then ran a few errands. Before she’d realized it, it had been mid-afternoon.

She’d met with
Richard yesterday to go over their mother’s schedule and see who would fill in where for the coming month. He’d been surly the entire meeting, grumbling and claiming he was too busy to do any shifts consistently. Chloe rose from her bed and padded bare-footed into her small bathroom. She didn’t understand how her brother could claim to be so busy when he was idly unemployed. God! She prayed he wasn’t in trouble with drugs again. He hadn’t shown any overt signs, but with drugs, you couldn’t always tell.

It was only after she
’d agreed to give him a small stipend that he’d reluctantly acquiesced to doing one or two shifts a week. And of course he’d quibbled over the amount. He really didn’t understand how desperate their situation was. It was only her salary and the small sum her mother received from social security supporting all three of them. Lately she’d been even considering giving up her apartment and moving in with her mother. It wasn’t like she had much of a social life anyway and paying for two apartments was a burden.

She
stepped into the shower and turned on the water, thinking about her time with Brad that morning, thinking how they’d worked well together going through the charts. She knew he didn’t give much credence to her concerns, but it touched her that he’d listened and considered her suspicions. Despite everything that had occurred between them, their interaction had not been as strained as she’d expected…
mostly
. Chloe gave a decisive nod.
See… I’m almost immune to him.
As long as she didn’t look at him, touch him, or think about him, she was fine.

Under the warm spray of the water
, she found it increasingly difficult to do the latter. As the droplets sluiced over her skin she imagined they were his long fingers following her curves, infusing warmth and slipping into her hidden recesses. Chloe let her palm trace the trail of warm water until it slid between her thighs. She closed her eyes and experienced the fierce pounding of the spray while her fingers found their own rhythm. Memories of her encounter with Brad had been the catalyst for so many explosive moments this week, and seeing him today served only to amplify her desire for him. He’d looked gorgeous in his fitted suit. The color of his eyes were a beautiful sky blue that morphed with his emotions, his shoulders broad and strong, his thighs solid. And… She groaned with pleasure, knowing now what was in his drawers. She recalled with sensuous detail how amazing he’d felt when they’d been together…

A few
minutes later, her fingers gripped the shower knob, and she tried to hold her spine steady as pleasure wracked her body and almost doubled her over. It did not surprise her when Brad’s name leapt longingly from her tongue at her climax.

Immune to him?
Chloe huffed.
Just because he can make me come like I have epilepsy doesn’t mean anything!

Groaning, she turned off the water, trying to focus on her upcoming meeting. She realized with a measure of surprise that she was looking forward to it. Perhaps her supervisors could provide some explanations and alleviate her nagging anxieties.

Chloe was surprised when she walked into the large conference room and saw five people sitting rigidly behind a long
, polished wooden desk. She was so taken aback that her feet faltered at the door, stopping her in her tracks. She immediately recognized Nurse Wall and Mrs. Chavez. The sight of the director of the nursing department, Mrs. Pardon, had her feet struggling with the effort to carry her into the room. The two men sitting at the table dressed in crisp dark suits Chloe had never seen before.

“Please, come in, Nurse Bennett.”
One of the men beckoned her forward with his hand.

With unsteady steps
, Chloe approached the table and sat in the chair he indicated. She had an oppressive sense of dread as she sat alone on one side of the table facing the five stoic faces. Though Nurse Wall’s countenance looked purposefully schooled, her sharp gaze impaled her.

The man who had motioned her in smiled tightly
, and Chloe supposed it had been an attempt to relax her, but the action reminded her of a shark with its infinite rows of lethal teeth, and her anxiety spiked. He wore wire rim glasses that magnified his hard brown eyes.

“Thank you for coming, Nurse Bennett. I’m Mr. Accardo, head of the Occurrence & Safety Committee. It’s a branch of the risk management department. This is Mr. Pancost, one of the hospital administrators. I believe you already know the supervisors present.”

Chloe nodded and
tucked her hair behind her ears, feeling her throat work away a sandy lump.

“We are all aware of what occurred on
the ward Saturday night and we’re very concerned. As you know, we’ve increased security and are in the midst of a thorough investigation.”

Chloe let out a deep breath. Yes. Of course they would be concerned. The hospital could not be thought of as unsafe
by any means. Any threat to WMH’s reputation would be dealt with swiftly. No wonder these people had such sober faces.

“I’ve already told Nurse
Wall and Mrs. Chavez everything I can remember, but I’ll do anything I can to help.”

Next to him
, Mr. Pancost nodded and cleared his throat. “What is it that you saw exactly, Nurse Bennett?”

Chloe cleared her throat and ran
her palms down the lap of her nurse’s dress, smoothing away imagined wrinkles.

“Unfortunately
, not much. I was knocked to the floor. I only heard the person run away and the stairwell door slam closed. Nigel was in the hall and he ran after him.”

Chloe saw the men exchange glances and she frowned
.
Had Nigel seen something?

“
Are you certain?” Mr. Pancost asked, his deep voice raising the hairs on the back of her neck.

“Yes. It all happened very fast. Were you able to get any information from
Nigel?”

“No, Nurse Bennett.”

Chloe’s shoulders slumped. She knew there had been a slim chance, but she’d been hopeful that he’d seen something, maybe enough to even give a description. She made a mental note to seek him out later to question him. She had some other things on her mind also.

“That’s too bad.
I was hoping that Nigel—” Chloe started.

“That will be enough, Nurse Bennett!”

Chloe visibly jolted at the
barked command. It had been the voice of the nursing director, Mrs. Pardon.

“We’re not sure what exactly occurred on
Saturday night, Nurse Bennett, but it has been cause for much concern,” Mrs. Pardon said.

Chloe’s face wrinkled
in a deep frown. The woman’s voice had dripped with accusation, sounding as though she was talking about more than the presence of a stranger on the unit.

“Nurse
Wall informed us that you’d had no reason to be in Mr. Kaplan’s room, that he was not your patient.”

Chloe
’s gaze flew to Nurse Wall. The woman’s countenance hadn’t changed. Her fierce gaze was latched on to Chloe’s face. Chloe felt her heart rate drum a strange staccato, seeming to skip every other beat.

“Well, no—but I was helping out
Susan. As nurses we look out for each other’s patients.”

“We also know you’ve been having some family issues these past few months. You’ve
been under a lot of stress. Nurse Wall said you needed to take some time off.”

Chloe blinked hard, not understanding why they were discussing her family.

“I had to be with my mother, she…she had brain surgery,” she heard herself saying numbly.
Why would they bring that up?

“
Nurse Wall also informed us that the other nurses were forced to fill in for you, pick up your slack.”