Bad Boy Brawler (Alpha Bad Boy Book 3) (2 page)

“Devyn. How we feeling?” Bloomenthal is loud and obnoxious if I’m being honest. He’s young and fit, but nothing like the man in the hospital bed.

“Fine.”

“What do you got?” Bloomenthal’s tone is sharp as he glances my direction.

“Same.”

I see the corners of Devyn’s mouth curl ever so slightly in my peripheral vision. Almost a smirk. “Can I go home?”

Wow, he can say a complete sentence.

“I’m going to hold you for observation for a little while longer. Just to rule out a concussion. But I’ve spoken with the police and your attorney has taken care of everything. So yes, once you’re done you can be on your way.”

“Thanks.”

Devyn is looking right at me. I can’t tell if he’s trying to figure me out, checking me out, or if it’s because I’m standing between him and the wall. I can hear people whispering out in the hallway and I can’t tell what bothers me more, the fact this guy’s lawyer makes sure he doesn’t spend any time in jail, or the people gossiping beyond the door.

“Be right back, Doc.” I storm toward the door and yank it open. Everyone standing in the hall drops their jaw at my stare. “Does nobody have work to do? We are with a patient in here.” My voice is harsh and I may end up getting myself fired today. I have more to worry about than people fawning over a criminal celebrity I’m trying to take care of.

They all scatter and I close the door harder than I intend. Doc and Devyn are both staring at me.

Doc looks back to Devyn. “I’ll be back in a bit to check on you. Just get some rest.”

Bloomenthal’s white coat looks out of place with the suit he’s wearing underneath. I don’t know what it is, but something just doesn’t match. He walks over to me standing by the door.

“He should be fine.” He pulls out his phone and sends a text. Then he leans down near my ear and whispers. “He passed his neuro test, but my son gets back from a ski trip in a few hours. Once he comes up and gets a picture and an autograph, we can discharge him.”

I truly hope the veins I can feel bulging in my neck aren’t visible.
Breathe, Carly. You cannot get fired.
My breath is still a little shallow as my heart races.

“Yes sir.” I try not to sound like a smart-ass, but I’m certain it’s still obvious.

“Very good.”

Doc leaves and I walk back over to Devyn. “Do you need anything else right now?”

He looks up at me, and then shakes his head. He almost seems hurt, or troubled about something. Oh well, I’m not a psychiatrist. I’m sure he has a lot to worry about with endless money and time on his hands.

I turn to walk away. I just need to get through my rounds and call my son.

“Thank you.”

I freeze in my tracks, and then turn back to face him. He really is a beautiful man. Beautiful and mysterious. I can see why Tabby was all giddy about him being here. Something about his eyes though. There is hurt in them and I’m a natural comforter. I always try to make everyone happy. My mother says it’s my big flaw.

Against my better judgment I walk back over to him.

“What happened?”

He shifts in the bed and his facial expression stays the exact same despite his banged up body. Silence.

Great, I made it awkward between me and my patient. “Sorry.” I turn to walk away.

“I don’t remember much. Only flashing lights. Then they pulled me from my car. I think I hit a tree or a pole.”

I’m trying to hold back the urge to wrap my fingers around his throat and choke him out. There was no excuse for driving drunk.

“So, you can’t even remember driving?”

He stares back up at me with those beautiful eyes, seemingly looking for forgiveness.
I don’t think so.

I lean down next to the bed, a few feet from his face. “I have a five-year-old son who plays in those streets. And you can’t remember driving on them?” My jaw clenches and I finish up the rest of my thoughts through gritted teeth. “You think about that the next time you endanger everyone by working out your personal issues in public. Got it?”

I am so fired. Oh, I am dead. I might as well clean out — well — I don’t have a desk, but I should just grab my things and go home. There’s no way he’s going to take this from a peasant nurse. I might as well keep my pride, so I stare daggers into his eyes and let him feel my rage.

To my surprise, his head pushes back into his pillow, and he actually has a look of remorse over his chiseled face and tough demeanor.

“Yes ma’am. I apologize.”

I’m sorry, what? I raise up from the bed and take a step back, trying to get a grasp on my confused state. I start to speak again his soft voice interrupts me.

“It won’t happen again. I promise.”

My brow arches as I stare at the enigma with giant tattooed muscles lying before me.

I tried to recover what little bedside manner I had. “Thank you. I’m just — I’m sorry, I’m having some personal issues, and I took it out on you. I shouldn’t have done that.”

“You were right to say what you said. I have no excuse.”

Why can’t anything in my life just be easy? I hate lying to patients.

“You did not hear this from me, okay?”

He looks puzzled. “Okay?”

“You are fine. Doc wants to keep you here until his son gets back in town so he can have a photo op and autograph session with you.”

His eyes narrow. “Is that right?”

Uh oh. I may have just opened Pandora’s box. I can see why O’Dare’s a fighter. I can practically feel the heat radiating from the guy who was so soft spoken and gentle only moments ago. His muscles constrict and veins are starting to bulge. I look up and his heart rate is definitely rising. My legs turn to jelly, but at the same time my pulse races and it’s not from fear, well, part of it is, but I feel a warmth spreading between my thighs. I’ve never been turned on by a man raging in front of me, quite the opposite. But there is something about him.

I nod. “Y-yes.” I don’t want him angry with me, so I do something stupid once more as I slowly back away. “Just tell me that you are refusing our care, and that you want to be discharged. We can’t legally keep you here.”

His cheeks, the cheeks that only moments ago looked like iron in a fire, slowly lose their redness. “You don’t have to be afraid of me. I’m not angry with you. But the doctor.” He smiles. “He’s in some trouble.”

“Please don’t say anything. I cannot lose my job. I don’t know what I’ll do. When you leave, there is an employee exit you can take. It lets out in the back of the hospital, and you can dodge the press if you’re worried about that.”

“You risked your family’s wellbeing? So I could get out of signing an autograph? After I told you why I'm here?”

It sounds utterly stupid when he says it like that.
What the hell was I thinking?

I start to stutter when a tech bursts through the door. I whip around with the most evil look on my face that I’m capable of making.

His hands go up in the air. Perhaps I can be intimidating after all.

“Sorry, Carly. It’s just. You have a phone call. It sounds urgent.”

My skin starts to crawl and the walls start to cave in around me, so that it’s like I’m in a tunnel, racing against the clock to get out the door before it all crashes in. My shoes squeak against the tile as I fly past the tech, nearly mauling him in the process, before fishtailing around the door.

I sprint to the phone at the nurse’s station and put it to my ear. “This is Carly.” My words barely come out.

“We’re in the fucking parking lot. Come get your goddamn kid, now!”

“Brock? What the hell?”

“Be down here in five or I’m leaving him by himself. And have your shit out of my house tonight!”

I can’t hear anything, feel anything. All I see is people diving out of my way and lights blurring together over my head.
Please God don’t let him hurt my baby.

DEVYN

What the hell just happened? Was that my nurse that just sprinted past my door? I buzz for her then realize the lady that just hauled ass down the hall was my nurse.
Shit!

Someone rushes in after I have to wait far too long.

“Get me unhooked from this.” I nod to my IV. “I’m leaving.”

“Sir, you can’t—”

I don’t have time to argue, so I stare. It usually does the job. Except on that girl, Carly.

“Yes, sir. I’ll get a nurse.”

“Forget it.”

I rip the IV out of my arm and toss it aside before flipping around and grabbing my clothes. Yanking the gown off, I throw on my jeans and t-shirt. They reek of booze and it makes my stomach turn. My head feels like a million needles dig into my scalp at the same time, but I ignore it. I’ve taken enough shots to the head that it’s not difficult.

I throw on my shoes and run around the corner, before freezing in my tracks and turning to the son of a bitch still standing there like an idiot. “Where is the employee exit?”

“D-down the hall and to the right.”

I fly out of the room to a row of faces with wide eyes and dropped jaws. I stop in front of the nurse’s desk. They all stand still. It’s like nobody can talk in this fucking place.

“Where is Carly? Where’d she go?”

They’re still gawking when I beat my fist on their desk, causing them all to jump to attention.

“Where?” My voice is a growl, demanding answers. “Which way did she go?”

Two of them point down to the employee exit. I figured that’s where she went but I had to make sure.

I pull my hoodie on as I run toward it and flip the hood up over my head. I don’t like people watching me. I never have. I pull out my phone while I run through the hall and call my driver Brian. Let him know I need him as soon as possible.

When I reach the doorway I bust into the stair well. My feet pound on the stairs and it echoes up to the top of the building. Finally, I reach the bottom and push the bar on the door. Cool air and the smell of a dumpster hit me in the face. The morning sun is bright as fuck and it feels like a knife plunges between my eyes. I want to vomit when I spot Carly and a man arguing out in the parking lot. She’s hollering but the sound is faint, lost in the roar of cars and trucks rushing by beyond them.

I shove my hands in my pockets and hurry that way, but slow as I near. She’s pleading with the man.

“Please God, Brock, just let me have him! Please! You’re scaring him.”

The boy is trembling under this man’s grip. Her ex is holding up a cell phone then hurls it at the ground and it smashes everywhere.

“Why the fuck are there a bunch of guys phone numbers in your phone, Carly? Why?”

I glance down to the boy and he has tears in his eyes.
Fuck this shit!

“They are people from work and friends. It doesn’t matter. Just give me my son, please! I’m begging you.”

I clear my throat and they both freeze and turn my direction. My fists are clenched tight in my pockets and I drop my head down.

“Everything okay, Carly?” I don’t look up but I can still manage to see what’s taking place.

She starts to talk when this asshole cuts her off. “Mind your fucking business, dickhead.”

“Carly?” I ask.

She’s crying uncontrollably now, sobbing huge tears that stream down her cheeks.

“I said mind your motherfucking business before you get hurt!”

I’ve had about enough of this asshole.

“Let go of that boy, before you need a room.” I nod my head toward the hospital behind me.

He starts laughing at me. I try to see if he has a weapon of any kind. I’m not worried about it, but I don’t want him doing anything stupid with the boy before I’m in striking range.

“Yeah, real fucking—”

I lift the hood from my head and start walking toward him.

His eyes get wide and his knees start to quake.

“I said let that boy go,
now
.”

He let’s go and the boy stands there, staring up at me. The collar of his shirt is soaked from his tears.

I nod to Carly and he runs into her arms, then I turn and stare at the sack of shit.

“Look, I didn’t know—”

I hold a finger up to my lips to let him know he shouldn’t be speaking. “Carly? You good?”

“Yes.”

Brian is pulling into the parking lot in a black Lincoln Towncar. I motion for him to park over around the corner.

“Take your boy to that car that just parked and get in.”

She grips the boy’s hand and they take off.

“Look, I—”

“Shh.” My finger is on my lips again as I wait to hear the door close on the car. When it does I lower my finger.

“You didn’t know what motherfucker?” I snarl at him. “That I was the one standing there when you ran your mouth off? You scared that little boy. He will never forget that you know? He will live with that forever because you’re a jealous piece of shit.”

“I-I—”

He’s a decent sized guy but I’m way bigger than him. I lean down into his face, so that we’re inches apart. “Don’t go near them. Forget you ever knew them.” I reach out and squeeze his collar so that it chokes off his air supply and he starts to gasp. “Or I will find you. And you’ll wish you were fucking dead. Understand? I got nothing but time and a lot of money to track you down with.”

I release his shirt and he starts panting.

“Now get the fuck out of my sight.” He can’t open the door fast enough and get in his truck.

I wanted to lay him out so goddamn bad, but that would end with me writing him a check. It’s a measure of last resort, as is fighting. But when I see someone scare a kid like that, writing a check would still be worth it.

Once he’s gone I start over toward the car. Strangely, my hangover seems to be subsiding. Maybe it was the rush of adrenaline coupled with the anger, but I don’t feel a fucking thing right now. I open the door and climb in the back with Carly and the boy who I assume is her son. She’s got a death grip on him. It’s so tight I’m actually a little concerned whether or not he can breathe.

“You two okay?”

She nods, still shaking all over and I see the boy’s hand lift up. He pops up a thumb. Brian and I start chuckling.

“Sir, where to?” Brian asks.