Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68400 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 342(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68400 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 342(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
My mother’s mouth fell open, and for the first time in my life, I saw Mary Lou Carpenter speechless.
What, she thought she could come here, spout that bullshit, and I’d just take it?
I think the fuck not.
“I need a job,” Mary Lou ground out. “And you have a business that’s short, not just a secretary, but a second doctor. You can give me one!”
I was already shaking my head.
No, the hell, I couldn’t.
I could not, and would not, give her a job.
Over my dead and rotting body.
“Sorry, but no.” I shook my head. “You make me crazy, and that would be quite the opposite of what the men and women that come into this clinic need from me.”
The woman that liked to only call herself my mother when it was convenient, narrowed her eyes as if she was about to curl her fingers into a fist and send it sailing at my face.
But then a nice voice said, “Um, excuse me?”
I turned to find a cute little blonde standing at the door to the RV that I was currently using as my office.
I hadn’t even heard her come up.
Nice.
“Can I help you?” my mother snarled, not liking being surprised by the sudden appearance of the gorgeous woman.
“No.” The blonde shrugged. “I’m here to see my friend, Dutch. We were supposed to go out to lunch.”
My mother blinked. “Your friend? Dutch doesn’t have any friends.”
Sadly, she was right.
My friends always seemed to disappear.
The one person I’d tried to befriend lately had gotten bombed in my own office.
Yes, you read that correctly.
Dory, my one-time coworker and friend, had been bombed in my office.
That’d been two months ago, and she was healing back home in Texas.
However, not only was I now friendless again, but I was also in the process of building again. As well as making sure that I had my patients taken care of out of an RV that sat on the edge of my singed parking lot.
Long story short, Dory started to work for my practice fresh out of school. Over the next few months, she’d somehow acquired a very deadly stalker. And that stalker didn’t like the fact that Dory was ‘ignoring’ him. So, he’d blown her up.
Or tried to.
Dory’s bodyguard had saved her just in the nick of time.
The same couldn’t be said for my building.
I liked to remind myself that I was lucky that I hadn’t been in the building at the time, but sometimes, it was hard to see the positive in the business.
That situation had been the deciding factor for my receptionist to leave as well. She’d been on the verge of retirement anyway, and that had tipped her over into ‘I’m done working’ territory.
Leaving me in the ultimate lurch because I really needed some help big time.
I was desperate. But not desperate enough to have my mother work for me, that was.
Now, the blonde who was trying to help me?
I might very well take her up on the offer, at least until I could get my mom to leave.
Then I’d have to figure out why the hell she was there.
“I can see when I’m not wanted.” My mother stood up in a rush. “If you change your mind, you’ll have to come crawling back to me.”
I would rather drag my teeth against the concrete than do that.
But she didn’t need to know that.
It was a few seconds after my mother left that I looked at the blonde more closely.
There was something about her that was familiar.
When she spoke next, I knew why.
“Sorry for the little white lie. I’m Wake Westfield’s sister, Danyetta.”
I blinked owlishly at her for a few seconds before adrenaline kicked in, and I started to inwardly freak out.
What was she doing here?
Why would she be here now?
Did she know what I did?
It’d taken me months, but I finally got everything into place.
I also got vengeance for a little girl that couldn’t get it on her own anymore.
But what were the odds that she’d come around saying Wake’s name literally the day after I murdered a guy?
I felt my heart start to pound, and sweat start to bead on the top of my forehead.
“I don’t know why you’re freaking out right now,” she said quietly. “But I swear, he’s not going to hurt you. He’s a good guy. He did bad things, yes, but he did those bad things to very bad people.”
I swallowed hard, realizing that I was freaking out over nothing.
Don’t freak out until there’s something to freak out about.
That’d been my mantra for the last two nights.
I hadn’t gotten a lick of sleep since I’d made the final move, and that was starting to play havoc on my psyche.
“I know he’s a good man,” I told her. “I’m just slightly stressed about the fact that my mom was here, and I didn’t want her to be. Not to mention I have patients all over the place today, and no one to help me handle them.”