I only wondered how I could get her to submit and heel the next time.
This is only the beginning, my sweet doctor…
Martin knocked on the door and I gave him permission to enter.
“Do you need anything after your appointment?” he asked, always one step ahead of what happened in this building.
I nodded. “Have one of the spies find out exactly who Dr. Claire Donovon is.”
And how I can find her again.
10
CLAIRE
Toward the end of my shift, I hung back by the nurses’ station and checked over the charts I had to review. So much of my job was bogged down with administrative duties like this. Reviewing charts, updating clinical notes, ordering labs and diagnostics. Technology helped. I couldn’t imagine having to use paper or not rely on dictation.
Most times, going through the busywork of paperwork kept me preoccupied. I was still focused and on task, but the autopilot of charts gave me a break from being completelyon. It gave me a chance to process all the heavier things that tugged at my heartstrings on the clock.
Like when I had to tell a young woman that her husband had died from the car accident he was in. Or when I explained to the older couple that their teen had a massive, untreatable tumor we’d found while they were here for another emergency.
It almost gave me a spell of downtime to decompress.
In the days since I’d stupidly gone over to see Mikhail, though, it was impossible to feel truly relaxed or calm.
That arrogant Mafia boss wasstillon my mind. Despite how firmly I’d declared that we came from two different worlds, such a gap that prevented me from being his private doctor or a potential lover, he was lodged in my thoughts. He was the catalyst for naughty dreams and fantasies I had no business entertaining.
Stop. Stop thinking about him.
I could coach myself with that constantly, but it just wouldn’t stick. He lived rent-free in my head regardless of the lack of seeing him here or anywhere else.
I should never have gone over there.
It hadn’t worked. I hadn’t accomplished anything in that ill-fated visit to his fancy home.
I hadn’t sated my curiosity about him, more eager to think about him and wonder with increased intensity. I hadn’t actually checked over his wounds completely to be able to persuade myself that I’d gone there in the capacity of a professional duty.
Life was supposed to be back to normal now. I was supposed to be free of him since walking away.
At the commotion near the triage area, shouts and the ever-familiar loudness of patients being wheeled in for emergency care, I tensed at the idea that nothing would ever be normal again.
There wasbefore meeting Mikhailandafter Mikhail almost kissed me. That was how my life would be split into chapters now.
Because the men rushing in, bloodied, wounded, and limping, were the same guards and soldiers I’d seen in the Orlov residence.
Two of the men were the blond, muscled brutes who’d shown up when Mikhail was unconscious and bleeding out. Others in suits had the same uniform appearance.
Bloody hell.
“There.” One taller man who bore a resemblance to Mikhail tipped his chin at me. “Dr. Donovon.”
Fuck.
I set down my tablet, locking the screen on the chart as I approached. I wantednothingto do with them. Fatima and Jack had both told me to think twice about getting involved with this family. I had been raised to obey the law, not skirt around it and claim loopholes. In any other circumstances, I should’ve been running from the sight of these lawless men.
But I was a doctor on duty. People were wounded, and it was my job, my sworn oath, that motivated me to runtothem.
“Now what?” I muttered, not wanting to stop and analyze why these Orlov men had singled me out.
