Mitchell looked at his brother, then back at Marnie who was still smiling at him. He lifted her from the chair screaming at the top of his lungs and others joined in. He never believed he would feel this kind of happiness and joy.
He believed it wasn’t meant for him.
The noise was so loud in the cafeteria, the glass rattled with it.
“Mitch, you have to let me down. I need to get to the hospital and start my shift. Fridays can be pretty crazy around here. We already know there’s a big crew coming in from the gulf and they’re liable to have cuts and bruises and all sorts of things.”
“I’m coming with you,” he said. He hugged her tightly, tears coming down his cheeks. “You’ve made me the happiest man alive.”
The rest of the Jordan family watched as they left, Brooks, Finnegan, River, Quinn and Joey following. She would not be alone. Not today or any day after.
Marnie was a Jordan.
“I’d like to think it was the dress that made that happen,” smirked Angel hugging Mary to his side.
“You always did have great style,” she grinned. “She’s a beautiful girl. Perfect for him. And a great doctor. We need her.”
“Yep,” he nodded. “Now the boys need to find that lunatic and bury him in a deep, deep grave.”
“No chance of turning him over to the authorities?” asked Ramey.
“I seriously doubt this is a man that can be reasoned with. His history tells me there were other things happening there. It could have ended very differently for Marnie had she not reported it to the hospital.
“Don’t worry. The boys will make sure she’s safe. God help the lunatic.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Alden took the seat at the bar facing the Gulf of Mexico. It was a beautiful, sunny, warm day with breezes coming in across the water, the smell of sand and surf filling his senses. The open-air bar and restaurant was exactly what his soul needed in the moment.
He missed this. He missed being able to afford top tier hotels, first class flights, and all the women he wanted. Oh. And the drugs. Although technically those had always been free for him.
He sold some, gave some away, but much of what was taken belonged to him. The nurses were simple. Eager to bag a doctor, they were happy to give him a little more than the recommended amount from the drug lockers. Pharmacists were the same.
He even had to resort to giving blow jobs to a male pharmacist to get the fentanyl and oxycodone. It wasn’t awful. The guy was good-looking but his preference was a female.
When the nurses started to become suspicious of him, he’d move on to another hospital. He never counted on the nurse in his new hospital knowing one from the old hospital. So, he had to get creative and the chunky monkey, Marnie, was his ticket to paradise.
Or so he thought.
She seemed reserved and quiet at first, but the more he spoke to her, the more he realized she was just lonely. Lonely and pudgy. That was the right word for her in his mind. Too bad she was also smart. He hadn’t counted on that.
She questioned everything he did and she refused to back down. Even when he repeatedly hit on her, touched her, rubbed against her, she suspected something. She wasn’t hideous, she just was more than he wanted in his bed.
Then the bitch really turned on him. Called the hospital administrators, went to the review board, and finally appeared at his medical licensing hearing. He got lucky. No jail time.
They couldn’t prove that he intentionally gave the wrong dose to the patient. He did, of course. The bastard wanted to buy drugs from him and tracked him down to the hospital. He had to get rid of him.
On probation for five years and no medical license, he had no option but to seek revenge and other sources of revenue. After all, he wanted his cut, but so did someone else.
“Hello, darling,” said the woman taking the seat beside him. “Really, Alden? Sitting at the bar? I’m not some college girl on spring break. I’m your mother. Can’t we have a proper table?”
“Mother, I like these seats. I like seeing the water and the sun and sand.”
“I see you finally got the ankle monitor off,” she smirked.
“Yes, no thanks to you. You said you’d be at the house in Gulf Shores when I arrived. I had to break into the garden shed to get the tools to get it off. It’s in a parcel on the way to Hong Kong as we speak. That should keep them busy for a while.”
“I suspected that was you who broke the glass to my shed,” she smirked. The bartender asked for her order and she smiled, looking the young man up and down. “Dirty martini.”
