Gentry had a girl that’d gotten under his skin.
Sage, a nurse at the hospital that was there on a travel nursing contract.
She was set to leave in a few months, and he hadn’t convinced her to stay yet.
But seeing as I tried to stay out of other people’s problems since I had enough of my own, I didn’t know all the fine details.
Nettie was clearly interested in knowing them.
But Creed and his woman, Birdee, came up with Creed’s sister, Bernice, with them.
Bernice only had eyes for the quiet man at the table who was trying really hard not to make eye contact with her.
Yet another pairing that was odd to me, but still seemed to fit perfectly well.
Though, Odin was trying really hard not to give away his feelings.
“We’re going to head out,” Creed said. “Bernice is having some trouble breathing tonight.”
Odin’s head snapped up as he studied her with critical eyes.
Odin had a thing for the asthmatic bombshell that was Creed’s sister. Though, he’d probably never admit it.
Watching Bernice watch Odin underneath lowered lashes let me know that Bernice felt the same.
My lips twitched at the sight of the two trying not to appear that they were staring.
A sound came from Bernice’s lips that had my doctor ears—even ones that usually listened to animals—perking up.
“Have you used the inhaler yet?”
Odin’s words.
Odin didn’t say much, but when he said stuff about medical knowledge, you better damn listen.
Odin, in his former life, was dual board-certified in infectious disease and gastroenterology. He was a real-life Gregory House, only surlier and without the drug problem.
His last case he’d ever worked was a young girl that was undiagnosable by any other doctor. As a last-ditch effort, the little girl’s mother had driven her across the country to the hospital that Odin worked at. She’d begged him to fix her child. He had, but that’d been the turning point to a vicious game that the little girl’s father had been playing.
Odin had figured out that the child had been poisoned. The mother had pinpointed the father. The father had killed both the mother and the child. Then he’d framed Odin for murder.
The man had gotten away with it at first. But Odin wasn’t the type of man who took anything lying down. He’d proved his innocence, made people listen, and then when the world was watching because he’d just taken down the governor of a state, he’d gunned him down in the middle of the town square. Nailed him right between the eyes.
He was dead before he’d hit the ground.
And Odin was given twenty-three years in prison for murder of the first degree.
That was why he had to have extensive facial reconstruction. He’d be recognized by nearly anyone in the world.
“Yeah, about twenty minutes ago,” Bernice admitted. “It’s not getting better.”
“And your long-acting ones?” Odin asked, crossing his fingers together. “When’d you take those last?”
I would’ve listened to more, but my wife’s hand found purchase on my thigh, and my mind went to other things. More pleasurable things.
The conversation continued at our table, but my mind was on the way Nettie’s hand moved higher and higher. Not quite touching my cock, but getting damned close.
She stood up, gave me a look, and surreptitiously leaned her head toward the back room where she’d stored a change of clothes to change into.
