A small smile cracked her anxious expression and she loosened her hold on the tablet. “Yes. Would you … be willing to cross a small line to—”
“Yes,” he said firmly. “What do you need from me? How can I help?” And what the hell did any of Lynn’s situation have to do with Amy’s fly boy brother?
Relief melted her features and Amy turned the tablet around, holding it out as she spoke again, her words coming faster. “This is the tablet Lynnette was using today. They’re hospital property, we have enough for each shift but the nurses don’t have designated devices. Which matters because I noticed a notification had come in shortly after the end of her shift, and I shouldn’t have, but I peeked and”—she drew a hard breath—“there’s a video on here, recorded not twenty minutes before she would have clocked out, and it’s not good. Doctor Bishop could get in a lot of trouble if this video isn’t destroyed, and she obviously knew that because she tried emailing it to herself, I presume to make sure she had a copy the hospital couldn’t get rid of.”
His chest tightened with every word Amy spoke, but Lance kept his lips shut and let her say what needed saying.
“But the email didn’t go through,” Amy continued, “something about file size or compatibility, I didn’t pay enough attention when that part flashed across the screen. I can only stall handing this back out for so long, and then it’s probably too late. Claire’s pretty much turned the rest of the unit against her.”
Lance unlocked his jaw when she stopped speaking for longer than three seconds. “What sort of video?” He asked the question carefully, as calmly as he was capable. But Bishop would die that day if the video showed him hurting her.
Amy tipped forward to see the screen without turning it from him, tapped on a folder, and a video pulled up, ready to play. From the frozen image, the screen was mostly dark. Lance thought he could make out a very close-up silhouette from the curve of her breasts beneath the scrubs she’d worn that morning, but the angle was strange. The space beyond the form he wasfairly sure was Lynn looked as if it were only lit from one side and not well. Or as if she were in a darkened room with the hall-facing window uncovered.
His jaw tightened and Lance reached out to take the tablet. “You mind?”
Amy shook her head. “It’s short,” she said. “And it might help you understand.”
Oh, I already understand.But he still intended to watch. So, he reminded himself that he’d seen more than his share of shit—and most of it in the flesh—and he hit play.
There was a blur of movement that settled at what Lance identified to be Lynnette’s side, though the camera itself was at an odd angle which made the visual skewed. Then Lynn spoke, and Lance listened with increasing tension as she clearly articulated the events that had transpired before the video began. He listened as Doctor Bishop—the day doc who treated him like an inconvenience—hurled angry, derogatory insults but never once denied her claims.
He watched through a glare that ought to have fried the machine as another arm, a man’s arm, reached into the screen as the doctor began to threaten her. The arm reached for her with clear ill intentions.
A surge of pride rushed through Lance’s chest when Lynn calmly informed her assailant that she was recording them.
“On selfie mode,” Lynnette said in the video.
Blood rushed south to Lance’s dick at the sound of strength and confidence in her voice, and the undertone of the challenge. He had no right to be so damn proud of her, but he was.
She kept recording until the door slammed beyond the sight of the camera and her grip slipped, her whole stance slipped, revealing how shaken she’d truly been. Then it was over with barely a glimpse of her pained expression in the final few frames.
“You see why it would be a problem,” Amy said quietly. “She deserves to not have to worry about that nonsense at work. We all do. But the hospital will wash it away the moment anyone else gets wind of it. She could even … be the one who gets punished.”
Lance growled and snatched up the phone he’d left in his lap. “Not a fucking chance.” He flicked his gaze up to her. “What’s this got to do with your brother?”
She blinked, then flushed again. “Oh, I just meant … from what he’s always said, I hoped that meant you would know how to get that videooffthe tablet, even though apparently it won’t email.”
He stared at her for half a second, replayed her earlier words about her brother, and almost laughed. “Yeah, I can do that.” He turned his gaze back to the screen and swiped his thumb over his phone simultaneously. “I can do more than that.”
Amy wrang her hands nervously. “Can you do it quickly?” She was risking her job stepping over the line the way she was. He respected the hell out of her for it. He also recognized that she needed to return to her stationwiththe tablet.
“Yeah. One minute.” He put his phone on speaker to free up his hand and set to work seeking out the link he’d need.
The line rang two times before Dietz caught the call. “Master Guns, I heard you’re out, what the hell?”
Lance grunted. “Political bullshit, Deets. I need a favor that’s right up your alley.”
Dietz laughed, undeterred by Lance’s agitated tone. “You know the cost, bro.”
“Consider it paid.” Lance tapped his fingers impatiently on the edge of the tablet in his hands as he waited for the network’s slow connection to finish the transfer. “I’m about to drop a video file in your extra inbox. Keep it safe for me. And in the meantime, if you could find everything there is to know about a Doctor Gavin Bishop, surgeon at Klamath Community Hospitalin Klamath Falls, Oregon, I’d appreciate the good stuff sliding my way. Tips included, of course. I don’t cheat my friends.”
Dietz snorted. “What’d this Bishop do to piss you off?”
“Watch the video and take a guess.” Lance tapped the next necessary button as the loading completed. He typed in some more information, followed one link to another, and dropped the attached file into the desired location. “You should see it in about five seconds.”
There was a pause on the line. “Lance’s Debt, huh? Interesting file name,” Dietz said, confirming he’d received it.
Lance backed out of where he was and set to work erasing his trail. Just in case someone at the hospital was particularly motivated. “You’ll know what it is and that I know what I owe you. All boxes checked. You get paid when I get the results, same deal.”
