“Bring the doctor out here. That little bitch won’t let us kill him.” The same guy who called her a bitch was yelling.
Lottie wiped her face trying to think what she should do. Razor told the guy he instructed her to leave; he was the only one that remained at the clinic. A pair of converse came into view at the desk, so she quietly pulled the scalpel from her pocket.
* * *
“Let’s go see if that sexy nurse left,” the gun toting guy growled.
Razor did what he was told and stepped into the hall, praying that Lottie had been smart enough to hide. Just then he heardthe tell-tale sound of the front door bell ringing and saw two cops file inside.
He shoved one of the guys into his friend, then rushed the gunman punching him in the throat as he shoved his gun hand away from him. Shoving him into the wall, Razor slammed the guy’s hand against the wall, until he dropped the gun.
Once the men were subdued, the cops took the gunman and his buddy into custody. Razor told them about the injured guy lying in the hallway as he rushed to check on the guy. He found him passed out from blood loss. He needed more help than Razor could give him. “We need an ambulance asap,” he shouted down the hallway as he started working on the guy. In the back of his mind Razor wondered where Lottie had gotten herself off to.
After the EMTs and the cops left Razor started searching for her. He knew she hadn’t left, because the bell on the door hadn’t sounded. Being that he worked a lot of late hours with just a nurse, he was always tuned in to the front door bell along with the back door alarm. “Come out, come out, wherever you are,” Razor said in a creepy voice.
When Lottie didn’t come out of her hiding spot, he went room by room trying to find her. “Lottie,” he repeatedly whispered, going down the hall.
He hadn’t played hide and seek since childhood. He hoped he’d get a grownup prize if he found her.
Lottie covered her mouth with a hand trying to not laugh. This was ridiculous. Her boss was playing hide and seek with her.Ok, she thought, two could play this game.
When Razor’s voice moved further away from her spot, she eased out from under the desk. Staying low, she hustled aroundthe desk and down the short hall where he’d just come from. Darting into a patient room, she left the door half open just as it had been.
She heard him walking back up the hallway saying her name. It reminded her of the sounds from the movie Halloween. “Lo, lo, lo…ttie, ttie, ttie.” The sound made her shiver. Determined to win the game, she chose her time to move spots strategically. She made a calculation mistake and stepped out of a room with Razor mere feet from her. For a few steps she managed to mimic him walking towards the front. Then her shoe got stuck on the floor and squeaked.
Razor froze briefly at the familiar sound of rubber soled shoes walking behind him. For a while he’d let Lottie believe she was winning the game of cat and mouse. But he’d found her twenty minutes earlier while she stood behind an open door. He’d seen her through the crack between the door and the frame.Continuing towards the reception area he finally asked, “Are we done playing, Lottie?”
Laughing, Lottie told him, “Yes.” It felt good to laugh. She needed more of that in her life. “I need to put my weapons back.”
“Weapons?”
“Yep. Did you think I wouldn’t arm myself?” The last thing she would ever be was a victim. Especially after seeing what had been done to Sway. She’d sat with her best friend for almost a month in a safehouse. Lottie had helped clean and tend to Sway’s injuries.
Taking the scalpel and scissors from one pocket and the derringer from the other she held them out. “I’ll just put these away.”
“After you do that, Lottie, you can head home.”
“I’m not going home. We have patients who still need to be seen.”
“Lottie. No one’s waiting.”
“Razor. They’ll come back as soon as the police are gone. I’m not going home so deal with it.”
The woman was infuriating. So much for ending a crazy day with something fun. “Fine. Have it your way.”
“I always do.”
Razor watched Lottie as she tucked the scalpel and scissors away, his mind still whirling from the chaos. The playful banter, a small reprieve from the tension, had him almost forgetting the intensity of what had just gone down. But Lottie wasn’t done yet. She wasn’t leaving, and something about that made him both proud and irritated in equal measure.
“Lottie,” he said, his voice a mix of amusement and exhaustion. “You know you drive me crazy, right?” He leaned against the counter, crossing his arms as he watched her organize the instruments in the cabinet.
Lottie just smiled, the teasing glint in her eyes belying the calm she was trying to maintain. “Oh, I know. It’s one of my favorite things about working with you.”
Razor shook his head, a faint chuckle escaping his lips. But his eyes softened as he watched her. He knew the weight of the world was never far from her shoulders—especially after everything with Sway, and he understood why she wasn’t eager to leave. He could see it in the way she carried herself, the quiet determination that had become her armor. She wasn’t the kindof person to back down, not from anything, and definitely not from a job that still had lives to help.
“You’re a stubborn one,” Razor said, his tone gentle but firm.
Lottie shrugged, never looking up from the sanitizer cabinet as she slid the last tool into place. “Someone has to be. If I didn’t, we wouldn’t get anything done around here.”
