Page 2 of Doctor Enemy

There hasn’t been a single time that we’ve worked together where she wasn’t determined to push back against literally everything that I had to say.

It makes it hard to like her.

Rather than saying anything, I lean forward, pick the remote up, and turn the wrestling match back on.

It’s between Trifecta and the Captain. I don’t follow football or baseball or anything like that, but wrestling has enough substance to the characters that it almost feels like a violent soap opera.

“You’re unbelievable.” Lori steps away from the couch and my gaze, very briefly, drops to her full breasts when she crosses her arms beneath them. “I’m putting the order back in.”

“I’ll just veto it again.” This is getting ridiculous. She’s smart, but she’s still just a resident. “The brain bleed takes priority over the blood clot. If my patch job comes loose before the kid is strong enough to go back under the knife, then he’s a goner.”

Lori insists, “And if the blood clot in his leg breaks loose, he’s not going to make it long enough to be under the knife a second time. Just because you’re the senior, Lockwood, doesn’t mean you know everything.”

“It’s not happening,” I tell her. Remote still in hand, I use it to gesture at Lori. “His medication has already been set.”

Lori looks like she’s about to keep arguing, but a rap on the lounge door interrupts her. It’s one of the nurses, Maddie Lancer. She’s a petite thing with big eyes and small hands and a mouse-quiet voice that can be hard to hear. She’s also more than capable of putting even the most headstrong doctor in his place, without pause.

“Kurt, Lori,” she says. “There’s an officer here. He wants to speak with one of you about the patients in rooms three o’eight and three o’nine.”

Sawyer and his friend.

With one last baleful look at the TV, I come to terms with the fact that I won’t be able to watch this match. I haul myself up to my feet. “I’ve got it. Where’s he at?”

“The nurses’ station,” answers Maddie. She gives a little nod in Lori’s direction.

I round the end of the couch and cross the room, stopping only long enough to turn and point a finger at Lori. “I mean it, leave the kid’s medicine alone.”

Lori scowls at me, nothing but burning heat in her eyes. The way she’s so determined to do what she thinks is right is admirable, but it still doesn’t change my mind.

Satisfied that I’ve made my point, I turn and follow Maddie out into the hall and toward the nurses’ station.

“I don’t know why the two of you always seem to be at each other’s throats,” Maddie says, with a soft, little hum.

I shake my head. “Your guess is as good as mine. She hates me. She’s hated me since the first patient we worked on together.”

“What did you do to her?” Maddie questions.

I snort. “Nothing!”

“Lori gets along just fine with the other surgeons. She and Ross went out for drinks last week,” says Maddie. “You’re the only one that she seems to have a problem with.”

“I’ve noticed,” I tell her, bitterly. I’m well aware that Lori and Ross went out for drinks last week. Maybe more aware of it than I should be, but that’s a thought that I’ve been steadfastly refusing to dissect.

“Look, you’re the nurse here.” And the nurses know all the gossip in the hospital. “Youshould be tellingmewhy the woman hates me so much.”

Maddie just hums at me again. “Maybe she’s mad that you haven’t taken her for drinks yet.”

The thought is tempting. I would take Lori home with me if I could. I'd show her what a senior surgeon really knows. But at the moment, she’s more likely to stick a needle in me than to agree on a night at the bar.

“We both know that’s not going to happen,” I tell Maddie.

“There's the officer,” she says, nodding at a blue-uniformed man standing at the end of the desk. “I hope your night gets better, Kurt. Try to be… Nicer to Lori, maybe.”

My eyes roll. I was plenty nice to the woman before she showed her true colors as a prickly, sharp-tongued, little know-it-all.

For the most part, I’m still nice to her! Lori’s the one that comes into every conversation guns blazing.

But this isn’t the time for that, is it? We’ve got a dying kid in one room, one facing a DUI in another, and Officer Henry Blake standing in front of me, looking as tired as I feel.

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