Page 3 of Dusty

Taking Amanda to her sister’s room, he was glad to see that she wasn’t being guarded by the police in her room any longer. However, two military cops were standing guard near the nurses’ station now who looked like they would keep her safe at all costs.

“Oh, Aunt Shipley, look at your arms. Are you all right?” She told the little girl that she was but needed help in pulling her up to sit on the bed with her. Lifting Mandy up, she watched as the three of them were talking over one another and crying a little. Leaving them to their visit, Shipley called him back.

“I am sorry. I wanted to tell you how stupid I felt when you did not warrant my temper. But like you’ve heard from Amanda, I’m always pissed off.” He told her that it was fine. “No, it’s not fine. Why do people say that? I was rude, and I’m sorry. It’s not anything but me saying I made a mistake by taking it out on you.”

“Okay then. I’ll see you later.” He was still laughing a few hours later when he was on his wayhome. He’d never gotten such a disgruntled apology before. He had wanted to stick around and tell her it was fine again, but he didn’t. Liking where his head and balls were right now. Besides, he and Alex, his wife, were trying to make a baby. There was no way that he was going to mess that up with her.

Dusty was in the driveway when he got home. After giving him a welcoming hug, he invited him into the house. Alex was there, he knew. He’d spoken to her about dinner tonight. They were going out, so he asked Dusty if he wanted to join them.

“Sure, I’d love that. But I have to run by the hospital really quick. I have someone there that is wanting to get information on changing their benefactor.” He asked him if he knew who it was. “Not really. She’s Amanda’s sister, however. Did you get to see her today?”

“I did. She’s banged up a bit. Nearly a hundred stitches, mostly to her right arm. I met her. Her name is Candace, like Amanda told us, but she goes by Shipley, her last name. She’s someone in the service and they have two people there protecting her. Mostly from killing someone, I think. She has a temper that would rival the likes of Dad. But she doesn’t use her fists. Just her words. And she’s quick to apologize when she feels like she’s messed up too.”

“Great. Just great on having to deal with her today. What is she, some debutant that thinks the world revolves around her?” Locke told him again that she was army. “I guess I wasn’t paying attention. I’m going to run into town with you guys, and if you’ll wait on me, we’ll have a nice dinner. My treat.”

They were all at the hospital about twenty minutes later. As his brother was headed to the emergency department, he and Alex sat in the lobby waiting on him. He heard the moment that he’d opened the door to her room. She was fired up again but this time not at him or his brother. Someone named Scott. He didn’t catch the last name.

“You should probably go and save him. I’m betting right now that he volunteered to come here and help people with their final arrangements. Did someone die that she knew?” He said that he didn’t ask her. She was in a shitty enough mood as it was. “Well, I’m going to go and help him. I’m very protective of my brothers.”

The shrill whistle that he heard down the hall where he was had him getting up and going to see his wife. He only knew one person that could do that and it was Alex. Hurrying faster when he heard someone cry out in pain, he was in the room just as he saw his brother have someone in a headlock. Alex was behind the bed, and Shipley was pointing her gun at his brother and the stranger.

He didn’t know what to think about what was going on. Instead of thinking that things were Shipley’s fault, he asked her what was going on. She looked at him as if she had no idea who he was.

“It’s me, Nurse Erickson. I stitched you up.” She didn’t lower her gun but asked him to please get her something for pain. “I can do that for you. After you put down your weapon. You don’t have to put it away. Just lower it away from my brother, please?”

“Get that jackass out of here.” He started to reach for the other man when he asked him if he knew who he was. “I’m here to see Candy. She and I go way back, and she’s just a little bit pissed off at me right now.”

“He said he was here to marry me. Like that’s a good enough reason to come in here and propose to me. Again. Christ get him out of here before I have to double your job in putting him back together.” The man, whatever his name was, said that he was serious. “I don’t believe you. You waited until now to…Christ Scott, don’t you see that I’m wounded here?”

“I do. That’s the reason that I came here when I did. You’d be easier to talk to if you’re recouping rather than doing surgery. Not that I’m going to allow you to do that once you tell me yes. My mother needs you to be around all the time now.” She asked him if his mom knew what he was doing. “She’s not a part of this. But yes. She told me that I had to get you to say yes to me. It’s not like you have people chasing you down to ask you to be their wife, are they?”

Shipley snorted and asked him where her drugs were. “I think, too, I might have pulled out a few stitches while I was getting more upset with Scott.”

Locke looked at the man that Dusty was holding onto and realized that he should know him. When Dusty released the other man, he knew in the next breath that the man was indeed very important. To this hospital, at least.

“Mr. Landry. I didn’t know that it was you.” Scott straightened up his tie and looked at him. “I’m sorry for this, but Shipley has been injured, and until a few minutes ago, I thought that she was headed home today.”

“That’s all right, Derick. She can be hard on some people.” It was then that Shipley told the man that he was a moron and that his name was Locke. “Look, Candy. I just want you to consider us marrying. We’re perfect for each other. You can retire now and be home with my mom and that will make the two of you closer than before.”

“Your mother hates me. Not only that, but I’ve told you this before, I don’t like her either. I have a job that I love. I’m not going to give that up to play nursemaid to your mom. She’s a royal bitch, and you know it, and I’m not going to be giving her care unless it’s some kind of doomsday drug that takes her out and your entire family.” She narrowed her eyes at Scott. “Aren’t you in violation of the court-ordered cease and desist that I have on you?”

“That’s all water under the bridge now that you’re back in the States. You shouldn’t have done it in the first place, darling. I told you that the two of us just had a misunderstanding when you did that.” Locke told the other man that he should leave and that he didn’t want his patient upset any more than she already was. “She’s just waiting for a bigger diamond, that’s all. I know she’s being all hard-assed, but she’ll mellow out once we have children and my mom is happy.”

“I don’t think that she wants anything to do with you. Mellowing out or not.” Dusty moved to stand in front of the gun that was still pointed at the man in charge of this hospital. “I don’t know if you realize this or not, or perhaps it’s larger than your brain can handle, but she has told you nicely—well, for her anyway, that she wants you out of here. Either do it, or I’ll call the cops. A restraining order is in place, and while I’m not sure of the required feet you’re supposed to stay from her, I’d say that you’re in violation of it right now.”

Dusty rolled his sleeves up, and that was when Shipley put her gun down. As soon as she did, Dusty popped the man in the face, one punch that had him falling to the floor and out cold. He was going to lose his job. He just knew it. Locke, however, didn’t think he cared all that much. The man was a shithead, just like he’d heard that he was.

By the time the cops arrived, superseded by the two Army military police, he’d been able to take care of the broken stitches in Shipley’s arms and have one of the doctors on the floor discharge her. He’d take her to his house if that’s what it took for her to be safe or Landry to be safe. The fool.

Chapter 2

Dusty helped the woman out to the car that they’d all come in. He was getting a kick out of the way the MPs were treating the man who had come to the hospital. He was a pest, Alex told them when she mentioned the restraining order. She put her hands on her hips and asked them what the hell they were doing, not protecting someone in the care of her husband.

He surely did love a woman who had a fire in her eye as Alex had. The other woman, Shipley, looked about as hot, too. Dusty decided that he was going to enjoy working for the woman if only to see her temper flare. He wasn’t foolish enough to get her going, nope. But he thought that he might enjoy watching her take a bite out of other people.

She was staying at Erickson Manor, and he was glad for that. Call him a sadist, but he was enjoying watching her take apart the two officers who had been assigned to protect her. The cop had some jurisdiction but not as much as the MPs who listened to her every command.

They didn’t either one of them leave their posts right outside of the house when she was in here either. Her command of curse words that she had, in several languages if he didn’t miss a beat, was profoundly entertaining.

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