Justin clenched his jaw, feeling the raw twist of jealousy. Guthrie Hiller, the head of OB/GYN, was the poster child forsuccessat BCGH.
Now Hiller was circling around Aubrey. Justin had seen it for himself. Of course Hiller was, and now they’d be the ‘goldencouple’ of BCGH. Hiller was well-liked, well-respected, well-connected, and well-off. All of the women chased him. Aubrey was the most beautiful woman at the hospital, and she was next in line to run the entire place if Alvaro ever stepped aside. Or went to work somewhere else in his father-in-law’s organization.
Everyone knew that was a strong possibility. A man didn’t marry Jordan Carrington’s daughter if he didn’t have greater ambitions.
Everyone was acting as if Aubrey Fisher and Guthrie Hiller were fated to be together or something. Even though they’d hated each other on sight a few years ago, according to the rumors floating around now. There were a lot of rumors flying around about Aubrey now.
Dr. Fisher and Dr. Hiller together—so romantic. He’d already heard that from two of the ED nurses he’d been working with already today.
Like they were a damned romance novel or something. Pathetic.
Small-town hospitals were so pathetic.
Justin had greater ambitions—he was going to play the game, make nice with the Carringtons, and get himself a better position in a city hospital somewhere. With Jordan Carrington’s recommendation, he could have exactly what he wanted for his future. Exactly what he wanted.
“You want to keep mouthing off about her, go right ahead. But if it gets back to you—you really want to deal with Alvaro being pissed at you? He’s ridiculously protective of Aubrey.” He was surprised Alvaro hadn’t already fired him for that night at the Barratt yet. All she’d had to do was go running to the man and Justin would be fired. He’d known that, he’d been waiting for the ax to drop. It just hadn’t happened yet.
Mandy raised an eyebrow, feigning innocence. “Oh, really. As if I haven’t noticed? You think he and his wife and Fisher all get it on together? I’ve heard that one recently.”
“Probably because you started it. Keep up your little jealous bitch game with Aubrey, and you’re going to screw yourself out of a job.” Mandy liked to skate the edge, to push buttons. Power-hungry and mean, this one.
She smirked. Her uncle had been on the board at BCGH for thirty years. She wasn’t going anywhere. Mandy Kirby was incredibly good at playing the political game.
Well, so was he. And he wasn’t above using her when needed. Justin pulled her closer, fast. She had a damned hot body, that she did her best to keep in shape. No denying that. And they both liked to claw at each other. Yes. He could make it quick. It didn’t take much with her.
It might even help him focus. “Quit running your mouth. Or I’ll give you something to do with it instead.”
She smirked again, but her eyes flared. With heat.
Yes. They understood each other just fine.
15
Dr. Hodges was there again,glaring at Genny. He was going to become more of a problem than Aubrey really needed at the moment. She would deal with whatever had crawled up his rear end now, and then she was going to have to give in, go to Caine, and see what he wanted to do next. Hodges was making it a hostile work environment for everyone—and she knew it had to do with one thing: He was angry that Genny was with Chad. Period. Jerk.
“Dr. Hodges?”
“Fuck off, Fisher. I’m not in the mood for your bullshit tonight.” His shoulder slammed into her as he stalked by, hard enough to send her stumbling against the counter. Pain shot through her side, but she held her ground. The nurses at the charge desk all froze. Just stared. Aubrey bit back the instinctive rush of anxiety. Of fear. She couldn’t let the fear show.
This was her ED. She was in charge.
He wasn’t going to do this any longer.
“I apologize, Dr. Fisher, I miss-stepped.”
Sure, that was all it was. He had seriously crossed the line. They were both well aware of that.
“I know what your problem is, and it doesn’t have a place in my ED. You can’t handle that, we’ll talk to Dr. Alvaro about it—do you understand me?” Her stomach clenched. She hated this part of being in charge. Hated it. She shifted, tried to put herself in front of Genny a bit better.
There was a look of almost madness in his eyes. And an emptiness that scared her. Truly scared her. She wished Caine, or Guthrie, or Chad, or anyone bigger and stronger would just show up right now. Anyone.
She looked over—Hadassa had the desk phone in her hand. Her finger hovered over the button to page security. Aubrey’s eyes met hers. She gave a small jerk of her head. Held up one finger. One minute.
Aubrey hoped this would defuse without the need. She’d never turned security on one of their own doctors before. There had been a male nurse about six months ago, who had shown up drunk and threatened some of the nightshift nurses, but that had been an easy fix.
Dr. Hodges was a lot bigger than she was.
And he was intent. Aubrey would never forget seeing that kind of hatred in a man’s eyes before. She just never would.