Page 126 of Last Chance Love

Dr. Gideon huffed. “Well. That means next to nothing. She has gone beyond simply violating professional and medical principles. She has insulted them with her actions.”

“This from the man who spends his work hours napping,” Reed said dryly.

“Reed,” I chided softly. “What the hell?”

Dr. Gideon smiled at that. “Well, I suppose you have a point, but I do my job when I’m required to, and I would never dream of letting her get away with this kind of…well, no. We’re here to take care of these men, not feed into their addictions or create new ones.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” Reed said, and I thought that might be the closest to an apology we were going to hear.

“And for the record, I never disliked you, Reed. You just seemed too preoccupied keeping yourself busy and changing everything around here,” Dr. Gideon said, making his way toward the front doors. “You needed to learn to slow down and simply enjoy the moment. And let me have my quiet time.”

“Well, that is officially the cherry on today’s weird sundae,” Reed muttered, watching Dr. Gideon walk away with a bewildered expression.

I glanced down. “I think she’s waking up, we should probably?—”

Reed dropped down, knocking me off balance as he jammed the Taser into her upper back this time. My eyes widened as he held it there while a pitiful whine was forced out of her lips, her body going rigid. He held it to her for several more seconds before releasing it and standing upright again, a furious expression on his face.

“Uh, feel better?” I asked him, eyes still wide.

He looked at me, blinking. “What? You said she was waking up.”

“That was a little excessive.”

“Yes, well, it hurt a lot…bitch.”

I snorted, reaching to take the Taser from him. “Why don’t you sit down since you’ve been through a lot.”

“I’m—”

“Not fine. Sit down while we wait for the cavalry to arrive. Don’t argue. We both know you’d be telling someone who just got tased to rest.”

“Fine,” he said, moving over to the seat and dropping into it gracelessly. “Just how much shit do you think is about to roll downhill?”

“I guess we’ll see.”

* * *

“So,”Mona began, clasping her hands in front of her and resting them in her lap as she sat on the edge of Mr. Isaiah’s desk. “Let me see if I have this straight.”

“This should be interesting,” I muttered, earning a dark look from Mona and an elbow in my side from Reed.

“What?” I protested, sinking into the chair and crossing my arms. “I’m exhausted.”

It had been, what? Twelve hours since the events of the clinic, and neither of us had gotten any sleep, save for the twenty-minute nap Reed managed while we were left to sit around and cool our heels. I hadn’t been so lucky. I was starting to feel the effects of exhaustion, and it was making me cranky.

“Fine,” I sighed, motioning to Mona. “Go ahead.”

“You,” she said, looking at me. “Decided you were going to break into our jail to see Reed, despite my promise that you would be able to if you behaved yourself.”

“Yes.”

“But youalsoplanned to try to convince him to come with you to the clinic to dig through patient files. Confidential patient files, I might add.”

“Ah, I made sure he didn’t look at them,” Reed said.

“And I didn’t,” I said because, despite glancing at the screen, I couldn’t have told anyone what I’d seen. I hadn’t been trying to make sense of what was displayed when I had someone better equipped to read everything right there with me.

“Not the point,” she said, rubbing her forehead. “Neither of you were supposed to be reading those files. One of you isn’t even a licensed professional, and the other is technically suspended.”

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