Page 45 of Fierce Protector

Marcus:

Yes, Ma’am.

I swear to God if you ever call me Ma’am again the next time you need medical assistance I will forget where the good drugs are.

Marcus:

Understood…

Mrs Tiero?

Doc Em.

Marcus:

That’s going to be really confusing when you change your last name. Doc “Tee” doesn’t have the same ring to it.

Fuck all the way off, Marcus.

Marcus:

Yes, Ma’am.

I throw the phone on the bed, but I let out a soft laugh. I like that even though he’s now fully aware our relationship isn’t fake, he’s not treating me any differently. The last thing I want is to suddenly be treated like some precious little flower, like the mob girlfriends ofold. The ones that sat on the sidelines and did as they were told. My father brought me up to carve out a purpose for myself and I’ll be damned if I let that be undermined based on who I love.

Stefano’s role in the organisation is vitally important, and so is mine. In fact, these last few months have taught me a few things that surprised me. I’ve worked my ass off to be at the top of my field, the chief of my specialty, I’m respected by my peers, but that’s not what’s given me the most fulfilment recently. Being there for the don, stepping in when thefamilyneeds me. Nothing compares to the feeling of being able to save them. I’ve spent years leading two separate lives, and now I’m beginning to wonder if I want to keep doing that. There’s no reason why I couldn’t set up my own practice and dedicate more of my time to the family.

As I step into the shower and let the hot water chase away the chill those messages gave me, I let my mind wander and consider the possibility that maybe now would be the perfect time for a change.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

KATERINA

“What do you mean, he didn’t turn up for his shift? I need him in here now. There’s no way I’m letting you touch this patient again,” I bark at Nurse Henshaw, who’s screwed up yet another one of my charts. The first thing I did when we realised that Danny wasn’t my stalker, was swap him back on to my service. Not for any other reason than he’s a phenomenal nurse, but unlike Nurse Henshaw, he rarely fucks up my entire day by letting me resuscitate a DNR by switching the charts on my patients.

This day has gone downhill from the minute I stepped onto the surgical floor.

“I’m so sorry, Doctor Mancini. I don’t know what happened.”

“What happened is you spent more time discussing the age difference between me and my fiancé than you did focussing on your fucking job.” She blanches at theharshness of my words, but as fuck-ups go, this is a big one.

“That’s not tru?—”

“If you think your judgemental-as-fuck voice doesn’t carry, then you are sorely mistaken, Nurse Henshaw. Had you been doing your job and not telling everyone who’d listen that I’m ‘too busy fucking an old man these days’, then this would never have happened.” I raise my voice and don’t miss the growing audience or the way their eyebrows climb higher and higher with each cutting barb I throw out.

“What the hell is going on in here?”the Chief of Surgery bellows, his voice carrying into the room before he enters. “Both of you. In my office.Now.”

The meetingwith the chief went about as well as I’d expected and resulted in my spending most of the afternoon with our legal department, assessing our liability. The long and the short of it was Nurse Henshaw being fired and my being put on administrative leave until a settlement could be reached with the next of kin.

I’m not upset. It’s the right thing to do, but there’s a part of me that wants five minutes alone with Nurse Henshaw for putting patient care at risk. I’m more than happy to own up to my mistakes, but it sits like a bag of rocks in my gut knowing that my error is as a result of her incompetence.

This never would have happened if Danny had been running my service. That realisation stirs feelings of guiltfor ever having suspected him of being capable of sending me all those notes. Maybe I would have taken them more seriously if I hadn’t assumed they were from him. How big is my ego that I thought his friendliness equated to an unhinged stalker?

I head straight to my locker after getting the standard spiel from our lawyer.Don’t talk to the next of kin, don’t discuss this with your colleagues, and go home until they clear me to come back to work. It doesn’t take me long to grab my stuff, but it’s still bugging me that Danny hasn’t turned up for his shift. It’s not like him, so I dig out my phone and sift through my contacts until I find him. There’s another twinge of remorse when I remember he’s blocked.

The call rings off to voicemail but I don’t leave a message. I have no idea what I want to say anyway, I just want to make sure he’s okay and it’s not like I have any right to know. However, there is someone else who might have an idea, and they pick up on the second ring.

“I thought you were in surgery?” Marcus questions, like it’s personally offending him that my plans have changed.

---