Page 32 of The Doctor

“You do understand why I broke up with you, right?”

I let out a breath. “You overheard my conversation with your brothers?”

Her nod was swift. “Even though it was not my intention, I knew I was hurting you. But the truth was, I couldn’t handle seeing you. Knowing the decision I made and my reasons for making it, I couldn’t bear to look at you.”

As her words registered my frown deepened. “Wait? What about your reasons? We agreed to give up Dom together. We agreed he would have a better life with parents who could provide for him.”

She nodded. “That was part of it, yes. Definitely. But there was more. I knew you would’ve kept him if I decided I wanted to. And I couldn’t be selfish. Dom needed a better life and…”

Her voice trailed off and tears rolled down her cheeks. Whatever she needed to say had obviously been eating at her for a long time. Fifteen years, if I had to guess. “And what, sweetheart?”

“You had a full ride to an Ivy League school. You wanted to be a doctor.”

I heard the words. They were all in the correct order and the sentence made sense. Still, I had trouble understanding what she was saying. “What did that have to do with anything? I don’t understand.”

“If we kept him, you would’ve stayed and not fulfilled your dream.” She swiped at her cheeks. “No one turns down an Ivy League education and you would have. I didn’t want to be the reason you gave up on your dream.”

Do not lose your temper. Breathe.

“Rebecca Louise Salinger. That was not your decision to make.” My voice went cold as I stood from the couch. “I understood what you wanted. What yousaidyou wanted. I wanted to give Dom the best life he could have. I wanted him to have two loving parents who knew what they were doing. The idea of him having parents who could provide for him. A father who wasn’t reliant on his girlfriend’s family for love and support. I wanted him to have all the things I couldn’t provide for him. Those were the reasons I went along with your decision.”

“You think I didn’t want that?” She stood and faced me. I’d always loved how tall she was. When she wore heels, we were eye-to-eye. At that moment, in her flats, she needed to look up at me a little. All I saw was fear and trepidation in those pretty brown eyes. “I wanted those things too. And under different circumstances, we could’ve provided for him.”

“The circumstances were different, Bex.” I turned away from her and moved to the window. “We did have your family. I had gotten into SoCal, I had options.”

“But Columbia was your dream.”

“I was seventeen, everything was a dream.” I turned to her and shoved my hands in my pockets. “All I wanted was to spend the rest of my life with you. Whether we would struggle because we were on different coasts, or hell, different countries considering your career, or we’d struggle because we wereraising a kid and had no business being parents, didn’t matter to me. We were going to struggle. And then you made the choice and we agreed, it didn’t matter what we wanted, Dom needed a better life.”

That was how I saw the situation. But there was more at play. My life had been manipulated. Granted, it worked in my favor and I knew I needed to be grateful for that. Still, I would give up all the experiences and the women of New York. I would’ve gotten my degree and been a small-town GP. But then…

My anger softened. I pulled her into my arms and kissed her forehead. She was good at her job and had saved numerous lives. “I didn’t want you to give up your dream either. You got to be a Ranger, Bex.”

That was the truth. And I needed to face that. Very few women got to be Rangers. The Bayers gave us that. Yes, I wanted Dom to have the best life he could. And with the Bayers he certainly did. The couple had been wealthy. A thought struck me.

“Bex, no one said but does anyone suspect a financial motive for the crime.”

“Not that I know of. Dorian Bayer’s money was tied up in a trust of some kind. No one could get to it.”

Yeah, the last thing Dom needed was to be targeted for his money.

19

BEX

It was time I got back into a regular work schedule. I was a Team Leader and couldn’t stay away for too much longer. Lilly handed me a case file as I walked in that morning.

“This one will take some time, so I don’t see a mission happening any time soon.” She sat in the chair on the other side of my desk.

My office had few personal items. I had a few pictures of my family but not much else. My white board was empty but that was because I had no open cases. The only thing with any personality in that room were my hot pink chairs. Even my reclining office chair was upholstered in pink. I loved it and wanted to add more bold touches. Perhaps I could even add photos of the kids.

Lilly leaned forward. “I know Noah and Nick may need you for each of their jobs, but don’t feel obliged to do either.”

My brother, Nick, was a great strategist, probably the best I knew. Lilly was Ollie’s wife and a profiler. She could tell exactly who the best person for each job was. Together they made a hell of a team running Salinger Security. Nick, Noah and myself were Team Leaders. Ollie could do the job if needed as well. Though, he was the best at undercover work.

Nick’s wife, Anna, was one of our field agents along with Mason, Jake, and Jared. Mason was also an excellent sniper and Jared preferred to be behind a screen. Having been trained by the best, Jared could hack into just about anywhere.

I scanned the file Lilly handed to me. “You’re looking into a string of bank robberies? Isn’t that something MDF PD should be investigating.”

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