Page 39 of Devil's Own: Roughneck

“That was a brilliant idea,” I reply.

“Frankie Cardone-MacGregor, she’s the wife of one of the Brimstone Lords. She runs an awesome daycare center in Thornbriar and recommended one of her staff, a woman she hated to lose but knew this would be a great career move for her. Brenna jumped on the chance to run her own center. She has an associate’s degree in early childhood education.” Dusty takes a drink of her marg and rolls her eyes. She’s not wrong. It’s good.

“We love the shit out of her,” Aja adds. “She’s great with Frey, and she’s more than ready to take on the twins.”

“I love that for you.” Taking a large bite of enchilada, I savor that sauce as it hits me how much these women really do mean to me. I haven’t had a best friend since the day after my fifteenth birthday because she dumped me for a horrible man and I had a baby to raise. Between work and Waite, where did I find the time to make friends? Then, once he got old enough that I had more time on my hands, I’d been so set in my ways that it just didn’t occur to me to try and make any.

“So, are you thinking of getting licensed up here in Kentucky?” Aja asks very nonchalantly—too nonchalantly if you ask me. What’s going on here? They know I stopped working in that field. The burnout is real—losing all my patients hurt too much. That’s why I switched to waitressing in a bar.

“What?” I ask, feeling something weird hit the air. “What’s going on? I worked in a bar.”

“I just thought… if you decided to get your license here in Kentucky, that you might want to come work for me?” Dusty asks. “It wouldn’t be like working in a nursing home. We save way more patients than we lose.”

I should hope so. “You want that?” I ask her. “For me to work for you?”

“Once Betty finishes school, she’ll be able to see patients at the office.”

“Doesn’t she have to work under an actual physician?”

“My dad’s office is right next door to mine. I work under Caitlin Brennan-Ellis’s license because of issues that my father and I had, but he realizes how badly he screwed up and made the offer when he heard about Betty.”

“But this isn’t about Betty,” Aja says, taking a bite of food. “This is about a woman who would be a good fit at the office.”

“Well, I can look into it,” I reply.

“Great.” Dusty smiles big at me. “Check your email. I sent you all the information.”

Standing, I walk over to the coffee table in the living room to pick up my phone, pressing the email app button. The email from Dusty pops up. I open it, scrolling on my way back to the table. But…

“There’s the licensure procedure and links, but there are also links to nursing school.”

Dusty’s smile, an evil smile, gets even bigger. “See, I was hoping that you could start by working at the office, and at the same time, you could go to nursing school. Education is part of your benefits package.”

“You offer a benefits package?”

“A great one,” Aja says.

“Thank you,” Dusty says to her.

“So you want me to get my Kentucky state license to work for you as a nursing assistant while going to school to become a nurse?”

“I was hoping so. With Betty going for her DNP, I’ll eventually need another nurse to take over when she starts seeing patients on her own.”

DNP, that’s Doctor of Nursing Practice. I’ve worked with some excellent nurse practitioners over the years. The offer kind of gobsmacks me. She doesn’t even know my track record as an employee. At the same time… working with Dusty and Aja wouldn’t suck. And to become a nurse? As a single mother, I couldn’t go through the program. It required too much time away from Waite. He had to be my priority. Even knowing an RN could’ve given a nice boost to our income. And now I have Rough. That would mean time away from him…

“Can I talk to Rough and see what he thinks? Going back to school is a big decision. That’s time that would keep me away from him.”

“Yes!” Dusty fist-pumps the air. “Talk to Rough. But to be clear, youaregetting licensed for Kentucky, right?”

“I never thought I’d work in healthcare again, but I’m inclined to say yes. I’ll talk to Rough about that tonight and—” I’m about to sayget back to you tomorrow,but don’t have time to answer fully because my words get cut off by the sound of gunfire. Aja startles, cupping her whole body around the baby.

Reaper and Cutter rush out the front door. I push Dusty, Aja, and the baby to the carpet, shielding them with my body while I move them on our hands and knees into the far corner of the living room.

“Keep down,” I warn them. Any bullets that pierce the walls would have to go through my bedroom, the tiled backsplash in the shower of the master bath, kitchen cupboards, and living room furniture to reach our corner. Still, I flip over the thick hardwood coffee table and make them sit on that in case something comes up through the floor. This is a split level, so I can’t know where the gunmen are aiming.

We stay huddled in the corner until we hear Rough and Cutter come back inside, talking to my brother on speakerphone. “All three houses hit,” Reaper says.

All three houses? You have to be kidding me. A choreographed hit? It had to be.The Death Bringers. Who else could it be?

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