Page 12 of Piece You Saved

I cock my head, too curious about him to be alarmed we’re alone in this room. “That doesn’t explain the nose booping.”

“Fewer social interactions, Jane. It means I often approach things in different ways than others. Like when someone is feeling guilty over something they weren’t responsible for, a little distraction can go a long way.” He tosses the rubber glove on the tray and turns to me with a seriousness I wasn’t expecting from his amused tone. “So don’t put Simon’s death on your head again.”

I search his face. “Or you’ll boop my nose?”

He studies me for several seconds, the corners of his eyes wrinkling before he says, “Those men you came here with. They aren’t—”

“Any business of yours.” Kade’s granite-hard voice, coming from the open doorway, nearly makes me jump right off the edge of the bed. “Doctor.”

My eyes fly over Harley’s shoulder. Kade’s gray orbs glitter with the threat of looming violence.

Kade is alone, and from the dark glower he’s got trained on Harley’s back, I can’t help but wonder how long he was standing there, and what he heard. My face flushes at the thought. I don’t know why it would when I haven’t done anything wrong.

Was the doctor flirting with me? Or was I flirting with him?

“You done?” Kade barks.

Harley doesn’t react to Kade’s order. It’s as if we’re still the only ones in the room. “Go easy with that abdomen, Jane. Any sharp pain, you need to come back here for scans. It never pays in the long run to ignore pain, okay?”

I nod.

He turns to the tray and wheels it out.

Kade never takes his eyes off him, and as they meet in the doorway, Kade doesn’t move. The tension between them is so palpable that I prepare to hop off the bed so I can insert myself between them before things explode into violence.

Without a word, Kade steps aside.

Now it’s Harley’s turn to stand still. Keeping his eyes on Kade, he raises his voice. “And Jane? I left my card on the bed. If you have any trouble, like the type that followed you and Simon out to that parking lot, call me.”

I glance at the bed beside me, and there it is, sitting on top of a dark blue sheet pressed to within an inch of its life. A small white card stamped with a name, email address, phone number, and a pager number in dark black ink for Doctor Harley Schaffer.

I don’t know what I thought his surname would be, but it wasn’t Schaffer.

My mind wants to insert Davidson, which, as stupid as it sounds, makes a lot more sense than Schaffer.

Doctor Harley Schaffer sounds like someone who is married, with two kids, and lives in a gated community. Not this Harley, who boops guilt-ridden women who killed their friend, laughs with his gut, and flirts so subtly said guilt-ridden woman isn’t sure if that’s even what’s happening.

Is that the reason Harley was pushing to be the one to check me out?

“Because you’re a surgeon?” I call out, wanting him gone before I pick up the card. Maybe then he and Kade won’t get into a fight the way it feels like Kade wants to.

Harley turns to peer over his shoulder. His eyes flash from turquoise to blue, and a feral intelligence peers back at me. My heart spikes at the unmistakable sign he isn’t as human as I’d believed him to be.

“Because Simon was a friend, and someone needs to pay for that.” He blinks, and he’s back to the perfectly human doctor I thought he was. “That someone isn’t you.”

CHAPTER 4

KADE

“Idon’t trust him.” I throw a glance over my shoulder. Back toward the hospital room into which that doctor wheeled a metal trolley minutes before.

“Lift that shirt so we can see what we’re dealing with.”

I stop.

Dariel grips my arm and yanks me toward the vending machine at the far end of the hallway. “He’s not up to anything. Let’s go.”

I keep my gaze trained on the open door. “You didn’t see the way he was looking at her.”

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