Chapter 2 - The Nurse Who Refused to Be Bought
By 1:30 in the morning, St. Bridget's Hospital was running on the kind of chaos Mave had grown accustomed to.
The emergency department was packed.
A teenage boy with a broken wrist.
An elderly woman with chest pain.
A construction worker whose leg had been crushed.
A man in a gray hoodie who kept insisting he didn't need treatment despite blood soaking through his sleeve.
Mave moved from room to room with a clipboard tucked against her side.
The incident at the restaurant seemed impossible now.
Like something that had happened to another woman.
Except every time she looked toward the security doors, she remembered Adrian standing between her and the gunfire.
She had told him she would not go anywhere with him.
He had accepted that.
At least outwardly.
But when she arrived for her shift, two black SUVs were parked across from the emergency entrance.
She recognized one of Adrian's security men.
He didn't approach.
He simply stood under the streetlight.
Watching.
At six in the morning, Mave was checking medication counts when her supervisor called her into the office.
"Mave."
She looked up.
"What happened?"
"Sit."
She hated that word.
People only told nurses to sit when somebody had died or somebody was about to lose their job.
She sat.
Her supervisor folded her hands.
"You know there was an inventory discrepancy yesterday."
"Two boxes of cardiac medication."
"Three."
Mave frowned.
"I counted twice."
"I know."
"Then the count is wrong."
The supervisor hesitated.
"There is camera footage showing you entering the medication room after hours."
"I was called there."
"By whom?"
"Charge nurse Patel."
"Patel says she didn't call you."
Mave's stomach sank.
"She did."
"We've checked the log."
"Then someone changed it."
The supervisor's face tightened.
"Mave, I don't want to do this."
"Then don't."
"The hospital board does."
Mave stood.
"I didn't steal medication."
"I know what you think."
"No. You know what you can prove."
That sentence hung between them.
Then the supervisor slid a form across the desk.
"Administrative suspension pending investigation."
Mave stared at the paper.
"I need my shifts."
"I'm sorry."
"Owen's dialysis."
"I know."
"Please."
The supervisor looked away.
It was the same look the waiter had given her.
The same look people gave when compassion became inconvenient.
Mave picked up the form.
"Fine."
She walked out.
At the end of the hallway, she found Adrian leaning against the wall.
She stopped dead.
"What are you doing here?"
"Waiting."
"How did you get in?"
"The hospital knows me."
"That isn't reassuring."
"It wasn't meant to be."
He walked beside her.
"They suspended you."
"You know everything, don't you?"
"Not everything."
"Could have fooled me."
He watched her carefully.
"Come work for me."
"No."
"I didn't explain the job."
"I don't care."
"You could be my private medical liaison."
"No."
"You'd be paid four times what St. Bridget's pays."
"No."
"Owen's treatments would be covered."
She stopped.
"No."
His eyes narrowed.
"You should at least hear the offer."
"I did."
"What did you hear?"
"A man saying he can buy the thing I need most."
"You think I'm buying you?"
"Yes."
"I am trying to protect you."
"I don't need a bodyguard."
"You need a paycheck."
That hurt.
More than she expected.
Adrian immediately saw it.
"That came out wrong."
"It came out honest."
He sighed.
"I wasn't insulting you."
"I'm poor, not stupid."
"I know."
"Then stop acting like money fixes everything."
He looked at her for a long moment.
"You're right."
Mave blinked.
She had expected an argument.
Not agreement.
Adrian reached into his coat.
He held out a small envelope.
She refused to take it.
"It's not cash."
"What is it?"
"Your brother's dialysis schedule."
Her chest tightened.
"How did you get that?"
"I asked."
"From whom?"
"The hospital."
"I didn't authorize that."
"No."
"Then you're crossing a line."
"I know."
She turned to leave.
"Mave."
She stopped.
"I found something."
He handed her a file.
Inside were photographs of St. Bridget's medication storage room.
One showed a side door.
The lock had been replaced recently.
Another showed a man entering at 2:13 a.m.
Mave recognized him.
Preston's cousin.
"Why is he here?"
"He works for the company that supplies the hospital."
She looked up.
"That doesn't prove anything."
"No."
"Then why show me?"
"Because someone wants you blamed."
Mave closed the file.
"Why me?"
"Because you found the discrepancy."
She looked at the timestamp.
"That report was supposed to go to the board."
"It did."
"Then who stopped it?"
"Preston's father."
Mave felt cold.
"You're saying he interfered with a theft investigation to protect the supplier?"
"I'm saying I have evidence."
He handed her another document.
A payment trail.
Hospital procurement.
Private accounts.
And a company she recognized.
Vance Medical.
Preston's family's business.
Mave stared at the numbers.
"Preston knew."
"Yes."
"He ended things with me because of this."
"Yes."
"Why didn't he just threaten me?"
"Because you were easier to destroy socially."
Mave looked at him.
Adrian spoke quietly.
"People believe humiliation faster than they believe evidence."
That sentence stayed with her.
She folded the documents.
"Why are you helping me?"
He answered immediately.
"Because someone tried to kill you last night."
"That doesn't answer my question."
Adrian looked away.
Then back at her.
"My father died because a nurse noticed something nobody else wanted to notice."
Mave was silent.
"What happened?"
"Wrong medication."
Her expression softened.
"I didn't know."
"Nobody does."
"You were there?"
"I was sixteen."
He looked down.
"My father trusted the doctors. They told him everything was fine. One nurse kept saying his blood pressure numbers didn't make sense."
"What happened to her?"
"She disappeared."
Mave's throat tightened.
"Adrian."
"I spent fifteen years trying to find out why."
"And did you?"
"Not yet."
She studied him.
For the first time, she saw something beneath the dangerous reputation.
A boy who had lost a father.
A man who had spent years deciding that if institutions could not protect people, he would.
It didn't make his methods right.
But it made them understandable.
She looked at the file again.
"I will investigate this."
Adrian nodded.
"With me."
"Not for you."
"For the truth."
She hesitated.
"Fine."
A slight smile appeared.
"Then we have a deal."
Her phone rang.
Owen.
Mave answered.
"Hey."
Her brother's voice sounded weak.
"Mave?"
"I'm here."
"The clinic called."
Her stomach dropped.
"What happened?"
"They said my treatment was canceled."
Mave closed her eyes.
"What?"
"They said insurance authorization was withdrawn."
She looked at Adrian.
His expression had already changed.
"Tell Owen to stay where he is."
"Adrian—"
"I'll fix it."
"No."
He looked at her.
"Then let me help you fix it."
Mave took a breath.
"Fine."
Within twenty minutes, the clinic called back.
Authorization restored.
Mave stared at Adrian.
"You did that."
"Yes."
"You said you wouldn't buy things."
"I didn't buy anything."
"Then what did you do?"
"Made two phone calls."
"That's buying."
"No."
He smiled.
"It's leverage."
Mave shook her head.
"You are impossible."
"I've been told."
She looked at him.
Then, unexpectedly, laughed.
It was the first time she had laughed since the restaurant.
Adrian's expression softened.
And neither of them noticed the man watching from across the street.
Preston Vance.
He held his phone to his ear.
"They're together."
A voice answered.
"Then separate them."
"How?"
The voice was cold.
"Take away the one thing Adrian Vale cannot replace."
Preston frowned.
"What?"
May you like
The answer came quietly.
"The nurse."
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