Page 36 of Forced Into Your Arms
“Nobody. That might be the problem.”
She stared at me for a second before laughing. “See, this is why I like you. You talk shit with a straight face.”
“I’m being serious. You should call and thank them for looking out for your health.”
“I’m about to call and ask where the rest of my damn food is.”
I laughed as she pulled out her phone. The hospital had been busy most of the night, but nothing we couldn’t handle. I’d already helped discharge two patients and had another waiting on test results. For once, nobody was bleeding, screaming, or trying to run out of the building before being cleared.
This normal shit felt good.
I was finishing the last note in the chart when Nia stopped talking in the middle of her complaint. Her eyesmoved past me toward the hallway, and the way her expression changed made me turn around.
Vice Blackwell stood near the nurses’ station talking to one of the receptionists.
He wore black slacks and a fitted black shirt with the sleeves pushed up far enough to show the tattoos running along his forearms. He was wearing a diamond chain, a diamond watch, and although he wasn’t dressed in a suit like the firsttimeI saw him, he still had the same presence. People noticed him without trying to make it obvious they were looking.
Nia leaned closer to me. “Why is Vice Blackwell standing at my nurses’ station?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why does he keep looking over here?”
“I don’t know that either.” Her head slowly turned in my direction like she didn’t believe me. “What? I don’t have anything to do with that man.”
Vice thanked the receptionist and started walking toward us before I could finish the sentence. Nia’s eyebrows shot up, butshe had enough sense to keep whatever she was thinking to herself.
At least for the moment.
His eyes settled on me as he stopped on the other side of the desk I was at. “Milan...”
“Vice...”
Nia looked between us like she’d just walked into the middle of a conversation she hadn’t been invited to hear. I closed the patient’s chart and set the tablet down before giving him my full attention.
“What are you doing here?”
“I need to talk to you.”
“About what?”
His eyes shifted toward Nia before returning to me. “Not out here.”
Nia immediately picked up her food container. “Don’t worry about me. I suddenly remembered I have somewhere else to be.”
“You were just complaining about your chicken.”
“I can complain somewhere else.”
She walked away before I could stop her, leaving me alone with Vice and people pretending not to watch us.
I stepped from behind the desk and motioned toward an empty consultation room down the hall. “We can talk in there, but I only have a few minutes.”
“That’s all I need.”
I led the way, feeling his presence behind me the entire time. The consultation room was small, with a table and a few chairs, but it gave us enough privacy to keep the whole hospital from listening to whatever it was he had to say. Once the door closed, I crossed my arms and waited for him to explain why he’d shown up at my job.
Vice remained near the door. “You remember anything else?”
