Page 19 of Raymond's Forever

“Amelia?” Raymond asked in shock when he caught her expression and appearance. He couldn’t hold back the smirk, then the grin, and finally a belly laugh that burst from his chest. He laughed so hard that he had to lean against the doorjamb to keep himself upright. “What the hell happened to you?” He sobered enough to reach up, to run his hand through the strands of hair that stuck up all over her head, when he pulled his hand away, there were cobwebs and dust bunnies stuck to his hand.

“Come in,” Amelia said with a heavy sigh and stepped back. “Don’t mind the mess.”

Raymond stepped into the room, and paused when he saw the open boxes that seemed to take up every surface, and he saw the stacks of items he assumed needed to be packed into the boxes. They were all over the floor.

He followed Amelia to her kitchen and grinned when she picked up a glass of wine and took a gulp, but glared at him.

“What?”

“Why do you look so put together?”

“Because I’ve been sitting on my ass reading files all day, then I had the hour drive here.” He grinned when she actually stuck her tongue out at him.

“What has you so frazzled?” he asked as he studied her.

“It’s been a week from hell at work.” She sipped her wine again, and without asking, went over to the counter and grabbed an empty glass. “Would you like some? Before you answer that, I’m expecting a food order. I hope you like Thai?”

“I do,” he said, and took the bottle of wine to pour himself some. He had just taken a sip when the doorbell rang. “I got this,” he said as he headed to the door, but turned back and gave her a grin. “You might want to go brush your hair.” He smirked, and walked away, pulling his wallet as he did. When he learned the meal had been paid for, he gave the young woman a generous tip, closed and locked the door, and went back into thekitchen. He laughed when he heard a scream. Instead of going to investigate, he took the food from the bag and laid it out on the island.

“Why didn’t you tell me I looked like hell?” Amelia demanded as she stormed back into the kitchen, and Raymond grinned when he saw her hair was brushed, and the dirt streaks were gone from her face. She quickly got them silverware, and paper plates. “Sorry, the regular plates are packed, or in stacks to be packed.” She sighed and put some food on her plate. They ate half the meal in silence, both hungry, and as they slowed down, he looked at her.

“Why is your work a week from hell?”

“I’m the most senior doctor at the clinic. Both in my years as a doctor, and at the actual clinic.”

“Even longer than Ervin?”

“Yes, by two years. Perkins by ten.”

“Wow, okay, so tell me what they’ve been doing all week that pissed you off? Wait, before you tell me, Yvonne and I met Betty and the handoff was a success. She’s on her way to Jake Cogburn at Brotherhood Protectors to hand off the items she collected.”

“Good, after this week, I can’t wait to take those assholes down. Sorry for my language, but I’m at my wit’s end with those two.”

“What are they doing?”

“Absolutely nothing, or as little as nothing as possible. They are treating me like I’m a glorified Candy Striper at best, a first-year intern at worst. They’ve been walking around like their shit doesn’t stink, and have cancelled their appointments past three in the afternoon all week. Oh, if they don’t cancel them they tell the patients that I’ll see them. I’ve been working from seven in the morning to nine at night all week. Thank god, I’m only on the schedule until noon tomorrow. I plan on coming home, packing, and loading up the rental I’ll be picking up on my way home.”

“Betty told me that Perkins is taking over your office?”

“Yes, and he’s demanding I empty his boxes before I leave. Like that’s going to happen.” She snorted as she finished her meal, then tossed the plate.

“Wait,” Raymond said, and watched as she paused on her way out of the room. “What if you quote, unquote, looked into his boxes?”

“Why would I…?” She paused, and realized what he said, and nodded as a small smile crossed her lips. “I get it, I can, as you say, quote, unquote, look into his boxes to see if there might be anything incriminating that we could use.”

“Correct, and I’m not saying that you take it, but maybe you could get pictures of anything. Especially those x-rays he says he’s going to use against Shay.”

“Damn, I never thought of that. The clinic opens at eight, I can go in at six, before anyone gets there, and look. I’m not seeing any patients tomorrow, but I do have a couple of files I need to clean up, and there are some items on my desk I need to pack up. I’m not saying I would put the items in his boxes away, but I can empty a couple of them and put the files I saw on the shelves, or desk.”

“Exactly. I’m not telling you that if this case ever goes to court that I would use them, because they were obtained illegally, but if push comes to shove, we can tell them that we have proof that he’s lying. I don’t know how much of a hard-ass he would be.” He studied her and shook his head, but smiled. “Or, we can always use what you gather to get a search warrant if need be.”

“I know this doesn’t mean anything, but he’s a pussy. Any confrontation from a patient, like when they have to wait for longer than thirty minutes, or disagrees with what Perkins says, he backs off, but in the privacy behind the scenes, where the patients can’t hear, he rants and raves that the people are idiots and that he’s a god when it comes to orthopedic surgery, thatthey should be bowing down and kissing his feet. He is the best in the business, and no one in the entire country is better than he is.”

“Yet he’s allegedly using fake x-rays, and doing unnecessary surgeries on these people that are lining his pockets with hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

“Exactly.” She sighed as she stood in the doorway to the living room and crossed her arms across her stomach.

“What’s wrong?”