Page 25 of The Hunt

He stepped closer to her after their most recent patient. “Sweetheart, why don’t you let me buy you dinner in the cafeteria? Take a break, rest?”

She shot him a look. The endearment had just slipped out, but…she was his heart. How was he expected to hide that? “No, thank you. I’m going to take a break in the break room.”

Doug bit back his anger. Why was she so damned resistant to him?

There had to be a reason.

And that reason was probably another man.

Of course it was.

Why wouldn’t it be?

This was a small hospital. Most of the physicians here were younger, many were single. Barratt County didn’t quite pay what the nearby Finley Creek hospitals did. Once a man married here, he generally started looking for better pay and benefits and career growth opportunities. And Finley Creek was just about an hour away.

Other single men were practically coming out of the woodwork here. Hell, only one of the pediatricians in this entire building was married. He’d married a nurse from NICU two months ago.

The single nurses and female physicians and support staff and techs basically had their damned pick of available single doctors just looking for women to play with after the stress of the day. The smart ones captured those men however they could.

And Genny was perfection—beautiful, kind, sweet, and loving. Of course some other man would have seen that. Would want her for their own. They’d look through the dross and see the gold in her.

Would maybe be enough to turn her head.

He was going to find out who it was.

He watched her walk away. He knew where she was going—Dr. Fisher, that blond bitch who thought she knew everything, always met her in the break room near this time of night.

Justin came up to his side. “Still trying with Hiller’s sister? When you going to give that up?”

“I’m not giving up. She’s…hell, I can’t get her out of my head.”

“Some women are like that. And some like playing hard to get.” Justin gave a feral grin as he watched a familiar blonde come out of the restroom at the end of the hall by radiology. Dr. Fisher waited for Genny, and they took off together—like the two practically always did. Justin was more relaxed than usual—he’d probably snuck off to the basement with that nurse practitioner he liked playing around with so much. Barricuda-bitch, that was how Doug had always privately thought of her. “Men like us…enjoy the hunt.”

That Doug did. But Justin took it to the extremes, and was a real animal where women were concerned. Often not in a good way. The other man was ruthless—in everything he did. “I’m getting tired of playing, now, though. I want for keeps. Kids, that kind of thing. I hate going home to an empty place. You hear if she’s involved with anyone else here?”

The other man always knew exactly what was going on everywhere in this place. Justin shook his head. “Just the usual rumors. Some thought she was a little too close to Fields when that friend of hers was upstairs. But I heard it from a friend of mine the guy’s practically another older brother. And not oneshe likes all that much. I don’t think he’s an obstacle. She has a thing for lawyers, though. Maybe it’s Bowen Carrington?”

He hoped not. There was no way he could compete with a wealthy attorney like that. Doug still had med school loans to pay. And Carrington had all that money from his great-grandparents. He didn’t need to work at all. Fields probably didn’t either. He had had everything handed to him, money, success—women. If Fields caught Genny’s attention, Doug wouldn’t stand a chance.

He had lost to that man far too many times before.

21

Her second dayoff since Chantal and Gene had been abducted couldn’t come soon enough. After the hell of a shift she’d had in the ED the night before, she was ready for the next two days to go as slowly as they possibly could.

Gene had taken Calvin, and they were hunting for Chantal now. Genny hadn’t gotten a clear idea why Gene had asked if she knew where Chantal would be, but he had. She was going to have to investigate thewhylater.

And rendezvous with Chantal, so they could strategize again. They had virtues to protect, after all. Chantal was about ready to run for the hills. Genny was thinking of running with her. At least until she figured out the next step.

Gene Hiller was smart; very, very smart. Relentless. And remarkably persistent when he was prowling. Abouthalfas relentless as one Chad-wicked Leopold Fields.

Chantal wasn’t being very forthcoming about how she felt about Gene during Genny’s interrogations. But there was always tomorrow for interrogating best friends.

Today…she was doing nothing. Beautifully, absolutely, wonderfully…doing nothing.

The twins, Grady and Gunn, were out checking fences between their place and Chantal’s dad’s.

She had the house all to herself.