Page 43 of The Hunt

The older woman thought she had to handle the bad stuff all by herself. To protect.

Well, sometimes Aubrey Fisher needed reeducated. Genny had made it her job to do just that when this bestie needed it.

“He was a perfect gentleman.”

Genny waited. And waited. Then waited some more. “Okay. I’m not seeing a problem here. Did you want him to not be a perfect gentleman? Because though he’s a bit of a player, my mama did raise him right. He wasn’t going to do anything unless you told him he could…do something.”

Just like Gene hadn’t done anything Chantal hadn’t wanted him to. Her brothers were—mostly—civilized. At times. At times.

Her mother had worked so hard to achieve that.

Genny should tell her mother she’d done a good job when she had a chance. Just so her mother knew all those years of seriously hard work hadn’t been in vain.

But Guthrie—he never would have hurt Aubrey. Genny suspected that was a lesson Aubrey was needing to figure out on her own. Guthrie was safe. Aubrey would see that, eventually.

But in the meantime, Genny was going to have a talk with that brother of hers. Make sure they were on the same page. Just so he didn’t inadvertently do something to hurt Aubrey.

She was a very fragile woman, this bestie. A very fragile woman.

Genny had made it one of her life’s missions to take care of Aubrey because of it. If Guthrie was just messing around, thinking casual with Aubrey—well, Genny was going to fix that as fast as she possibly could. Her bestie deserved the real deal, after all.

Well, come to think of it: Genny’s big brother did too.

She had some serious thinking to do. Some scheming, maybe. And, well, she had two sisters she needed to consult now…

38

Hodges hada real corncob shoved up his ass. Chad told him that, too. And to back off. It was just a link to a stupid article in the Texas Medical Board’s weekly blog. It wasn’t even a print publication or the journals.

But Chad sensed it was something else eating at the other man.

The only thing he could put his finger on was…Genny. Doug Hodges still wanted Genny. And it was starting to get around the hospital that Chad and Genny might be involved.

Rumors would start slowly—then build like wildfire. He didn’t give a damn—it was the truth. And when he and Genny made it a permanent thing, once Chad convinced her he was the man she wanted for life, everyone would know.

Hell, he’d shout it from the roof, if she’d let him.

“That didn’t go too well,” a voice said behind him. Chad turned. Guthrie stood there, a smirk on his face as he watched Doug Hodges take off, his lab coat all in a twist. “That guy seriously doesn’t like you.”

“He thinks I have a thing with your sister. She’s the most current love of his life.” And he suspected the guy was causingproblems Genny hadn’t told him the full story about. Chad was going to find out tonight just what that guy had been saying to her and Aubrey. If he needed to rearrange the guy’s thinking for him, well, Chad would recruit Guthrie to help him do it. “He also seems to think I’m standing in his way. And possibly Aubrey.”

“What do you mean?”

“He just said a few things about that damned blonde walking her ass around the ED like she owns it, getting in everyone’s way. Only in not-so-nice words.” And that was one of the things that had Chad feeling edgy. There had been real anger in Hodges’s tone when he’d spoken about Aubrey. “Almost slugged him, just on principle alone. You follow her home tonight? Make sure she gets there okay?”

Dr. Hodges and Dr. Michaels were good friends. And Chad had seen Michaels glaring at Aubrey earlier. Word had it they’d had an argument in the hall on the third floor as the shift had begun.

Aubrey could handle herself—she ran the ED with extreme and kind of frightening efficiency. She also didn’t suffer fools. If Michaels or Hodges became too problematic, she could handle it.

But it was still hard for Chad not to want to protect. Now that he knew she wasn’t the befanged scary monster luring innocent male doctors to their doom, anyway. He’d taken a closer look—saw the shy fear for himself. Of course it made him want to protect.

“I’ll do that. I’m about to sign off for the night. I’ll just…find a reason to hang around the ED until her shift ends. When are you off?”

“Another hour or so. I’m covering for Dr. Howard. Family emergency.” One of the pediatricians in his department had a tendency to have a lot of family emergencies. A bit surprising fora man who had no family in the state and wasn’t involved with anyone.

Chad was monitoring that situation closely, too.

But he had other concerns tonight, and not just the fact that some paperwork had disappeared from his department. He was going to go check on his woman between patients. Just to make sure she was okay.