Hardball by V.K. Sykes

Author:V.K. Sykes [Sykes, V.K.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2011-06-13T16:00:00+00:00

She took another drink, a bigger one this time. When she put her glass back down, Nate could see her hand slightly trembling.

Alarm shot through him as he instinctively reached for the hand. “Baby, what’s wrong?”

“He threatened me, Nate,” she said, a slight quaver in her voice. “He said I’d better change my mind about the court order, or I’m going to regret it.”

For a split second Nate felt numb, but then fire ripped through his veins. Anger threatened to overwhelm him, along with the urge to pound Lance Arnold into the dust. But he fought to rein it in and succeeded. He didn’t need to overreact, or scare Holly any more than she was.

“You obviously took him seriously,” he finally said when he could talk in a calm voice. He squeezed her hand tightly.

Holly nodded. “I have to. I’ve had my share of grief-stricken parents blowing off steam by yelling at doctors. I’ve even seen direct threats. But nothing remotely similar to this. Arnold was ice cold and determined in his threat. He meant what he said. I know he did.”

She swallowed hard, like she had a lump in her throat. Nate could barely stay seated with the overpowering desire to hunt down the bastard who had frightened her so badly. He sensed Holly wasn’t the kind of woman to get easily spooked, so it must have been a really awful scene. “Did you report what he said to your boss?”

“Of course. He didn’t like it, but cautioned me against overreacting. Said that sort of thing had happened to him a few times in his career, and that it always blew over.” When she picked up her glass, she clutched it so tightly that her fingers started to lose color. “What could I say that didn’t make me seem like a complete wimp?”

Nate fell silent for a few moments, stroking her wrist as he thought. She waited quietly, obviously trying to be calm and brave, and it tore a hole in his heart.

“Holly, I think you should go to the police,” he finally said. Not that he thought the cops would do much—not to a distraught father who might have said something stupid to his kid’s doctor—but at least it would alert them to a potential situation. And put it on the record should anything happen later.

Not that he’d let anything happen to Holly. No fucking way.

She emphatically shook her head, her ponytail flying. “I thought about that, but it would be Arnold’s word against mine. Besides, it wasn’t exactly a direct threat. He’d just say he was telling me I’d regret it if things went wrong with the surgery. Like I’d feel guilty or something.”

“You know that’s damn well not what he meant,” he said impatiently.

She blew out an exasperated breath. “Of course, I do. The point is I can’t prove it.”

“Listen, if you report this incident to the police, then they’ll take it a lot more seriously if Arnold does it again. You’re a respected surgeon. They’re not just going to blow you off.

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