The Girl Who Always Wins (Soulless 13)

She inhaled a breath, visibly pained.

“I have a lot of work to do, so…”

She remained seated, her hands together, looking out of place in her own clinic. Hesitant and uncomfortable, she was out of her element. Her fingers started to fidget, pulling at a loose thread on her hem. But then she gave a nod—and walked out of my office.

I filled in the charts at the desk at the hospital, ordering more scans for the patients who had improved airways. I was working nights at the hospital and research during the day, along with the clinic. All I did when I wasn’t at work was work out and sleep.

It didn’t bother me before.

Now it did—because I was about to lose the one thing that gave me meaning.

“Atlas?”

I turned to see Dr. Hamilton standing there in his blue scrubs, his stethoscope around his neck. His intelligent eyes looked me up and down, seeing something that someone else wouldn’t have noticed. “Have you been here all night?”

“What time is it?” I looked at the corner of the computer screen. It was seven in the morning. When I looked around, I noticed the shift change, nurses coming onto the floor to relieve the ones who had been there all night. “Yeah, I guess so.”

He took a seat in the chair beside me then turned to regard me head on. “What’s going on?”

“Mrs. Montana was taken off oxygen—”

“With you.” Those dark eyes drilled into mine, the same way Daisy’s did, with that powerful intelligence. It was like a telescope, able to see galaxies and distant suns, when everyone else could only see a bright spot in the sky.

“Oh…I’ve just got a lot going on right now.”

“If you’re so busy, then why are you spending all night at the hospital?”

“Honestly, time just flew by—”

“Atlas.”

I suddenly felt scolded by my father, when I hadn’t been scolded by him in a very long time. I felt like Derek or Dex, their father putting them on the spot because it was his job to do so. He asked the hard questions, made me uncomfortable, because it was his job. It was like being with a ghost—the ghost of my father. It was like…he was still here.

“Son, talk to me.” His hand moved to my shoulder.

Just the way my dad used to.

He gave me a tight squeeze with his fingers, that penetrating gaze with his eyes.

There was nowhere to run.

“You can tell me anything.”

“Sir…I can’t.”

“Yes, you can. And stop with the sir shit. I’m not your boss.”

“Then what are you?” He was the owner of the company, the person who hired me, the person who hired everyone who stepped foot on his property. He was the person who paid me, who assigned projects.

His hand left my shoulder as he regarded me. “I’m not religious, but…I like to think I’m your godfather. I’m here to look after you.”

The emotion pumped in my heart, made me weak, and that made me want to push it away. “I’m a grown man…I don’t need someone to look after me.”

His expression didn’t change, like he didn’t believe me. “I wish my father were still here to look after me. I wish he’d been there when I married my wife. I wish he’d been there to help me with Derek. I wish he’d been there for advice for all the stages of life that he’d already experienced. My kids are all grown, and they still come to us for almost everything.”

I looked away, nurses passing by and checking on patients in their rooms, techs taking patients to radiology, announcements on the intercom. The world passed by, completely oblivious to our conversation.

“Now talk to me, Atlas.”

“I just… It’s Daisy.” I released a sigh. “I feel weird talking about it with you because…you know.”

He gave a slight nod, his eyes dropping down. “Do you love her?”

Put on the spot, I stared into the dark eyes that stared into mine. “Yes.”

“Then it’s not weird.”

We stepped through the elevator doors into the living room of my penthouse.

In his scrubs, he walked inside and took a look around. “You have a nice place.”

“Thanks.” I went to the kitchen and poured two glasses of scotch, since I knew what he liked, and carried it to the dining table. I took a seat.

He took a seat across from me and took a drink.

I was so fucking tired right now. We’d finished our day at the hospital because our patients needed us, but that meant I’d worked for about fifteen hours straight. My fingers rested on the surface of my glass, and I stared at it for a while, unsure where to start. I’d never been in this situation before, but I was certain no one had ever been in this situation ever before. I was about to talk to the father of my girlfriend…about my girlfriend.