Inmate of the Month (Souls Chapel Revenants MC 7)

I loved perfection.

I loved the way a fresh cut of grass looked on a lawn. I loved it even more when the edges were cut with an edger instead of a weed eater, making it even more perfect.

My favorite thing in the world was to cut my lawn. It was always so therapeutic.

Sadly, the sidewalk ended and dumped me right into the front door, leaving me with no other choice but to announce myself.

Steeling myself, I was about to knock on the door when the angry face of Zach filled the doorway.

I swallowed hard and nodded at him politely. “Mr. Caruso.”

Zach Caruso’s eyes narrowed on me, but before he could say anything in reply, Crockett, his soon-to-be wife, was there.

“Hello, Catori.” She smiled. “How are you today?”

She eyed me up and down, her eyes taking in the pink.

“I’m well. How are you? How is Zakelina doing today?” I asked.

As Crockett pushed her man out of the way, the two of us walked toward the living room where I could hear an adult male chatting with a small voice that I knew to be Zakelina’s.

I was prepared for a man.

I just wasn’t prepared for this particular man.

I gasped, face filled with shock.

Because the man that was sitting next to Zakelina on the couch wasn’t a scary guy.

It was someone that I knew.

Someone that I’d been watching all morning.

Porn guy!

I lost the next couple of seconds. Or minutes. While my mind went absolutely haywire.

In fact, it shorted out so spectacularly that I hadn’t even realized they were talking to me until Zach was mad.

When the man swept past me, my face flamed even higher.

Why?

Because I’d seen this man masturbate all morning. I’d watched and rewatched the video so many times that I knew what his face looked like when he came. I knew what the cords of his neck did when his release hit him. I knew that right before he came, his belly tensed and the V at his belly went so rigid that it almost looked painful.

I also knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that I’d never be able to look him in the eye again.

Luckily, the next thirty minutes that I spent with Zakelina served to cool my raging libido down to a simmer.

Unluckily, when Zach came in and spouted out the nonsense that he spouted, I hadn’t been prepared.

I’d said things I shouldn’t have said.

And now, I was sure that I’d be looking for a different job tomorrow.

Funny enough, I wasn’t too upset.

The name of the game was getting patients better.

Did it suck that I had to do that by hurting them? Yes. I didn’t enjoy watching kids cry. I especially didn’t enjoy being the cause of that pain.

And Zakelina having to deal with pain, after already suffering so much, hadn’t been something I’d wanted to do.

Yet, that was exactly what Zach was accusing me of with his comment as he came into the room a while later as I was wrapping up the session.

“Maybe if you were paying more attention to my girl and not how you have the hots for some man that doesn’t reciprocate, you wouldn’t be hurting your patients,” Zach snapped.

Where in the hell had those words come from?

What the absolute hell?

“I’m doing my job.” I calmly stood up, gathering my things. “My job is to help that little girl get better. To help her to learn to speak and eat normally again. Now, you need to work on her opening her jaw all the way. She’s spent weeks with it wired shut, and I’m sure, as an ex-doctor and all, you know what’ll happen if she doesn’t use those muscles, correct? Or did you forget your medical knowledge when you killed that patient?”

Zach took a threatening step toward me. And when he did, my eyes went hot as I inwardly cursed my lack of weapon.

I knew that Zach wouldn’t hurt me.

At least logically.

Illogically, my brain was going haywire. And I talked when I was nervous.

“I’m here to do my job. I’m not here to be her friend. I’m here to make sure that she can live the rest of her life as a normal person. Now, she needs to open her mouth as wide as she can. And repeat. All the damn time. Then she needs to actually get back to eating real food. Chewing and swallowing. I’ll be back tomorrow.” I gathered her things and shouldered her bag.

Zach’s eyes were spitting fire. “Not if I can help it.”

I smiled sweetly at Zach. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Then I left before I could say or do anything more that would make the situation any worse.

Like tell Zach he was a piece of shit to everyone but his closest family.

I was halfway down the length of the driveway when I heard someone say, “Wednesday!”

I frowned and kept walking, but turned my head and looked over my shoulder. “No. I’ll be here tomorrow. Tomorrow is Tuesday.”