“Give me a minute.” Draegan stared at the young woman as if he were mesmerized. “I’m not believing this.”
“Now.”
“I said it can wait, Markie.”
“No, sugar. It really can’t.” Markie pushed by him and made a point to bump shoulders in passing.
Moments later, he and Draegan stood nose to nose in the small area right outside Sable’s room.
“Just what do you think you’re doin’?” Markie demanded.
“What’s it look like?” Draegan fired back. “My job, Markie.”
“No,” Markie profusely objected and shook his head. “You’re going right for the kill here. You know who she is and you’re probing for information so you can report back to Harley and Mac. Don’t you think that kind of inquisition can wait?”
Draegan frowned.
“Well?”
“Mind your own business, Markie,” Draegan said, pivoting left with apparent intentions of tabling their discussion.
“If she were anyone else, you wouldn’t treat her like this.”
“How did I treat her poorly?”
Markie put his hands on his hips. “Don’t you sass me, guy-friend. I have your back when you’re right but when you’re wrong, I’m the first to tell ya. Now you march your ass back in there and process Sable like you would anyone else or don’t whine when she refuses to go to Trouble with us.” He huffed and puffed, trying to catch his short breath. Then he added, “And fuck that up and see how well you get along with your brothers.”
“Markie—”
“She’s been abused.” He didn’t want to hear Draegan’s excuses. “She’s apparently dealt with one egotistical asshole. Last thing she needs is another.”
About that time, Dr. Vance Sheldon walked by.
“Or another!” Markie called out, smirking when the two-timing bastard came to an abrupt stop.
“Just keep walking, man,” Draegan said, already privy to the story behind Markie’s former married lover. Markie hadn’t known the doctor was married when they’d fooled around. He certainly hadn’t known the doctor had children—five of them to be exact—so when their relationship reached its bitter end, there was little closure.
After Dr. Sheldon disappeared in another patient’s room, Markie said, “Let’s just get this done.”
“Not a problem. Let me do my job.”
“Gladly. Stick to protocol and we’ll be out of here in no time.”
Draegan snarled. “I knew I shouldn’t have sent you.”
“If you’d known who was here, we both know who would’ve been your first call.”
The men returned to Sable’s room and Draegan stepped right into an administrator’s role. With cell phone in hand, he asked questions, typed in her answers, and quickly verified the information supplied.
Sable would be legally divorced at the stroke of midnight. She was twenty-one, almost twenty-two. She had been with her ex for five years. Her mother had signed off on the marriage the day after her sixteenth birthday and she’d moved from Kentucky to Tennessee a week later. She didn’t have any children. She’d been hospitalized eight other times for domestic abuse. Charges had never been filed. The only record of the brutality was sealed away in some sort of private file there at the hospital.
“Crooked damn town,” Markie muttered.
“How come you didn’t file charges with the authorities?” Draegan wasn’t minced for words.
“Because Tony would’ve killed me.” She wasn’t either.
“And Tony is the only one who…”