not. But it’s not up for debate. As I just said, I hate being trapped in this apartment. And as I also said, I’m not the type to sit around doing nothing. So I pushed up the appointment I had for a recheck with my doctor. I went early this morning.”
Marc did not like what he was hearing. “Why didn’t I know about this doctor’s appointment? Who went with you?”
“Patrick did. And before you call and ream him out, it’s my fault that he didn’t tell you. I made him promise not to. Our deal was that I had to tell you myself by the end of the day, or he’d go to you. I’m living up to my end of the bargain, so cut the poor guy some slack. I didn’t ask his opinion. I announced that I was going with or without him. He just did his job.”
“Son of a bitch,” Marc muttered. “How is it that I know what’s coming next?”
“Because you know me.” Madeline propped herself on an elbow and gazed down at Marc. “I’m going back to work tomorrow—with my doctor’s approval. My ribs are sore but healing, and my concussion is long gone. I’m not allowed to lift heavy objects, and my initial shifts have to be shortened. But I’ll be back at Manhattan Memorial.”
Marc’s entire body was tense, and his stare bore through her. “This is the wrong time for this, Maddy. Even if you are feeling stronger. You’re in the middle of a lawsuit that will probably go to trial, making you a prime target for the media, for hospital staff members and for anyone else who wants a piece of you. Conrad’s not back, so you’ll be standing in for him, too. Don’t do this. It’s a bad idea.”
“I’m not afraid of emotional backlash. If I walk back into that hospital with my head held high, it says I have nothing to feel guilty about. Hiding suggests guilt.”
“You’re not hiding. You’re recuperating.” Marc frowned. “Also, have you given any thought to your security? How the hell can we watch you at work? Follow you around like puppies?”
Madeline’s lips twitched. “Somehow I find it hard to think of you as a puppy. But yes, I’ve thought of that. I’ll be among people every minute. I won’t even go to the ladies’ room alone. You and FI can post security guards at every hospital entrance I use. You can even make periodic strolls through the halls and watch me. Marc, I will not be a prisoner forever. Who knows when this ordeal will be over? I can’t live like a princess in a tower anymore. Of course I’m scared. I already told you that. But work will take my mind off my fear. I’ll be busy, and I’ll be helping people. That’s what I was trained to do.”
With that, her chin came up like a warrior entering battle. “I’ll be reporting for my shift at 8:00 a.m. Patrick is arranging the necessary security as we speak. They’ll be discreet, so no one will know I’m being guarded. As for Jacob, I’ve already notified him. He’s less than thrilled, but he has no basis to prevent me from returning. So that’s that.”
Marc had to smile. She looked so damned cute when she was dictatorial. And yeah, he was pissed, but he had to admire her determination. He also had to admit to himself that, were he in her shoes, he’d do the same thing.
His knuckles caressed her cheek. “You’re a pain in the ass, do you know that?”
“Then we’re well-matched,” she replied. “Because so are you.”
“You know I’ll be living at that hospital whenever you’re working.”
“I never doubted it.” Madeline relaxed and slid her body over his. “I think we’ve argued enough for now.”
“I agree.” He pulled her more firmly over him. “Let’s make up.”
25
IT WAS PREDAWN the next morning when Aidan’s software broke the encryption code for 266.
The contents were labeled Valerie Pintar. It provided her full name, address, contact information, position at Manhattan Memorial, date of employment, date of termination of employment, yada, yada, yada.
Aidan skipped down past the basic specs, and he rolled his eyes when he saw that the entire top section of her file was a sexual performance evaluation. The second section was an explicit physical description of Valerie naked, including a couple of photos. Next came a list of all the dates of her and Ronald’s liaisons. There were quite a few. The guy was obviously a busy boy.
The file went on to do a comprehensive write-up of Ronald’s sexual fantasies with regard to Valerie and what she did to satisfy them.
And last and finally somewhat interesting was a summary of the steps Ronald had taken to end the affair, together with a payout schedule of the hospital money he’d been availing himself of to ensure Valerie’s silence.
“So much for true love,” Aidan muttered under his breath. He was more amused than anything else. He’d seen it all, decrypted international secrets that could make or break empires. The sex life of Ronald Lexington was less than exciting—although he was sure that Forensic Instincts would care about the embezzling part.
The other annoying factor here, given that only Valerie’s file had been decrypted, was that Lexington had clearly set up different encryption keys for each file. That was going to make this process more time-consuming and a bigger pain in the ass than Aidan had hoped. And Jesus, he hoped it was worth it and the jerk hadn’t just done repeats of his sexual exploits, assigning a different encryption key to each woman he’d screwed.
“Daddy, I’m up. Don’t work.” Abby ran into the room, and scrambled onto her father’s lap. “Can we play?”
“At 5:00 a.m.? Sure, imp. I’d love nothing better,” Aidan replied.
Quickly, he texted Ryan, and then emailed everything to him.
Then he went off to do the Barbie thing with Abby.
* * *
Ryan liked his sleep.