Gentleman Sinner

With a loaded sigh, I drop to a bench outside the hospital and stare blankly at the ground. How could he do this? Years of training wasted. My sanctuary taken away from me. I have bills to pay. What am I going to do?

My phone rings, and I sluggishly pull it out of my coat pocket, finding Jess is calling me. She’s on shift. Surely news couldn’t have made it to the other side of the hospital already. ‘Hey?’

‘Oh my God, Izzy. I just heard.’

I sink into the hard wood of the bench. Seems it could. ‘Sugden’s lying.’

‘What the hell happened?’ She’s whisper-shouting now, probably locked in a closet somewhere on the maternity unit.

‘I think he was waiting for me after my shift last night. He cornered me and threatened me. You know, your usual end-of-shift wind-down. He didn’t know Theo was with me.’

‘Seriously? Is the man blind? How did he miss him? He’s a fucking giant.’

‘He was getting me a coffee. I went outside to wait for Callum.’ I glance around to check my privacy and lower my voice. ‘Theo had him held at gunpoint, Jess. Callum had to talk him down. But the gun hasn’t been mentioned. Theo let him go, and the last I saw, Sugden was all in one piece.’

‘Oh, fucking hell,’ she breathes. ‘The last you saw?’

‘Theo disappeared for a couple of minutes to validate the parking ticket.’ I close my eyes and cup my forehead in my palm, my head beginning to pound. ‘Callum was behind the wheel at the barrier, so Theo went.’ It’s only now I realize Callum could have gone. If the car needed to be moved before he returned, surely Theo could have slid over to the driver’s seat and done it.

‘A couple of minutes? You think he could do that much damage so quickly?’

‘I know he could.’

‘God, Izzy, I know it’s not what you want to hear right now, but you can’t blame Theo for losing his shit if Sugden attacked you.’

‘No, but I can blame him for losing my job.’

She falls silent for several seconds, but I can hear her breathing. She can’t argue with me. Because I’m right. She knows it, I know it, and I’ll make damn sure Theo knows it when I see him. ‘What are you going to do?’

‘I have no idea, Jess,’ I answer wearily, because I truly don’t. My verbal pleas to Theo, calling him off Sugden, were words. Hearsay. Unprovable. Sugden’s injuries are physical and visible, hard evidence if ever there was any. I’m screwed, and for the first time, I’m wondering who the hell I’ve really gotten myself involved with.

‘Go home,’ Jess says. ‘And get a bottle of wine on the way. I’m off shift in a couple of hours.’

‘Okay.’ I exhale, hang up, and mentally calculate how many bottles of wine I can carry by myself. I’m going to need more than one.

What a fucking mess. My feet are heavy as I start my walk home, my mind weighed down, too, and as I reach the end of the road, I slow to a stop, seeing a familiar Bentley rounding the corner up ahead. My shoulders drop. I’m too tired to have an argument, and that’s exactly what we’re going to have. I follow the path of the big, posh car, slowly turning on the spot until I’m facing the road and it’s pulling up in front of me. The door opens and Theo slides out, my eyes lifting to accommodate his height. He looks smart, his deadly body encased in a grey three-piece suit. Today, I can’t appreciate the finely tuned man before me. Today, I can only wonder with increasing worry how damaged my career will be because of him. And, annoyingly – because I’m mad with him – whether Theo will be taken away from me. Arrested. Thrown in jail. As I said to Jess, you can’t live by the sword and never get cut.

His deep blue eyes glimmer with delight until he clocks my expression, and then the brightness dulls, his dimple fades, and his forehead furrows. ‘Izzy?’ He closes the door softly and takes a step towards me. ‘What’s wrong, sweetheart?’

‘Why didn’t Callum go to pay for the ticket?’ I ask, cutting straight to the point. If I don’t start getting answers, I’m going to explode all over Theo.

His head turns to the side, but his eyes remain on me. ‘What?’

‘Yesterday when you picked me up from work, after you held a man at gunpoint. Why didn’t Callum go pay for the car park ticket?’

‘Why are you asking such a trivial question?’

‘Just answer me!’ I yell, finding anger amid my exhaustion.

His jaw ticks. ‘Don’t take that tone with me, Izzy.’

‘Why, what will you do?’ I ask, stepping closer, bold and brave. I won’t back down. Never. Besides, isn’t my bravery one of the things Theo claims to love about me? Let’s see how much he loves facing my wrath. ‘Pull a gun on me?’