Dr. Fake It - A Possessive Doctor Romance

“Erica,” I said, leaning up against it. “He’s gone. He’s… he’s finished.”

She opened the door a crack then threw it wide. I saw relief in her eyes as she hugged me. “Gavin.” I held her for a moment, then she pulled back, staring over my shoulder. “Oh my god.”

I followed her gaze. Cosimo was dead and his blood soaked into my floor.

“He came at me,” I said, shaking my head. “I had to make sure he wouldn’t hurt you.”

“Gavin. You killed him.”

I took her by the shoulders. “We’ll talk to them. Explain everything.”

“They’re going to kill us.” Her eyes were wide. “Oh my god, Gavin.”

“He was a psychopath. What was I supposed to do?”

“I don’t know.” She buried her face against my chest. “Oh my god, I don’t know.”

I held her there, mere feet away from the body of Cosimo, the bastard, the piece of shit, the monster.

I’d never killed someone before. I’d had patients die, of course— that was part of being a doctor. But I’d never taken a life on purpose.

It should’ve felt strange, or angry, or sad, but instead I felt good.

I felt very good.

I killed that piece of shit before he could hurt Erica, and he deserved it, deserved everything he got.

Maybe that made me a bad man, but I didn’t care.

I protected her, and I’d do it again, a thousand times if I had to.

“I’ll take care of this,” I whispered. “I promise.”

“I know.” She cried, and I held her, and I knew I wouldn’t let her down.28EricaWe slept in a hotel that night.

Getting there was a blur. One second, I stood over Cosimo’s dead body as his blood spread out around him, dripping down through the floorboards, staining the edges of the bedspread blackish red, and the next I was in the shower in a room I didn’t recognize. I found Gavin sitting on the end of the bed with his head in his hands, and I wrapped my arms around him, my body still damp, and leaned against his warmth. We sat like that for what felt like hours before falling asleep.

He got up early the next morning and disappeared before dawn. He came back and woke me up by sitting on my side of the bed and kissing my forehead gently.

I blinked at him, squinted at the clock, and sighed. It was just after eight in the morning.

“Time to get up,” he said softly.

“Last night was a dream, right?”

“Unfortunately, no.” He stood and gestured. “I brought coffee and bagels.”

“I’m not sure I can eat.”

“Try anyway. We’ve got things to do.”

I sat up on my elbows and watched as he walked over to a black duffel bag. He opened it up and I caught sight of money, bundled stacks of fresh cash. He glanced back over his shoulder at me with hard eyes and gave me a tight smile, but didn’t speak.

I managed to drag myself out of bed, downed some coffee, burned my tongue, then took another shower.

I got dressed and stared at myself in the mirror. Dark bags hung under my eyes. I couldn’t remember the last time I felt so tired. I left the bathroom and found him standing near the window, staring outside. He half turned to me and the light fell on him just right, illuminating the long line of his jawbone, made his light eyes sparkle, his dark hair glow. He tilted his head and smiled, and I melted then, melted and couldn’t stop myself as I walked forward and into his arms. He held me tight and kissed my hair.

“It’ll be okay,” he said softly, whispering. “We’ll get through this.”

“You killed him.”

“I did.”

“What are we going to do?”

He pulled back and held me at arm’s length. “We have to make some hard choices now.”

I nodded once, biting back tears. I wasn’t going to lose it now, not when he needed me most.

He killed for me. That thought kept running through my mind, over and over again. He killed for me, he killed for me. He took Cosimo’s life and ended that bastard right then and there, he did it for me.

I could barely breathe. I kept seeing the knife plunge in and the shock on Cosimo’s face as they toppled to the floor. I kept seeing the blood, so much of it, so much blood leaking out all over the place, and the wild anger, the surprise and the rage in Gavin’s eyes.

It never should’ve come to that.

I hated myself for letting it happen.

But it was done. It happened, and I couldn’t go back in time to take it back. Now I had to step up and do whatever was necessary to make sure Gavin got through this okay.

“What do you need?” I asked.

“Here are the options as I see them.” He squeezed my shoulders before he began. “First option, we stay in the city, we keep your mother where she is. We’ll go to Dante, pay him what we owe him, and beg for his forgiveness. I don’t know how they’ll react to that, but I imagine I’ll be working for them for a long time.”