Chapter Twenty-Eight
Alex
Around seven the next morning, we were sitting around the nurses’ station talking about the last patient who had come to the ER seeking treatment for a self-inflicted branding injury. He'd decided that it would be a good idea to brand his phone number on the inside of his forearm in case he was incapacitated for some reason. The heat and the metal had caused a bad burn and he'd let it go for days without treating it. The burn had developed into a nasty infection that threatened to turn into gangrene if left untreated.
The resident had nearly vomited into the trashcan when he'd seen the severity of the burn, but we'd kept him on track and treated the man. None of us had the heart to tell the patient that it would have probably been wiser to tattoo the number of someone other than himself on his arm in case of emergency.
I'd been checking out my phone waiting for a message from Cam, but when none came, I figured he was busy and didn't have time to be texting. I wanted to talk to him. We had unfinished business, and I wanted to discuss it with him. And then there was the constant ache I felt as I remembered what it had felt like to be curled up in his arms on the huge sofa in his living room. I'd wanted so much more, but I also knew that if I wasn't prepared to accept the fact that he had more money than I'd ever imagined, I couldn't go there with him anymore. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. The money scared me, but Cam seemed so level headed about it and didn't use it to get what he wanted or to pressure me. Maybe there was hope for us.
The phone at the nurses’ station rang several times before Leslie picked it up. She spoke briefly and then said, "Alex, phone for you," as she held out the receiver.
"This is Alex Pierce," I said in as professional a tone as I could.
"Ms. Pierce, is Ms. Baker down there with you?" Mrs. Rikka asked.
"No, ma'am, she is not," I said, looking at Leslie wide-eyed and worried.
"I see," Mrs. Rikka said, hesitating for a moment before adding, "If you see her, please tell her to come to my office. This does not bode well for her internship."
"Yes, ma'am, I will," I replied as my mind started racing. I hung up and looked at Leslie as I said, "Liz is missing. I have to find her."
"Get changed and go," Leslie said as she shooed me out of the nurses’ station.
"But I'm not off shift for another hour," I said. "I can't leave or Mrs. Rikka will have a fit!"
"I'll cover for you," Leslie said. "Go! Go find Liz!"
I made a run for the locker room where I quickly stripped out of my borrowed scrubs and tossed them in the laundry. I had just pulled my pants on when Violet, Jessica, and Lydia rounded the corner of the lockers and saw me.
"Oh, hello, Alex," Violet said in a voice dripping with distain. "I thought you'd be up in the ER until nine."
"I...I'm...Leslie told me to go," I stammered as I tried to avoid talking about what I was doing down in the locker room. "I'm going home."
"I see," Violet said, raising an eyebrow. "It wouldn't be because your druggie friend is missing, now would it be?"
"Huh? What are you talking about, Violet?" I said, genuinely surprised that she'd have any knowledge of Liz or what was going on with her.
"Oh, I know all about Baker and her nasty little habit," Violet said, wrinkling her nose. "She's such trash. This just proves that you can take the girl out of the gutter, but you can't take the gutter out of the girl. Right, girls?"
Jessica and Lydia giggled nervously as they nodded and flipped their perfectly coiffed ponytails. I wanted to punch them all, but I knew better than to invite that mess into my world.
"I guess it takes one to know one, eh, Violet?" I said with a wide-eyed innocence that I certainly did not feel. Violet did a double take before narrowing her eyes and getting ready to pounce.
"I wouldn't know, Pierce," she said. "I've never had to deal with street trash before."
"No, of course you haven't," I said, feeling a little more angry by the minute. How dare she say such horrible things about Liz! "You've had someone to pick up after you and wipe your ass your whole life, haven't you?"
"You're so tacky, Pierce," Violet sniffed, but I could tell I'd gotten to her.
"Of course, I'm the tacky one," I said as I pulled on my top and grabbed my coat. "There you go, projecting your insecurities onto the closest target. I'm sure that when I'm not around, she uses one of you as her target, right?"
Violet's two shadows looked at me and then at each other before they stared at Violet and waited for her to tell them what to think.
"You look like you're doing the walk of shame, Pierce," Violet said, as she looked me up and down. "Where were you last night? Earning your tuition and rent money before you clocked in?"
"I'm not going to dignify that with a response," I said, shaking my head as I looked the three girls up and down. "God, you all are such mindless robots. Good luck, ladies! I've got someplace I need to be!"
I grabbed my bag and ran for the door. I didn't give a rat's ass what Violet and her posse thought of me; I had one thing on my mind and that was to find Liz and make sure she was safe.