Southerin Nights and Secrets (Boys are Back in Town) Read online

  They have unfinished business…

  Being a doctor is everything to me, but I’m not going to let bureaucrats tell me how to practice medicine. It’s about saving lives no matter what, screw them and their paperwork.

  When the one woman I could never forget, Ginger Crawford, shows up as my boss all bets are off. The heat between us is tough to ignore but I have to if I want a future at this hospital. It isn’t easy. Every time we argue, I want her even more.

  But I’ve got secrets she can never know, and she’s always going to be way too good for me. So it’s best if she hates me…at least that’s what I keep telling myself.

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Discover more category romance titles from Entangled Indulgence… Seducing the Tycoon

  The Bachelor’s Promise

  The Millionaire’s Gamble

  Billionaire Blackmail

  Discover the Boys are Back in Town series… A Night of Southern Comfort

  His Southern Temptation

  Sweet Southern Betrayal

  Secret Santa Baby

  Playing with the Drummer

  The Prince’s Runaway Lover

  Her Secret Lover

  Playing the Part

  Sex and the Single Vamp

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2016 by Robin Covington. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.

  Entangled Publishing, LLC

  2614 South Timberline Road

  Suite 109

  Fort Collins, CO 80525

  Visit our website at www.entangledpublishing.com.

  Indulgence is an imprint of Entangled Publishing, LLC.

  Edited by Alethea Spiridon

  Cover design by Erin Dameron-Hill

  Cover art from iStock

  ISBN 978-1-63375-732-5

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  First Edition September 2016

  To all the readers who have loved my Boys. Thank you!

  And to all the good ole, country, Virginia boys who wear baseball caps, love NASCAR, college football, their mama’s cooking, fast cars, dark country roads on a summer night, kissing in the flatbed of a pick-up truck, and Merle Haggard.

  This book is for you.

  Chapter One

  Beck was going to fucking kill somebody.

  Yes, as a doctor he’d taken an oath to “do no harm,” but whoever had taken a boot to a little boy and sent him to this Level One Trauma Center deserved to get a fast track to hell. Beck would be happy to help get him there, but first he had to make sure this kid didn’t get there first.

  “Come on, buddy. Work with me here.” He flicked a glance up at the monitors, noting the stats and tracking the kid’s vitals while he figured out what exactly had happened to him.

  Although, he had a pretty good idea.

  The kid’s caramel-colored skin was covered in old bruises—mostly where they wouldn’t show under regular clothing—with evidence of fresh ones festering under his clammy flesh. The boy had finally settled down with the morphine, but he moaned when Beck hit a tender spot. It was a damn sight better than the pitiful crying and screaming he’d done when they first rolled him into the ER of the Shenandoah Regional Medical Center.

  “What’s his name?” Beck asked Tricia, the nurse beside him as he continued to assess his injuries.

  “Marcus. He’s ten years old,” she answered with a tight edge to her tone. They saw a lot in this job, but kids were the worst.

  “Okay Marcus. I’m gonna feel around your tummy and see what’s going on.” Beck palpated the bloated area knowing he’d feel the telltale signs of internal bleeding and winced when the boy lurched a little under the restraints and cried out for his mama. Beck wasted no time turning to the other nurse hovering just over his shoulder. “Keep pushing the IV fluids, normal saline ‘wide open’ and O neg blood until we get back his type. Call for a trauma surgeon, open an OR, and type and cross for four to six units packed red blood cells.”

  The nurse acknowledged his order and scurried off to get the OR ready for Marcus. Beck glanced at the monitor, disliking how his blood pressure wasn’t holding steady. Not surprising when a patient was losing a lot of blood, but not something to fuck around with, either.

  “Dose him with dopamine to counteract the BP issues and call to get the sheriff here as soon as possible,” Beck barked out, too tired after a full shift to even try to be charming. When no one moved he glared at another nurse standing by as if waiting for an invitation to do her job. “Wake up and get moving. Now.”

  Trish glanced over her shoulder as her colleague scurried off before giving Beck a sour look from the other side of the table. “Dr. Sutherland. Didn’t your mama ever tell you that you get more flies with honey than vinegar?”

  “My mama didn’t stick around long enough to teach me shit, and you know my tongue can be mighty sweet when I want it to be.” And she did. He’d spent a few nights in her bed keeping her up way past curfew and then making her late for work in the morning. He checked the monitor again. The numbers weren’t getting any better. “Help me get him intubated. I’m worried about his breathing.”

  “Yes.” Trish worked efficiently as she talked, gathering the necessary equipment and moving alongside Beck at the head of Marcus’s stretcher. “You know hospital policy is to inform administration before we call law enforcement except in the case of emergent circumstances.”

  “I’ll let the people in the adminisphere know as soon as I save this kid’s life and make sure the asshole who brought him gets a hard look from the cops.” He pointed to a couple of fresh bruises, the abrasion on the skin perfectly matching the tread of a boot, before getting in position to put the breathing tube into his young patient. “I got a look at the guy who came in with Marcus’s mother. Angry and swinging his big dick around like he was daring somebody to question the dumbass story he gave about this kid falling off a swing set. I don’t want him to disappear.”

  Tricia sighed, her hands moving swiftly to switch out the bag of fluids connected to the IV drip. “You don’t know he was the one who did this.”

  “Yes. I do.” He knew firsthand what an abuser looked like when he was worried about getting caught. Over the years his sixth sense when it came to the shittier side of humanity had been honed to the accuracy of a GPS—more a curse than a gift—but he knew what he knew. Marcus’s monitors suddenly started going off. Not in a good way. “
Fuck. He’s crashing.”

  The sound of the Code Blue signal over the PA system was barely audible over the rush of blood in his veins and the roar in his ears as his own blood pressure rose while Marcus’s plummeted. Beck cleared the rolling carts away from the bedside as he got in position to start chest compressions just as the shrill alarm from the monitor sang out the flat notes that beckoned all the nearby angels to come and get the boy with a dimple in his right cheek and a “Phineas and Ferb” T-shirt.

  “Marcus. I’m not letting you do this today, buddy.” Beck kept talking as he continued the chest compressions, stopping at each required interval to see if his patient had taken over the breathing part of getting through this ordeal. Beck watched the monitor. Nothing. He began a new set after Trish used the bag covering his mouth to give Marcus oxygen. “I’ve got a date with a sweet BASE jump and then this blonde I met at a dog park. I don’t have a dog because I work too many hours but I borrowed my buddy Teague’s new puppy and that dog brought all the pretty women over to me.”

  Beck kept talking, convinced that Marcus was still nearby just waiting for a pull back to this life. Many patients had told him that they heard people talking to them as they hovered between life and death for him to doubt it.

  The monitor blipped and stuttered for a few breathtaking seconds before the computerized mimic of the sweetest little heartbeat filled the space, and Beck eased back a little. He barely got a deep breath before the monitor went crazy again and all hell broke loose around him. Again.

  “Is that OR ready?” he shouted, continuing the chest compressions as he hopped onto the gurney and straddled the stretcher, leaning over his young patient. It had been a couple of years since he’d “code surfed” but he wasn’t letting up on this kid until they got him to the OR. He’d learned the hard way that patients didn’t always make it if he didn’t stay with them.

  When he received a noncommittal response from the nurse on the phone he nodded for one of the staff to start wheeling them toward the elevator. Ignoring the stares of the staff and the people in the other ER bays, he kept up his steady rhythm as he shouted over his shoulder. “Tell them to get an anesthesiologist there because I’m coming up right now.”

  Thirty-five minutes and one more life-threatening crash later, Marcus was in the able hands of the surgeon, and Beck headed back down to the ER. Still buzzing with adrenaline, the idea of calming the fuck down before he went to talk to Marcus’s parents didn’t even qualify as a thought, it was in his mind for so short a time. He rounded the corner to the familiar ER and caught sight of Sheriff Burke standing at the nurse’s station. Catching the older man’s eye, he beckoned for him to follow as he kept up his steady pace.

  “Dr. Sutherland,” the sheriff called from behind him, his warning loud and clear. “Beck!”

  Ignoring him, Beck walked into the almost empty waiting room where he found the ashen-faced mother and the asshole she let put a hand on her son. She saw him and stood, her hand flying to cover her mouth and tears making her eyes glassy. Braced for the worst, she barely acknowledged the shove the man beside her gave, along with the terse direction to “keep her fucking mouth shut.”

  “Mrs. Jones?” Beck stepped around the mountain of man in front of him, knowing that it would piss him off. With the cops just over his shoulder he wanted Mr. Asshole to lose it and show his hand. “Would you come with me? I’d like to update you on Marcus’s status.”

  “You ain’t taking her anywhere without me,” Mr. Asshole said.

  “And you are?” He made sure that he maintained eye contact with the guy, letting him know that he wasn’t some kid or woman he could push around. “I didn’t see any other parent listed on Marcus’s paperwork.”

  “My money puts food on the table and clothes on his back.”

  “Do you also put the bruises on his body?” Beck kept his tone even in spite of the flaring burn of anger in his belly and ache to hit something­­—preferably Mr. Asshole’s face. “Because I’m pretty sure he didn’t get them falling off a swing set.”

  Mr. Asshole took a step forward, bringing his bulk as close to Beck as he could get without touching him. Come on, buddy, just give me a reason to beat the shit out of you. As if he could read his mind, Beck felt the sheriff move closer in behind him. He knew Beck well and probably saw he was spoiling for a fight.

  “Can you please just tell me how my boy is?” The small voice of Mrs. Jones eased the tension slightly, and Beck broke eye contact with the man, a little shame-faced that he’d let his anger distract him from tending to this distraught mother.

  He softened his tone, taking the hand she extended out to him. He told her straight, knowing she needed to hear it all. “Marcus is in surgery to remove his ruptured spleen. He’s lost a lot of blood, and it was touch and go there for a bit. Marcus isn’t out of the woods yet.”

  At his last words, her face scrunched up in pain as she sank back down into her chair, tears streaming down her face as she whimpered with fear and pain. She held on to his hand, and he had no choice but to fall to one knee beside her.

  “Mrs. Jones. There are bruises all over Marcus’s body, and they weren’t caused by a fall from a swing set.” He leaned in closer, keeping his voice low and soothing, trying to coax the truth from her. “Whoever did this almost killed your son. I need to know the truth.”

  The small woman—with black and blue bruises peeking out from the edge of her long-sleeved shirt—shuddered with the impact of her tears. He didn’t want to push her but this was the best time to get the truth out of her. She might be so scared for her son that it would overcome her terror of the man looming over them both.

  “Mrs. Jones. He’s just a little boy, and his body can’t take much more of this. I need you to tell me the truth, and we’ll get you the help you need,” he cajoled, hyper alert of what he was doing and the consequences. “You tell me what happened, and I’ll get you help. I swear it.”

  “I don’t like what you’re implying there asshole,” the man growled over his shoulder.

  Beck ignored him, keeping his gaze fixed on the large, scared eyes of the woman in front of him. She was terrible at hiding her feelings and he watched as fear, anger, anxiety, despair, and a few other emotions scrolled across her face like a movie.

  “Is my boy going to be okay?” she asked, her voice trembling under the weight of her terror.

  “I don’t know. He’s with the best and they are doing everything they can. He won’t be so lucky next time. His body can only take so much.” He squeezed her hand and went for it, she was either going to tell him now or keep her secret and continue the cycle. “Did Marcus fall off a swing set?”

  “No.”

  Beck took a breath, tamping down the flare of anger so that he didn’t frighten her off. Mrs. Jones had lived her life in fear and her survival instinct had programmed her to shut up when threatened.

  “What happened?” When she dropped her gaze from his face he urged her on with a leading question. “Did someone hurt Marcus?”

  She nodded still looking down at the floor between them. He tightened his grip on her hand as he asked again.

  “Who hurt Marcus?”

  “My husband.”

  “I need a name.”

  “Damon…Damon Jones. My…m…my husband.”

  “You bitch!”

  Beck knew the punch was coming. Mr. Asshole aimed straight for him and his fist connected with the side of Beck’s head, and he saw not just one or two stars but the whole fucking universe as he reeled back from the blow.

  But Mr. Asshole made a mistake. Beck was used to taking a punch—growing up with his old man was a doctorate level course in the school of hard knocks, and he’d been top of his class. Beck shook it off and came up swinging, clipping the bigger man on the jaw hard enough to stun him and bring him down to the hard, tile floor of the waiting room with a mixed martial arts move that he’d spent lots of time perfecting.

  Beck flipped Mr. Asshole like a pancake, s
ubdued him with a rear naked choke, and pressed down on his carotid until he stopped trying to elbow Beck’s nuts up into his chest cavity. Beck shoved down the pain still shooting around his skull and looked up at Sheriff Burke.

  “You think you might want to jump in here law enforcement officer?” He grunted as Mr. Asshole levered off the floor and elbowed him again, barely missing the family jewels. “I could seriously use some enforcement over here.”

  “Dr. Sutherland what are you doing?”

  Beck peered beyond the sheriff, toward the man who always looked like he’d forgotten to remove the stick shoved up his ass—Douglas Bent—Vice President of Operations for the hospital. His disapproval of everything about Beck was reaching legendary proportions among the gossipy staff, and Beck knew this man was the one thing that stood between him and the open position of ER Team Leader.

  Lying on the floor choking someone out wasn’t going to go over well with Mr. Bent. Even if the guy was a child abuser.

  “He’s assisting the apprehension of the suspect in the aggravated abuse of a child.” The sheriff nodded to his deputy to take custody of his temporary prisoner. “Dr. Sutherland alerted us to the situation.” The older man leaned down and assisted his colleague as they both struggled to get the handcuffed man on his feet. The eye roll was a clear indicator that he also thought Bent was a tool.

  Beck levered off the floor, rubbing his aching head as he handed over the scumbag he hoped would get a very big guy name Bubba as his cell mate. He glanced over at Bent, trying to assess how this was all going play out when he spied the people standing next to him. Alex Rifkin, the Director of Security, and a woman. “I just did what any—”

  He must have a concussion. Head trauma. Something, because the woman standing next to Bent was the last person in the universe he ever expected to see again.

  Long toned legs that were partly due to genetics and partly due to a five-mile-per-day running habit. A sexy black suit with a hint of cleavage, skin the color of rich toffee, dark hair that felt like spun silk, and even darker eyes you could just sink into for several hours.