Jordan swallowed her beer and gave his words some silent thought. “You think so?”
“I know so. You want to do something good for yourself? Do whatever it takes to show this girl you love her. If you need to, be an ass. Show her how distracting you can be when it matters. I gave up on my chance, and this is what you get, a man who barely learns a broad’s name before I sleep with her. In this case, don’t try to follow in your old man’s footsteps. It’s a long, lonely road.”
Jordan searched his eyes. “Who knew? Somewhere inside your devil-may-care exterior, is a heart.”
Tony growled softly. “Don’t you dare let that out. I got a rep to protect.”
Jordan laughed. “So, you think she’ll fall for it?”
“If you’re anything like me, she won’t be able to forget you.” Tony wriggled his eyebrows. “One night with The Woz and the ladies always beg for more.”
“Did you seriously just call yourself The Woz?” Jordan punched Tony in the arm. “I don’t know why I thought I could get sane advice from you.” Her tone was light, and she knew her teasing would only egg him on. If anyone had an ego bigger than hers, it was Tony, and he thought he was God’s gift to women. No amount of razzing from Jordan was going to change that.
“Best advice you’re gonna get.” His smiling eyes turned serious. “Take it for what it’s worth, kiddo. Don’t fuck it up like me. Even a man with a warm body in his bed every night gets lonely.”
Jordan nodded. Unfortunately, the ache in her chest was telling her that the words he spoke were true, and if she didn’t do something to change it, she was going to end up walking down the same road he had walked before her.
Chapter 21
“What we’re interested in, Dr. Mercer, is why you chose to lie to us about the altercation between Dr. Stein and Richard Hudson?” Rebecca’s gaze bore into Meghan, daring her to lie again.
Meghan pulled her glasses off and set them on her desk. She didn’t like this line of questioning. She didn’t like that Detective Foxx was sitting in her office grilling her again. She felt anger well up inside her. She had been the director for three years now, ever since Dr. Stein had been forcibly retired, and it seemed like she was still cleaning up his messes. “It wasn’t an altercation per se, and I didn’t feel that it had a bearing on the case. It was Richard Hudson that was wronged, not Dr. Stein.”
“I’m confused, Dr. Mercer.” Rebecca leaned forward pinning her with her emerald-green eyes. “When we ask you if you knew of any issues between Dr. Stein and Richard Hudson, one would assume that this altercation, or whatever you want to call it, would have warranted at least a mention.”
“I’m sure you can understand that given the nature of the issue, it would not have crossed my mind that Dr. Stein would have held a grudge against Richard Hudson. As a matter of fact, it makes more sense that the opposite would be true.”
Rebecca sighed loudly. She was getting nowhere with Dr. Mercer. She glanced at Jordan, wondering why she was choosing to remain as quiet as she was. Normally, she would have jumped in and said something. Instead, she was staying tight-lipped, which gave more weight to her suspicions that she and Dr. Mercer were previously acquainted, and not in a professional manner.
Finally, she rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to Meghan. “Fine. Whatever your reasoning, can we put that aside? Tell me your side of the issue.”
Meghan shrugged. “Matters like this are always difficult to handle, Detective Foxx. It’s a case of he said, well he said/he said in this instance. Richard Hudson complained to me that Dr. Stein made unwanted and unwelcome advances toward his wife. He asked that I remove Dr. Stein from his wife’s procedures. Of course, I obliged. It’s the clinic's stance that the patient is always right, and we take complaints against our staff very seriously. We do whatever we can to ensure that the patient has the best possible experience. Dr. Stein jeopardized that relationship, and it was my responsibility to deal with the matter in the best interests of the patient. However, I did not feel like the matter warranted police attention, nor had anything to do with Dr. Stein’s alleged criminal activity.”
Rebecca watched her face as she spoke, still watching for something that didn’t match the cool, calm exterior. She wasn’t sure if it was just her suspicion of Jordan’s history with her or something else, but she didn’t like her. “How did Dr. Stein react?”
“As you can imagine, Dr. Stein was quite upset with the allegations. He seemed genuinely distraught that his actions could have been misconstrued in such a manner. Despite his missteps, Dr. Stein was an excellent doctor and performed many successful procedures. At no time, did I feel like this particular complaint against him warranted further investigation by the board, or the police, for that matter. It was handled as requested by the patient.”
“Did Dr. Stein happen to mention that Richard Hudson had threatened him?” Rebecca went into attack mode. “That seems like a perfect motive for Dr. Stein to have a personal vendetta against him.”
“I was not aware of that.” Meghan was caught off guard, and she didn’t like it. Nor did she like the predatory look in Detective Foxx’s eyes. If she didn’t know any better, she could have sworn it was directed towards her on behalf of Jordan. And that was another reason she didn’t do relationships anymore. One disastrous relationship for her was enough. Whatever fucked-up mess they were in the middle of, she wanted no part of it. “Dr. Stein kept to himself, especially after his ex-wife left him. I’m sure whatever went on between him and Richard Hudson didn’t alarm him enough to mention it.”
Rebecca narrowed her eyes. Meghan hadn’t done anything other than lie to them, or sin by omission. However she chose to look at it. Nevertheless, there was something she didn’t trust about her. “Did Dr. Stein ever have trouble with any of the other patients?”
Meghan didn’t miss the suspicious look that seemed ever present on Rebecca’s face. “Not to my knowledge. As I mentioned before, previous to Dr. Stein’s mental breakdown, he was a good doctor. He treated everyone with respect, and that included the patients.”
“All the patients, except Elizabeth Hudson, you mean.” Rebecca corrected her in a stern voice.
Meghan hated being corrected. “Yes. I’m sorry I didn’t mention it earlier, Detective Foxx. At the time, I firmly believed that the incident had nothing to do with Dr. Stein and his vendetta against Richard Hudson. I just assumed he was the unlucky victim of a mad man. By the time he was forced to resign, Dr. Stein was an entirely different man than the one that hired me. He took the divorce harder than most, and it changed him.”
“Explain to me again how he was different.” Rebecca didn’t need to know Meghan’s opinion. It didn’t matter anyway. She firmly believed that Dr. Stein was their perp. She was merely enjoying making her uncomfortable, and it seemed the longer she questioned her, the more uncomfortable she got.
Meghan closed her eyes and counted to ten. She was on to Rebecca’s game now, and she was out of the cooperating mood. “How do you mean?”
“What she means is what was Dr. Stein’s personality like before he was fired?” Jordan finally leaned forward and spoke. She could see the anger flaring in Meghan’s eyes, and she suddenly felt the need to stick up for her girlfriend. No, her ex-girlfriend, at least until she figured out a way to fix things with Rebecca.
Meghan rolled her eyes. “I understand that perfectly, Agent Gray. My confusion comes from the fact that we’ve discussed this several times already.”
“Why don’t you repeat it for my benefit?” The edge in Jordan’s voice was unmistakable. She could be pushed only so far before the fangs came out. “Pretend like you haven’t told me.”
Meghan sighed loudly. “Fine. He was sporadic, moody, volatile, and angry. Everything set him off. I saw him threaten techs, other doctors. It wasn’t unlike him to come to work drunk. He was angry and hurt, and he took it out on everyone around him.”