Page 12 of Corrupted By the Shadow King (Hope Runs Deep #3)
Nikki
“ O h, Nikki,” Erin, one of the other nurses in my department, calls out in a sing-song voice.
Rolling my eyes, I grin and turn around.
Normally, I love her. She is a close friend and someone I met on my first day at the hospital.
When I got my certifications to be a surgical nurse, she recommended me for the position that had just become available.
However, she is always overly happy and can be a bit annoying, especially when I’m tired from lack of sleep, and I have not slept well two nights in a row.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Alex.
Is he okay? Is Angel taking care of him? Did they have to call the doctor?
I gasp. Erin is somewhere behind a forest of long-stemmed purple roses, and she appears to be struggling under the weight of them.
She is petite. Tiny frame in a body several inches shorter than mine, but she knows how to wrangle patients when needed and always maintains her sunshine personality no matter what anyone throws at her.
When I found out she used to be a cheerleader, I was not surprised one iota.
“Whoa! Let me help you with those.” I grab the vase and heft it onto the nurses’ desk. “Who are these for?”
“You.” Her grin is the biggest I’ve ever seen on her, and I swear she is about to clap her hands and do a backflip.
“Me? Are you sure?”
Her smile grows. “Yep. Amy just brought them up. I was walking by and told her I would bring them to you. I should have taken the cart too. Those things weigh a ton.”
“From whom?” It’s not that I expect her to have an answer; it is rhetorical, but I’m in a bit of shock and don’t know what to say.
“There’s a card!” she squeals and points, bouncing on her toes.
Reaching out hesitantly as if the thing is going to bite me, I grab the small white envelope and yank my hand back.
I’m in shock. Who would send me roses? Purple roses.
Three dozen purple roses. Slowly, I open the flap and release the breath I’ve been holding.
A smile pulls at my lips. I shouldn’t feel happy or smile, and my heart sure as hell shouldn’t flutter or anything else, but all of those things happen and more when I read the words printed out on the small white card.
You breathed new life into me. Thank you for healing me and putting up with Angel. If you ever need anything, you only need to ask. -Alex
“Well?” Erin prods.
“Huh?” I continue staring at the card, my gaze caressing the words over and over again.
“Just someone I helped when they needed it.” What else could I say? I ran into a guy, jumped into the back of a dark car, thought I was going to be shot, somehow saved the guy, and lived to tell the tale.
“Wow. Must be a nice someone.”
“He is.”
“What’s this?” And just like that, the bubble bursts. The sound of Kevin’s voice sets me on edge and breaks through the haze I am basking in.
“A present,” I tell him, my voice sharp and succinct.
I should have known Erin wouldn’t leave it at that. “Some guy sent Nikki flowers. Something about helping him when he needed it.”
Kevin is so close to me now, I can feel him stiffen. Please don’t make a scene , I silently beg in my head. “What exactly did you help him with?” he asks, his words sounding almost angry.
“He is a friend and needed some patching up after an accident,” I say as I whirl around to face him.
“A friend? Is that all?”
Narrowing my eyes, I clench my teeth. “Who I interact with, their relationship with me, and what I do for them is my business. Not yours.”
“I’m only looking out for you.”
“No, you’re not. But that doesn’t matter. Even if you were, this doesn’t concern you. He is a friend and grateful for some help I gave him. End of story.”
“Do you like him?”
“None of your business.”
“It is because?—”
I held up my finger and interrupted him. “Let me stop you there. My life outside of this hospital is not your concern, nor is it your business. In fact, you and I are in two different departments, so technically, my life in this hospital is none of your concern unless we have a patient in common.”
He glares at me, folding his arms over his chest. His hands are clenched into fists, his knuckles turning white. I have never been afraid of him before, but right now, he is a little scary. “We are friends, and I’m just concerned.”
“Kevin, we are work colleagues, and that is about it.”
“Your sister told me…” His words drop off.
“My sister what?” Fucking Agathe.
“Nothing. As a friend, whether you see me like that or not, I’m worried. That’s all. What if he expects something in return?”
I breathe in and out, willing myself to calm down.
Regardless of how I feel about him, his heart is in the right place, and we still have to work together.
“He doesn’t. He is a gentleman and simply wanted to thank me for my help.
” I don’t really know if Alex is a gentleman, but I’m not going to tell Erin or Kevin the truth.
Is it wrong that I wish I knew more about him?
There is something about the man. He exudes power and ability.
People—me—are drawn to him, and he demands respect without speaking a word.
I don’t know him, but I saw how his men were.
They didn’t only act the way they did for Angel, they did it for Alex.
Who is he? What is he? A CEO? Some sort of power player in business?
Worse? I can pretend all I want that I didn’t notice the guns, but I did.
I could see the slight bulge under the jackets, and there were a couple who carried large ones out in the open when they didn’t realize I had taken a break.
Mafia? Surely not. Alex is too good-looking and…
I don’t know, but he can’t be that. Then again, if real life was the movies, he would fit in perfectly.
Politician? That would make sense. Most of them are hated by the masses and threats are taken out on their lives all the time.
Right? He had an accent. Maybe an ambassador or something?
“You need to be careful,” Kevin warns.
I close my eyes and count to ten. “Kevin, it is none of your business.”
“We’ve known each other since college. I’m just looking out for you.”
“And I thank you. But now, I have work to do. Don’t you?” I am done talking in circles or defending myself to him and anyone else.
“I was going to ask you to lunch.”
“I’m busy and don’t have time. Plus, as I’ve told you before, I do not date anyone I work with.”
“Not a date,” Kevin rushes to say.
Dropping my head, I exhale and pray for patience because I’m about to kill him, and then HR will really have an issue with me because surely that will cross the line, even if the scalpel to the balls didn’t. “I do not have time. I’m busy with surgery all day, and I have patients to tend to.
“Tomorrow?”
“No. I don’t have time at all this week or next or for the foreseeable future,” I tell him and spin around to step behind the nurses’ station to pull up the chart for the next patient I need to see. Kevin finally takes the hint and leaves me alone.
“Why don’t you give him a chance? You have time before you have to do anything. Now is the perfect time for a lunch break,” Erin states.
“Because he isn’t what I’m looking for,” I tell her. My thoughts stray to Alex again.
“Who is?”
I glance up, ready to say Henry Cavill when the man I have been thinking about for the last forty-eight hours strides up to me as if he owns the place. Maybe he does? I have no clue who owns the hospital. “Alex.” His name comes out as a breathy whisper.
“Alex? Who’s Alex?” Erin asks, not noticing the man that most of the others around have stopped to gawk at.
“Pardon me, did someone call my name?” Alex asks, smiling, and I see a small dimple on his left cheek.
Gasping, Erin falls against the desk, clutching her chest. “Oh!” Her gaze darts between us before she says, “Gotta go,” and disappears.
I glance at his arm. “Are you okay? Do I need to?—”
He waves off my concern. “I’m happy to see you got the flowers. I am here to ask you to lunch.”
“Yeah, I’d like that.” Something deep within me is screaming at me to be careful, but I’m ignoring that voice.
I’m drawn to him like a bug to a bug zapper.
It’s as if I’m hypnotized. I haven’t known him long, and I sure as hell don’t know him beyond treating his wounds, his name, his brother’s name, and that he has a bodyguard named Ricky.
But I don’t care. There is just something about him.