Touch And Go - Aiden Bates Page 0,16

life could throw at me.

Or so I thought.

Hours into my shift, I hadn’t been able to shake thoughts of Seb. I was worried, but also more than that. Something about those eyes and the way his lips twisted into a smirk when he was being cheeky… I’d been attracted to patients before, but never to the point where I couldn’t get them off my mind or to where I was having my brother tail him. Shit.

I was thinking about him as I crossed the break room. Shae started thumping on the side of the vending machine, and I looked up.

“No luck today?” Today, the machine won.

“Hell no. Today is officially a bad luck day.”

“I’m telling you.” I shook my head at her and we both stared at the machine as if by angry thought alone we could make her candy bar fall. “You’ve got to stop gambling with this machine, Shae, and just go to the gift shop.”

“Says you! Aren’t you Mr. Make Your Own Luck? Well, make some luck for me, and get D-4 to cough up the goods!”

It took a lot of thumping, swearing, and sweating, but we finally shook the haunted vending machine at just the right angle so the candy bar dropped. Hmm. Five minutes passed where I wasn’t thinking about Seb, but as soon as Shae tore into the wrapper, my head turned back to thoughts of the young man.

By midnight, I’d attended to three traumas, removed a shard of glass from a hand, gotten an asthma attack under control, and still Seb remained front and center in my head.

I had to admit my interest in him was more than protective, professional interest. Those intense green eyes were just the start of it. When he’d been scowling at me on the bench out in front of the hospital, I could barely stop myself from staring at his cupid’s bow lips. The guy was gorgeous, but there was something even more alluring about him than what was on the surface. He was younger than the type I usually went for, but his independent streak reeled me in. Too bad I’d probably never see him again. He hadn’t given any indication he’d be using my business card anytime soon, and I just hoped he had enough resources to get out of whatever bad situation he was in.

It was almost seven in the morning when that bad situation came waltzing right into the emergency room.

“Dr. Carlisle?” Shae waved me over to the intake desk where two big, brawny guys looked me over. I puffed out my chest. Something about this felt off.

“How can I help?” I handed a patient chart to Shae who took the file but continued to stare.

“These two gentleman are looking for information about a patient from earlier today.” Her polite nurse tone didn’t falter, and she tilted her head to hide her suspicious nod from them.

“We’re looking’ to talk to someone who knows about a guy who came in here today.” This one was big and bulky, a rough-looking brawler with a scar over his eye who cracked his knuckles with his thumb as he spoke.

“Lot of folks come through here. I might not be able to help you.” Especially without specifics. “Your guy have a name?”

“Sebastian Lane.” The smaller of the two, but still a good-sized man, shoved his hands into his pockets.

Sebastian. Seb, shit. My stomach turned, but I kept my face neutral.

Big and burly poked his chest with a thumb then jerked it toward the man next to him. “I’m Pete. He’s my boyfriend. This is his brother, Benjamin.”

Benjamin was tall and muscled, the opposite of Seb dancer’s frame, but his eyes were the same sparkling green. Enough of a family resemblance for me to buy that part of the story, but Sebastian with Pete? He looked more like a hired goon than the type of guy I’d imagined as Seb’s type. No way he’d go for a shaved headed, tattooed, full-on thug. God, I hoped not anyway.

Seb came in by ambulance. No ID. No one with him. Far as I knew, he hadn’t even made a call while he was here. Something fishy about this. My gut feeling gave a sharper tug. “What makes you think he’s been here?”

“We’re worried about him, is all.” Ben rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “We heard about a kid coming in with no ID, and we thought it might have been him.”

Strange. There wouldn’t have been any press about a John Doe