The Doctor Who Has No Ambition (Soulless Book 9) - Victoria Quinn Page 0,71

I said any of that.”

“Your secret is safe with me.” She moved her pen to the page. “I’ll make the arrangements so you can start as soon as possible. I’ll also hire some people for the office. You’ll need at least one nurse, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Anyone else? Another receptionist?”

He shook his head. “I don’t have a lot of patients, so I don’t think that’s necessary.”

“How does that work, exactly?” she asked. “If you don’t have a lot of patients, how do you stay in business?”

“Since I take on the most difficult surgeries that most other surgeons can’t perform, it’s pretty fucking expensive, basically.” That was the candid answer. “I’m not going to operate on someone when I think there could be other treatments conducted, so I only take on advanced cases with slim odds. My reputation as the best fetches me the highest price, and some of my surgeries net a couple million.”

Her eyebrows rose.

“The wealthiest people in the world come to me for health care. I’ve had actors, politicians, Saudi Arabian princes…” They paid for the best, so they got the best, and it allowed me to be selective in my patients while keeping the lights on and my bank account big. “But the beauty of it is that it also allows me to take on patients who can’t afford my services under any other scenario, like Mr. Torres. I usually have a lottery system in place because I’ll take on any patient, regardless of their health insurance, or if they even have health insurance at all. I believe everyone has the right to good health care, but the constraints of our system in this country make that unrealistic, so this is the best I can do—best of both worlds.”

She nodded in understanding and looked at me with the softest eyes I’d ever seen. “If they don’t have health insurance, how are the rest of the fees paid? I know you can donate your time, but what about the operating room, the nurses, the medications?”

“I have a lot of sponsors. They make donations to this fund of money that I use for those patients. A lot of those sponsors are former patients of mine, but also members of the community, patients of my father, stuff like that.”

“What happened to that fund after you left?”

“I tried to refund everyone, but nobody wanted it. I gave it to my father so he could use it for his patients, but he didn’t use it either because he has his own financial sponsors. So, I imagine it’s just sitting there.”

“That’s good news for Mr. Torres.”

“Yeah…”

“Speaking of Mr. Torres…should I book your first appointment?”

My eyes immediately dropped, terrified of having that kind of intimacy with a patient again. I spent a lot of time with my patients and developed a deep bond with them, and that made my surgeries more challenging because the person on the table had become a friend. I’d been criticized for it by my colleagues, and after losing Allen, I realized they were right.

“Dex?”

I lifted my chin and looked at her again. “Not right now.”

Her eyes slowly filled with disappointment. “Dex, I don’t need to remind you that this man is on borrowed time…”

I closed my eyes at the reminder. “I already know exactly what he needs, how I would handle that operation, but I’m just not ready. I can’t force it, Sicily.”

She gave a slight nod in understanding. “Alright. Then let’s start slow.”

21

Sicily

When Cleo told me they got Dex an apartment in Manhattan, I assumed they meant a real apartment, like my apartment.

But no, they had a whole different definition of the word.

Because the place was more like a luxury penthouse.

It had serious square footage, three bedrooms, a full kitchen, a dining room, and a living room that could hold enough people for a major holiday party. One look at it made me envious that I didn’t have billionaire parents who would give me everything I could ever possibly need at the drop of a hat, but it also made me a little fearful because Dex wouldn’t be happy when he found out.

He was technically my boss, but Cleo was like my other boss, so I followed her orders over his. I brought the designer into the space so the custom furniture could be ordered, along with the paintings and the sculptures. It would take a few weeks for everything to come in, along with the rugs, and whenever he was ready to see it, hopefully he would be so pleased