We All Sleep Alone (Finley Creek #11) - Calle J. Brookes Page 0,107

No. She would be ok.

It was Jennifer and Reggie he needed to worry about. Not Lizzie.

It took him a long time to remember—her name was Izzie. Not Lizzie.

Izzie wasn’t his daughter. She never would be.

She was not Elizabeth. He didn’t know why he kept forgetting that. Maybe because his daughter would have been around her age. Probably about her size, like Jennifer. Dark hair and eyes, most likely.

Maybe she would have taken after him and gone into medicine, too.

She would have been friends with Izzie. They would have been close. They would have had the same spunky fire.

Maybe that was it.

He stayed where he was, watching her settle in and work the desk phones. With the cast, she wouldn’t be allowed to do any patient care because of the contamination risks. She could make herself useful in other ways.

It was good. She wouldn’t be able to see him well at all behind the desk. He stayed there, until a loud disturbance erupted at the other end of the hall.

Wallace turned, to see an obviously intoxicated man in full glory hustling down the hallway, little Nikkie Jean and a nurse he didn’t recognize trailing in the naked man’s wake.

Wallace stood, and slipped through the pneumatic doors and out into the sun, memories of what he’d done on constant replay in his head.

He slipped around the rear of the building almost without thinking. There was still a stairwell there with poor camera footage. It led to the rear of the roof over parts of what were the original 1920s building. He’d be able to hole up there for a while.

He was going to wait. Watch. Make certain little Izzie made it home tonight.

It was the least he could do. Someone had to watch out for her. Girl had no real family. That uncle of hers that Jennifer was going on about. So alone.

Pity. Everyone should have a family to love them. To cherish.

Losing his was the greatest sorrow of Wallace’s life.

89

Well. This was a great welcome back present.

Not the kind of show she ever wanted to see. Izzie really wanted to cover her eyes. To look away. She couldn’t. Someone had to stop Mr. Bell before he walked around the hospital—displaying that. It wasn’t the first time she’d been flashed, but it was the first time it had ever been at...full mast. In the midst of the largest waiting room in the hospital.

“Izzie, can you ring Psych? I think we may have a...live one,” Nikkie Jean said, right behind her.

Other patients were squealing. They had at least a dozen kids walking around the place, too. Izzie shifted, trying to block Mr. Bell’s goods from being an impromptu sex ed class. Nikkie Jean shifted closer.

“No problem,” Izzie said quietly. She hit the button and relayed the problem as quickly as possible.

Then stepped out from behind the desk.

“I’ve also rang security. Be here in two minutes,” Hannah said. Hannah was cool—that was for sure. Izzie had to give her that as the newbie approached on Nikkie Jean’s other side.

“Mr. Bell, we have children in this area of the hospital. You will put on a gown,” Nikkie Jean said firmly. She stepped closer, but they were all careful to stay out of the man’s reach.

He was a big guy—and Izzie didn’t mean in the underwear area. It was everywhere else. He was definitely not a grower—or a show-er.

It was still more of a stranger’s penis than she wanted to see today.

“I don’t want to. I’m feeling free! You want to be free with me? All three of you? I’ve never had three pretty ladies before!”

She would not look where the guy’s hand had dropped. Izzie just wouldn’t.

“This guy is as high as a kite, Nik.”

“No kidding. We just need to be a wall until security gets here. Stay back. I don’t think any of us are in the mood for some frottage right now.”

“Tell me about it.” Izzie, Hannah, and Nikkie Jean together didn’t make what this guy weighed. If he wanted to go right through them, he could.

Nikkie Jean didn’t need to be close enough to be bowled over. “You keep back, Nik. You don’t need him knocking you and my godkid down.”

“I’m on your left, Dr. Netorre,” Hannah said quietly. Izzie understood—Nikkie Jean had made it clear to everyone she had a blind spot there. Apparently, Hannah had made note. Technically, Izzie wasn’t supposed to be coming into any contact with patients for the time being, either. She should have stayed behind the