touch it. It had her resting her head on his shoulder after all.
Somehow, she had a feeling they both needed it now.
“He went from having a close, happy family, with two younger brothers to a man with two grieving parents. Then they went within a year of each other. He was alone. When he was shot, he was already more mentally fragile than people realized.”
“I’ve said it before, but I do mean it. I am sorry that you lost him. I don’t want to even imagine losing Annie or Nikkie Jean or anyone else like that.”
“I like your hair back here.” His hand slipped up her spine; he toyed with her hair for a moment. She looked at him, not sure what to say. “Your hair is like silk. Like the rest of you, I suspect.”
“Allen…” She practically squeaked his name.
“It still hurts to talk about him.” Allen shifted her even closer. Even it didn’t seem physically possible. “Not that many people are willing to listen to anything positive about him. He’s the villain now. To everyone.”
“I can understand that.” Logan Lanning had never been a nice man. He’d been cold, harsh, critical, and cutting to everyone at the hospital. That had been when he’d been in a pleasant mood. Izzie had done her best to avoid him. Even before what Dr. Daniels had tried with her. To hear Allen talk, the man had been far more nuanced than that. “I didn’t like him. You know that. I can’t lie. It makes me uncomfortable to talk about him considering what he did—”
“To you? I’ve never understood exactly what happened. I have heard Nikkie Jean and Lacy say that something did.” His hands shifted her, just a little. Until they were almost nose to nose. “I know he had a habit of bullying nurses. I learned about it later. What did he do to you specifically?”
She hesitated. The last thing she wanted was to give him details. “He was good friends with Dr. Daniels.”
“Dr. Daniels was first cousin to Logan’s mother. He also lost a son to the same heart condition as Logan’s brothers when the boy was around eleven. They worked in conjunction on finding that cure. Logan trusted him and valued him. He was the only family Logan really had at the time of his death.”
“I can understand that. Daniels…he was grabby. With a lot of the younger members of the staff. Nurses and CNAs mostly. Interns. He tried with Lacy once, and she almost emasculated him in the elevator. It was bad. Especially when he was drunk.”
“He had a drinking problem after he lost his son. It had already been noted at the time.”
“When we told him no, he could be vindictive. I don’t know what lies he told Dr. Lanning, but for a while there, Dr. Lanning was on my case over everything. Things got difficult at the hospital, between him and Dr. Daniels—I never had a day when one of them wasn’t there. Making trouble for me, with the other nurses, with my supervisors. I had only been on first shift for a month when it started, so I had no real clout. I was at the point of filing harassment complaints. Not just with HR, but with the board itself. I was going to go higher up if I had to. Fin was preparing to help me; he didn’t know she’d witnessed what he’d done one day and pried it out of me. Then my hours were cut to five a week. Annie told Jake what was happening. Jake started looking into Daniels outside the hospital. That’s when they found the prostitution charges. Daniels was arrested. Dr. Lanning blamed me for what had happened. It got even more difficult. He was very vindictive. So I asked to be switched to thirds. That worked, for the most part. Although, it was hard enough. Even with just Dr. Lanning left. I had put in my resignation when Lacy…Wanda asked me to stay after.”
“I didn’t know. Had I known, I would have stopped it.”
She shrugged. She didn’t believe that. He wouldn’t have believed her back then. Very few people had at all. “Would you have? Or would you have listened to him? I didn’t even bother coming to you after Daniels was arrested. There wasn’t any point; you were such good friends with Dr. Lanning that I would have had very little credibility. It would have been pointless. Everyone involved knew that.”
Izzie wasn’t unwise to the way the