Page 9 of Doctor Mile High
I promised to be the best son and brother they could ever ask for.
“I can’t believe I forgot,” I groan.
Olivia giggles, pushing her round pink frames up her nose. “It’s okay, Dr. Warrick, I bought him that grill I saw you looking at last week. I knew it wasn’t for you.”
I sink into my chair, relieved that Olivia is always thinking ahead. “Thank you. You’re a lifesaver. I should have bought the grill when I was looking at it. I apologize for you always having to come around to make sure my life is together.”
“Dr. Warrick, if me buying gifts, reminding you of appointments, patients, or anything else helps you save lives, then it’s the least I can do. I don’t expect you to remember everything when you’re so busy doing what matters most.”
I lean back in the chair and grin, folding my hands across my stomach. “You need a raise, I think.”
Olivia brightens. “I think so too.” She presses the side of her Bluetooth earbud. “Dr. Warrick’s office, please hold.” She presses another button, and says to me, “I’ll catch up with you later. I’ll be right back with your coffee, but you need to do your ritual. You always practice the surgery first so you know the motions and every step. You need to start now.”
“Superstitious, Olivia?”
“Um, yes. Especially since tonight is a full moon. You know you’re going to be busy and not go home for another day. It always happens. I don’t know how you aren’tmoresuperstitious.”
She presses the button again, listens, and scrolls through the calendar on her phone. “Sorry, that day doesn’t work. What about three weeks from now? Tuesday.”
At the person’s response, Olivia pinches her face before rolling her eyes. “He’s a busy man. A doctor. Chief of surgery. If you want a meeting with him, you have to work around his schedule, not the other way around. Oh, Tuesday will work now? Great.”She presses another button, grinning at me again as she grabs the door handle. “Motions. Rituals. Get to it.”
She leaves me alone and I can hear her answering calls from her desk on the other side of the door. I’m so glad I have her as my assistant. Truly, I have no idea what I’ll do if she ever decides to leave. I know there’s no room for a promotion for her, being my assistant, so all I can do is pay her a great wage, be a decent boss, and hope that’s enough to make her stay.
Hopefully, until I retire.
Clicking a few buttons on my screen to get to today’s surgery schedule, I find the patient’s name and surgery details to begin going through the motions of every movement I’ll make. I sit at my desk with my hands up as if I’m a puppeteer. I’m a conductor, a maestro, gliding my hands in the air with perfect precision.
In my head, I imagine every cut, every organ, every vital step that I can’t miss if I want this patient to make it off my table alive.
Until my phone rings.
The loud blast startles me and my hands change direction, flinging away from the imaginary patient. I would have cut a vein if that happened in real time, and the patient could have bled out, which is why I give Olivia my cell phone before I go into surgery. She takes care of any missed calls.
I have a system. I have a strategy. I cannot be changed or interrupted, or I will become an aggravated asshole, Olivia’s words, not mine.
She’s right, though. I have control issues.
The phone rings again and I tug it out of my coat pocket, seeing the private investigator’s name flash across the screen.
I shouldn’t answer it. I have a surgery to prep for, but he might have information on Dove, and then that’s all I’ll be able to think about. She has taken over my every thought. I’ve become determined. Obsessed, even. Every day that goes by that I don’t have her in my arms, I spiral further down the well of need.
“Anything?” I answer without saying hello, keeping my voice quiet so Olivia doesn’t storm in here and yell at me for not doing my ritual.
He sighs. “I think I’ve narrowed it down some. There weren’t many people traveling with that name to Costa Rica. The problem is finding all the flights that flew to Costa Rica and home again. There aren’t a lot of people named Dove, but there are more than you think.”
My temper burns within my chest and my teeth grind together, impatience gripping my tongue. I do not like waiting. It’s my poorest quality. I am not a patient man.
“It’s been eight months and that’s all you have for me? We know this about the airlines. Why is it so fucking difficult for you to find her?” I whisper harshly, peeking out the window to see if Olivia is looking at me. “What’s taking so long?”
“I only have her first name. I don’t have her airline, the seat she sat in, the company she worked for. You have given me almost no information.”
“You’re fired. I’ll find her my-fucking-self.” I toss my phone on the table, my heart pounding in my chest. I do my best to breathe in and out, to calm myself before surgery. I’ll need to leave any minute to scrub in.
Finding Dove has taken over my every thought. I’ve even debated the possibility of retiring so I can spend my days searching for a woman I’ll most likely never see again. I have the money. I could live the rest of my life without worrying and be fine.
But I love this job too much. I’m only forty-five, and I was the youngest doctor ever appointed to be the chief of surgery at this hospital.
I know it’s because of who my family is, but no one can argue that I’m not a good doctor.
