The Silencer: A Bad Boy MMA Romance (11 page)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Shelly

Jason liked to celebrate whenever he was victorious inside the cage. He made no secret of the fact that he liked to hit every bar in town, partying with anyone he came across that had seen his fight earlier in the evening, For the most part, he would hop from bar to bar until the last bar closed down.

His celebrating that night was quite a bit different. After his fight, he was pumped up and ready to party. Before he left the building, however, his adrenaline wore off. Instead of leaving the venue and heading out to paint the town red, Jason climbed into my passenger seat and we made our way to the hospital.

The evening would consist of sitting in an emergency room for way too long before being taken back for x-rays to confirm what we already knew. Not only was his arm broken, but it was also one of the worst breaks that the doctor had ever seen. In fact, the doctor said he’d be shocked if there wasn’t some kind of permanent damage done to the arm.

“That arm is badly broken,” the doctor said. “We’re going to have to put that in a cast for quite a while.”

“What? No. Fuck that. I don’t want another cast. Just put my arm in a sling so I can get out of here.”

“Mister Stark, a sling isn’t going to do you one bit of good. You need the cast or your arm is never going to heal. Without it, your bones won’t set right and you’d never be able to fight again.”

As much as he didn’t want to be restricted by the cast, Jason reluctantly allowed the doctor to put one on him. He was more worried about how long the cast was going to prevent him from training than he was about the injury itself.

Instead of a night out drinking and partying at the bars, he had to settle for a night at my place with pain medication and Pepsi. That was fine with me though because I had to be up early the next morning for work. When we were out after a win, I was lucky to get two hours of sleep.

§  

I didn’t want to go into work. The only thing I wanted to do was stay home and make sure Jason was okay. Despite the pills that the doctor had prescribed for him, he was still in a lot of pain. Of course, it didn’t help matters that he hated taking any kind of pain medication so he waited until his discomfort was almost unbearable before he took any.

Although I had to leave him, I was in a great mood as I walked into work. I should have known that it wasn’t going to last. It never lasts when I walk into that place. I could have found out that I had a million dollars waiting for me at the end of my shift and the people around me would still find a way to suck the joy out of me.

Of course, the first person I came across was Candace, who had a look on her face that just screamed that she knew something that I didn’t.

“What?” I asked, not wanting to put up with whatever shit she wanted me to deal with.

“I was just wondering how your boyfriend did last night?”

“Are we really doing this again? I told you I don’t have a boyfriend.”

“Oh, right. My mistake. I was just wondering how his arm was holding up.”

How in the hell did she know about his arm?

“Were you at the fights?” I asked.

“No, but I did hear you talking about how he was going to fight with a bum arm.”

“Okay? So what are you saying?”

“Did his opponent seem to know that his arm was hurt when nobody else did? Don’t you think that’s kind of weird?” she asked as she leaned in real close to me. “What I’m saying is don’t fuck with me.”

I knew exactly what she meant. How she managed to find out who Jason was fighting and how to get in contact with him was beyond me. The fact that she would put Jason’s health and well-being at risk just to be a bitch to me is what pissed me off the most. I’d had it with her. She wasn’t worth wasting another breath on. In order to avoid the urge to slap her, I calmly turned and walked away.

My blood was boiling as I made my way into Maggie’s office. She wasn’t in yet so I decided to have a seat and wait for her. I didn’t want to be anywhere near Candace so the nurse’s station, where she was no doubt sitting on her ass and playing on Facebook, was the last place I wanted to be.

The great thing about Maggie was that she was going to be retiring in just under three weeks so she literally did not give a fuck about what she said or did in regards to the little sorority club that was Angie and Candace. Instead, I wanted to pick Maggie’s brain. She had the wisdom and expertise that I needed to get Candace once and for all.

“Well good morning,” she said, surprised to see me in her office before her.

“Good morning,” I replied. “I couldn’t stand to be out there with the devil girl for even one minute this morning.”

“Oh boy, what happened now?”

“I’m going to guess the nosy little bitch heard you and I talking about my boyfriend’s arm being hurt so she got in touch with his opponent somehow to tell him about it. Now Jason is sitting around my apartment with his arm in a cast they knew to target it. He was lucky he didn’t need surgery.”

“Wow, what a bitch,” she said, making me laugh because she never cusses. “It’s amusing that you mentioned her this morning. Do you remember when I said to her that I had caught some errors in her charts?”

“Yeah, I vaguely remember that.”

“That was only a half truth. When I caught wind that she was out to take over my job after I leave, I started following her around without her knowing. She’s been messing up a lot more than even I realized. I’ve been watching her and documenting everything she’s messed up for a while now.”

“Wow, when did you even find the time to do that? You really didn’t have to do all that for my benefit.”

“Oh honey, it’s not just for your benefit. I didn’t tell you this because I didn’t want you to feel nervous around me or anything but Angie actually came to me a couple of months ago and asked me to monitor the two of you so I could give her my recommendation for who should take my place when I’m gone. I know you’re the perfect candidate but I wanted to have enough information to prove to her that Candace would not be a good fit in this office.”

“That’s smart. When do you have to give her your recommendation?”

“I actually have a meeting with her at 3:00 this afternoon.”

“Damn, I better get to work then before you tell her I’m not doing my job,” I said with a wink.

“You know you don’t have to worry about that.”

§

I was just about to go to lunch when two men in suits entered the building. I’d never seen them before and I was pretty sure they weren’t there to visit anyone. A few seconds later, two police officers entered as well. Something was up and there was no way I was going to leave my desk without finding out what it was.

The four men huddled for a moment before turning and making their way towards my station.

“Ma’am, we’re looking for Candace Jackson. Is she here today?”

Holy shit. What in the world is going on?

“Yes, she should be in the cafeteria. Her lunch break started about twenty minutes ago.”

“Thank you, can you take us there.”

“Okay, but can you tell me who you are?”

“I’m sorry. My name is Steve Clark and this is Randy Wells. We are with the Detroit Department of Social Services. The officers behind us are here to assist us. We need to discuss something with Miss Jackson.”

“Sure, follow me.”

I made my way out from behind my desk and led them down the hall to the lunchroom. As we walked, Angie spotted us from inside her office and came running out.

“Shelly, what’s going on?”

“I have no clue. “They’re here looking for Candace.”

“Candace? Why?”

“I have no idea. They just asked me to take them to her.”

Angie followed us down the hall. Candace saw me the second I walked into the cafeteria and gave me the same smug look she had given me earlier. Her look changed drastically when she saw me pointing her out to the men behind me.

“Candace Jackson?”

“Yes, who are you?”

“My name’s Steve Clark and I’m with the Detroit Department of Social Services. I’m going to need you to follow me please.”

“What’s this about?” Angie asked as she stepped in between the agent and Candace.

“Who are you?”

“I’m Angie Jackson. Candace is my niece but I’m also her boss.”

“Great, we’ll need to speak with you too. Is there someplace private we can go?”

“Sure, we can use my office.”

Candace threw her trash away and followed them into Angie’s office. I wished I could follow them. I would have paid to be a fly on that wall. Since I couldn’t listen in, I ran to Maggie’s office to see if she knew anything. She had no idea what could be going on but whatever it was, we both agreed that it couldn’t bode well for Candace.

We both went out to the nurse’s station so we could be there whenever the little meeting was over. The group was in Angie’s office for nearly an hour before the door opened and Candace was led outside by the two police officers. At first, I thought she was being arrested for something but I noticed that she wasn’t in handcuffs.

“Maggie, I need to talk to you privately,” Angie said as she approached the desk. Her head was down and her shoulders were slumped. I’d never seen her look so bad.

Maggie and Angie went into Maggie’s office and closed the door. I felt like I was being left out of all the juicy gossip that day. It was fine, though. I knew Maggie would fill me in as soon as she had a chance.

They were only in Maggie’s office for about five minutes before Angie grabbed her keys and made her way out to the parking lot.

“What in the world is going on?” I asked her, dying to know what was happening around me.

“Well, it doesn’t look like I’m going to have to have that 3:00 meeting with Angie after all.”

“Why? Tell me!” I said, jokingly insinuating that I was dying to know.

“Apparently the family of a few residents placed called to Social Services on behalf of their family members.”

“Okay? But why?”

“It turns out our model employee there has a bit of a drug problem. On days when it’s her responsibility to administer medication, there have been quite a few residents who never got them.”

“Do they think she’s taking them?”

“It looks that way. They just took her to run an immediate drug test.”

“That’s crazy. You know, I saw her in the medicine room not long ago. I was going to prepare the meds for the day and she was walking out just as I was walking in. She said she’d left something in the room from the day before but she seemed really nervous that I saw her. I wonder if she was in there stealing drugs?”

“I don’t know but I think I need to have an inventory done.”

“I think that would be a good idea.”

We waited around to see if Angie and Candace would be back that day. Later that afternoon, Angie came in by herself and, again, needed to have a private meeting with Maggie. An official report showed that Candace tested positive for three of the drugs that the residents had not received. She didn’t want to but Angie had no choice but to let her go.