As I enter the changing room, I’m met by Mandy and Katie. They both share glances back and forth before scrutinising me.Fuck.
I roll my eyes at them, hoping they can’t see what I don’t want to address. I move over to my locker to grab my things. “Don’t start.”
“What was that all about then?” Katie asks in her usual salacious tone. Her creamy-blonde hair is pulled tightly off her face, making her small, delicate features appear even more so. We do not get along. She likes to tell me and everyone else exactly how she sees things. Strangely, it is the one thing Idon’tdespise about her; I know exactly where I stand. She doesn’t manipulate or lie. She doesn’t like me, though. But at least she never pretends to. “You’re looking a little flushed,” she teases contemptuously.
I tug my scrub shirt off over my head and stand in front of her in my bra. “I know him. That’s all.”
She smiles, a scandalous tilt to the corner of her mouth. A twitch to her arched blonde eyebrow. “Know him? Who? The patient?”
I groan at her expression. “Why are you looking at me like that? Don’t you have anything better to do? Like your job?”
“Better than this? No. He doesn’t look like the type of man I imagine youeverknowing,” she drawls.
I wished that were true.
Many times. . .
Then I never would have hurt him.
I shake my head. Turning from her, I tug my pants off each leg and pull on a pair of denim skinny jeans. Faded at the thighs and cut at the knees, they show little slithers of my bare skin between the slashes of material. I pull on a white tank top and tuck it in. When I turn back to the girls, Mandy is staring at me curiously and Katie is smirking.
“What now?”
Mandy eyes me thoughtfully, tucking her brown hair behind her ear. Her pretty blue eyes are big and round, a contrast to her pointed nose and sharp cheekbones. “Did you tell Perr-“
“Howwelldo you know him?” Katie cuts in. “Curious minds are inquiring.”
“We were just childhood friends,” I lie. It is the biggest fucking lie I have ever told because nothing could be further from the truth. We were neverjust friends. We couldn’t have been even if we wanted to, which we never did.
“I’d like to be childhood friends with him,” Katie purrs.
“God, Katie!” I slam my locker door shut. “He could have died in there, and you were checking him out? Talk about professionalism.” My heart jumps into my ears again, and I have no idea where that anger came from. If Mandy’s wide-eyes and Katie’s excited grin are anything to go by, then they have no idea either.
I rub my temples, shaking the irritation out, the discomfort.
“Meow,” she sings with a scathing laugh. “Andexcuse me, but it’s kind of hard not to notice the patient is tall, muscular, and covered in tattoos.”
Mandy stares at me unblinking. “What’s gotten into you? Does Perry know about this?”
“What are you, his spy or something, Mandy?” Katie laughs, folding her arms over her chest and leaning on one hip. “You gonna go report something to him?”
“No,” she says with a little smile that makes me nervous. My brows weave. I know her deal. I’ve seen the way she looks at Perry. Witnessed the little touches. She’s run to him with gossip more times than I can count. She’s basically his trained and tagged carrier pigeon. Mandy motions towards me, looking at Katie. “Look at her. She’s exhausted.”
“She!” I growl. “Is standing right here.” I take a big breath in and exhale it slowly. “I’m not exhausted,” I state. I’m fucking hurt! I’m scared of what to do! But knowing it’ll make them back the hell off, I concede. “Maybe. . .” I hate these words. “Maybe Iamtired.”
I walk off towards the door, pushing it open and entering the hospital halls once again. I refuse to ask Mandy not to tell Perry. That’ll only make her more suspicious.
And maybe I am just tired.
As I make my way outside, towards my bike, the thick Australian air envelops me, and for a moment, I wonder why it’s so dense. The District is never this humid. Then I remember where I am.
What the hell is he doing in Darwin anyway. . . bringing this bullshit up here? A gunshot wound. Of fucking course. So, nothing has changed. He’s still working for Jimmy.
Jimmy. . .
I knew he was powerful, but I never knew just how powerful until that day at the park. If only I had known, things might have been different. . .
The sinking feeling in my stomach starts up again. Pulling my bike from the rack, I ignore it. I swing my leg over and take off down the street towards the aqua-blue shoreline. The sound of the wind whipping past my ears and the nattering and splashes coming from the popular tourist beach to my left remind me why my father chose to relocate here.