Chapter 1
Clay
“Ms. Griffin, nice to meet you. I’m Dr. McGrath. I see you’re having some abdominal pain?” I speak to the patient as I enter her curtain, though I’m too busy studying her chart to make eye contact. Her vitals are fine. Her blood pressure is a tiny bit high, but that happens when people come to the emergency room.
“Yes. It hurts,” she says. “And please call me Kimberly.”
I look up at her for the first time. She’s in her mid-twenties. A bottle blonde and dressed well, but right now that doesn’t matter. My job is to care for her. The notes from the nurse say she was almost unable to stand because she was in such pain. Now she doesn’t seem distressed at all.
“Can you tell me where it hurts?”
“In my stomach.”
“What are you doing when it hurts the most?”
She flips her hair over her shoulder and gives me a demure smile. “It hurts all the time.”
“Do you get menstrual cramps?”
“Sometimes, but this is different.”
“Why don’t you lie back, and let’s take a look?”
I step out into the hallway to signal the nurse, Vanessa Ryan, who comes in not only to assist me but to protect me and those in my care. These days you can never be too careful. I’m a good doctor, and I pride myself on being a professional caregiver, no matter where I’m working. Rather than a traditional practice, I work one week a month in the emergency room and spend the rest of my time as the head of the medical team at Clear Security, a firm my longtime friend Jim Adelson owns.
Kimberly lifts her shirt and unbuttons her pants.
“Let me know if any of this hurts.” With one hand over the other, I apply gentle compression, starting at her stomach, moving to the bladder, and feeling my way toward her ovaries. She’s not flinching or screaming with any pain, and I’m not feeling anything. No masses, and everything seems normal. “Does it hurt when you urinate?”
“No,” she says, her voice a little breathy.
I look over at the nurse, and she smirks.
“It’s down a little farther,” Kimberly says, her eyes closed.
I’m feeling and pushing as I go.
“Farther,” she says softly.
I move down and apply pressure, but I’m not finding anything.
“More…”
I’m at the top of her pubic bone. I’m not going to go any farther.
The nurse gives me an eye, and we both know what’s going on.
“It’s right there in the middle,” the patient breathes.
I sigh.Unbelievable. She’s looking for a happy ending, and I don’t play that game. Not at work, anyway. That would be a quick way to lose my license and ruin everything I’ve worked for. Nope.
I pull away and pick up the computer to chart her symptoms. “Okay, everything I would look at seems to be normal. I’ll have a gynecologist come in to do an internal exam. Someone will be here shortly.”
I leave Kimberly lying on the table without a second look. I wish this was the first time something like that has happened. But every once in a while, particularly lately, we get someone who thinks I’ll be willing to extend services beyond my duties as a doctor. It’s embarrassing, frankly—for the “patients” more than me. What makes that seem like a good idea? But anyway, I never have indulged one of them, and I never will.
A little while later, I’m just finishing my notes on Kimberly’s chart when I see her pull the curtain aside to leave—before the gynecologist even arrives. She gives the nurse a dirty look and walks over to me with a flirtatious smile.
She hands me her business card. “I’d love to get together sometime and explore where it hurts.” She struts away.