Cado Read Free Page B

negative.”
    “What about—”
    She raised her hand to shut me up. “And you have no concussion or signs of head trauma. Nothing is physically wrong with you. Your problems are definitely mental.” She muttered the last part under her breath before pivoting on her clean white tennis shoes in quite a dramatic exit. Nurse Ratchet wasn’t fooling me though, I knew she meant for me to hear her insult.
    A moment later a younger nurse peeked her head in the door, but didn’t enter. “We’re getting your discharge papers together. You can get dressed while you wait.” Great. I’m being dismissed. And the worst part was that I still had absolutely no idea where I’d been for two days. Two whole days…just gone. I heaved a huge sigh and slipped back into my clothes hastily.
    I was mumbling to myself, when the door swung open and Officer Hotty peered in almost sheepishly. “I have your discharge papers. I—”
    “Yeah, yeah. I’m guessing Nurse Ratchet asked you to escort me out so I didn’t cause any trouble.”
    He chuckled, I was guessing at me referring to the head of the department as Nurse Ratchet. “Something like that.”
    I glanced around the hospital room and snagged a pair of those booties used to cover hospital worker’s shoes. Officer Hotty had forgotten to get me any shoes or socks before bringing me to get checked out, and my poor little tootsies were the ones suffering. Nurse Ratchet’s bedside manner sucked. She hadn’t even offered me such a minor thing to stave off my impending frostbite. Of course I would have preferred actual hospital socks, but whatever. “Are you going to drive me home too? Because I didn’t bring my purse so—”
    “Yep, as long as you don’t steal anything else,” Officer Hotty retorted while eyeing by new booties.
    “Seriously? Like they’re going to notice.” I pulled the second one on and wiggled my toes, enjoying the little bit of warmth they offered.
    “It might not seem like much to you now but first it’s hospital socks and the next thing you know you’ll be pocketing anything you can get your hands on.” Amusement was evident in his voice as he chided me.
    I bit my lip to keep from smiling and met his deep chocolate gaze head on. “Well, if that’s the case then maybe you should just arrest me now.” I crossed my wrists and stretched my arms out towards him. “I’ve been a bad, bad girl. A menace, really. I obviously need punished.” I tacked on a very porn-like sounding moan just to be obnoxious. When he didn’t respond I decided to say more. “Oh—oh please, Officer Hotty—please teach me a lesson I’ll never forget. I think I might need spanked at the very least.”
    “Officer Hotty?” He choked back a laugh.
    I wasn’t exactly the shy type…obviously. “Since I don’t know your name that’s what I’ve been referring to you as in my mind.” I shrugged.
    “Come on. Let’s get out of here before I’m actually tempted to punish you.” He turned and started walking. I had to dash to catch up to him.
    “I’m game if you are, Officer Hotty.”
    “The name’s Moretti—Officer Moretti. And I don’t fuck strippers.”
    I huffed. “I’m an exotic dancer. Big difference.” Why did I say that? Everybody knows they’re the same thing. I myself used the terms stripper and exotic dancer interchangeably.I nibbled my lower lip and studied his profile. He really was gorgeous. I found myself comparing him to the actor Joe Manganiello. They could be brothers, not quite twins, but close enough. “Want to carry me to your car? I’m kind of tired.”
    “Nope,” he grumbled.
    “Ah, come on. What has your panties in a bunch all of a sudden? I’m the one who lost two days with absolutely no knowledge of how that could have possibly happened.”
    Officer Hotty—I mean Moretti gave me the cold shoulder until we got into his car. He at least let me ride up front with him so I didn’t feel like some kind of criminal in the back seat. I