Finding Faith Read Free

disheveled dishwater blonde hair complemented his washed out green eyes, giving the impression that he had just woken up instead of having been working most of the night. His baby face was one any mom would trust, and any woman would want to pinch.
    Their heads whipped between Brad and me before Grace said in an acid tone, “Can I help you, Doctor?” Her eyes becoming slits as she watched us with suspicion.
    With his eyes locked on me Brad said, “No thank you, Grace.” Breaking our connection he turned to Grace and Mike with a sweet smile on his face and finished, “I need to get back to taking care of the patients.”
    He tossed a casual wave in their direction while sauntering out of the department as if he’d just come in to give a friendly hello.
    Once Brad was out of view two pairs of concerned eyes were on me, waiting for the breakdown I fought with every fiber to hold back. I would not let them feel bad for me.
    If I didn’t get my mind off of what happened I would become a worthless shell of a human and I couldn’t do that to Grace.
    A slow smile crept onto my lips at the sight of the concerned man before me. “Hey, Mike. You must be the lucky guy taking care of the facial bones, huh?”
    Initially, the sight of a patient sitting on my table in cuffs while the officer stood next to me with a loaded gun rattled me, but it was done so frequently I was now accustomed to it.
    Some of those officers had even become some of my best friends. Mike was one of them.
    Mike put a hand on his belt, pushing it down further, and moseyed over to the control panel where I stood.
    As I turned dials that looked like ones on a washing machine, he widened his stance next to me, making sure he could see the delinquent through the window, before getting comfortable and leaning against the wall behind me.
    A slurred shout from the X-ray room about “where’d that starving pig go?” rang out.
    With a roll of his eyes, Mike said, “What gave it away?” Mike always tried to act tough and in charge like Bruce Willis in “Die Hard,” but came off as Barney Fife instead, to me anyway.
    Grace was a different story. She became a stuttering mess when he around. It was obvious how much she was attracted to him, even if she wouldn’t admit it openly.
    “I see Dickhead is working tonight,” Mike spit out, not even entertaining the rants that were coming from the drunk in the other room. If the guy made a wrong move, Mike would be on him before the loser could blink.
    Because of recent events, Brad gained the loving nickname Dickhead from Mike and Grace.
    With my eyes trained on the man in the other room, I groaned, “Yep. He just came in to say hello in his oh-so-nice way.”
    I stopped talking long enough to time the picture I was taking between the drunk’s garbled curses. Even with the criminal’s face pressed up against a cold slab it didn’t deter him from being belligerent. If anything it made him swear more.
    “I don’t know what I ever saw in that man to begin with. Can you just shoot me now to get me out of this nightmare?”
    I sulked into the patient’s room to make adjustments before Mike could answer.
    When I reappeared Grace was leaning along the wall next to Mike. Her hands were tucked behind her back that was arched like a bridge, pushing her breasts out even farther than they already stuck out.
    If I knew Grace, that was probably for two reasons. First, to control the urge to attack Mike, and second, to show off her assets.
    “Don’t let Brad get to you, Faith. The truth will come out. You’ve been here so long everyone knows you. His story doesn’t even make sense. Why don’t we go out? It might help you get that shit off your mind for a while,” Grace said, coming to where I stood and gently rubbing my back for reassurance.
    At a feeble attempt to change the subject I asked, “So, who brought Mr. Lush in?”
    Mike was taking care of this guy once he got checked out, but the firefighters had brought him