Submerged Read Free Page B

began, "I know I―"
    " What?" Shipley snapped. "You know you're an idiot?"
    " No. That's news to me."
    Pete Shipley rose slowly―all two hundred and eighty pounds, six feet eleven inches of him. Bracing beefy fists agai nst the desk, he leaned forward. "I spent three hours searching for that accident report, Taylor. Three hours! And guess where I found it?" A nanosecond pause. "Filed with the missing persons call logs. Whatcha think of that?"
    " I think it's ironic that I filed a missing report in the missing persons section."
    " Shut it!" Shipley glared, his thick brows furrowed into a uni-brow. "Lombardo says you've been sleeping better, but I don't believe him. Whatcha got to say about that?"
    " Leo's right. I slept like a baby last night."
    Shipley elevated a brow. "For a baby, you look like shit. You need a haircut. And a shave." He wrinkled his nose. "Have you even showered this week?"
    " I shower every day. Not that it's any of your business. As for the length of my hair and beard, sounds like you're crossing discrimination boundaries."
    " I'm not discriminating against you. I simply do not like you. You're a goddamn drug addict, Taylor."
    Everyone in the center knew about Marcus 's past.
    " Thanks for clarifying that, Peter ."
    Shipley cringed. "All it'll take is one more mistake. Everyone's watching you. You mess up again and you're out on your ass." His shoulders relaxed and he folded back into the chair. "If it were up to me, I would've fired you months ago."
    " Good thing it isn't up to you then."
    Marcus knew he was pushing the man 's buttons, but that wasn't hard to do. Shipley was an idiot. A brown-noser who didn't know his ass from his dick, according to Leo.
    " This is your final warning," Shipley said between his teeth. "We hold life and death in our hands. We can't afford errors."
    " It was a misfiled report. The call was dispatched correctly and efficiently."
    " Yeah, at least you didn't send the ambulance in the wrong direction." A smug smile crossed Shipley's face. "That was the stunt that got you knocked off your high horse as a paramedic. Got you fired from EMS."
    Marcus thought of a million ways to answer him. None of them were polite. He moved toward the door. "I think our little meeting is done."
    " I'm not finished," Shipley bellowed.
    " Yes you are, Pete."
    With that, Marcus strode from the office. He left Shipley 's door ajar, something he knew would tick off his supervisor even more than his insubordination.
    H e tried not to dwell on Shipley's words, but the man had hit a nerve. Six years ago, Marcus had been publicly humiliated when the truth had come out about his addiction problem, and his future as a paramedic was sliced clean off the minute he drove that ambulance to the wrong side of town because he was too high to comprehend where he was going.
    That 's when he'd taken some time off. From work…from Jane…from everyone. He'd headed to Cadomin to clear his mind and do some fishing. At least that's what he'd told Jane. Meanwhile, he'd secretly packed his drug stash in the wooden box. Six days later, while in a morphine haze filled with strange images of ghostly children, he answered his cell phone. In a subdued voice, Detective John Zur revealed that Jane and Ryan had been in a car accident, not far from where Marcus was holing up.
    That had been the beginning of the end for Marcus.
    Now he was doing what he could to get by. It wasn't that he couldn't handle the career change from superstar paramedic to invisible 911 dispatcher. That wasn't the problem. Shipley was. The guy had been gunning for him ever since Leo had brought Marcus in to fill a vacant spot left behind by a dispatcher who'd quit after a nervous breakdown.
    " What did Titanic have to say?" Leo asked when Marcus veered around the cubicle.
    " He doesn't want to go down with the ship."
    " He thinks you're the iceberg?"
    Marcus gave a single nod.
    " I got your back."
    Leo had co nnections at work. He knew the center