Page 39 of Hades

I look over and see Betty from HR and fight back the urge to remind her to say please.

“Sure, what’s up?” I smile.

“Would you follow me? I need to speak to you in private.”

“Of course.” I look over at Beverly and smile. “I’ll be right back.”

I follow Betty to the elevator and shake my head when Bullet and Harlee start to stand.

I trail behind Betty and pull out my phone, shooting Harlee a quick text.

Me

Going up to HR. I’ll be back. Stay put.

When I step into the elevator, I watch as she shows the message to Bullet, who frowns.

As the elevator doors shut, I turn to Betty.

“How is your day going?”

“It’s fine.”

Alrighty then. Not one for a conversation. Then again, I really don’t know Betty and have never had a reason to.

The elevator doors open, and I trail behind her as we make our way to her office. When we go to step inside, I pause at the sight before me.

Shit.

Dr. Pembrooke is standing next to her window, hands in his pants pockets.

He turns toward us, and something about his smile makes all the red flags wave. My body screams at me to turn around, but I don’t. Instead, I step forward.

“Please sit,” Betty says as she makes her way around her desk.

Reluctantly, I move to sit across from her right as Pembrooke takes a seat next to me. I bite my tongue when he scoots his chair closer to me ever so discreetly.

“I don’t mean to be rude, Betty, but can you please tell me what’s going on? The ER is full of patients that need to be seen,” I say calmly.

Her eyes dart to Pembrooke before they settle back on me.

“I’ll cut right to the chase. There’s been a complaint about you,” she says.

My body tenses. “Excuse me?”

What did I do? Did a patient complain?

Before I can spiral too far, Pembrooke clears his throat.

“The complaint has nothing to do with you professionally and everything to do with you personally,” he says.

My brows furrow. “I don’t understand. What does my job have to do with my personal life? I don’t mix business and pleasure.”

Betty shifts in her chair, noticeably anxious about the conversation going on.

“While that is true, there has been a concern about the riffraff you’ve had following you for a while now. The hospital has turned a blind eye in the past about your ties to a…club, but now that members are starting to hang out here daily to watch you, we are no longer able to ignore it,” Betty says.

“We can’t have MC members hanging out in our waiting rooms or following you around the hospital. That’s not the image we want to put forward. This is a respectable place of business,” Pembrooke adds.