After Hours Read Online Free PDF

materialized in the threshold. But it wasn’t the shiv-wielding maniac
     my brain expected, only Kelly Robak. Just as scary in his size and general ominousness,
     but unarmed, and placid as always.
    My hand had flown to my chest, like an old lady set upon by ne’er-do-wells. I dropped
     it hastily. So much for looking cool and collected.
    “Hey,” Kelly said. He wiped his name from the whiteboard with his improbably big thumb.
    It was useless to pretend I wasn’t upset, so I let him see as I combed my hair with
     shaky fingers. “Hey.”
    He leaned against the door frame. “Lonnie gave you a scare, huh?”
    “Yeah. I’m okay. Just, you know. My first day.” I rubbed at my sternum, trying to
     soothe my panicky heart. “It’s my first clinical job. My first real psych job.”
    One of his brows rose a fraction. “You picked a real deep end to jump into.”
    I nodded. True, it would’ve been nice to start at an end with steps, not a high dive.
     “It was the only end with a job opening.”
    “Get changed and I’ll take you out for a drink.”
    “Oh jeez. I better not. I’m really tired, and I have to be up at six again tomorrow.”
     I hadn’t even unloaded my car or set foot in my new apartment. I wanted to change
     into my familiar pajamas and reread a few nursing textbooks’ chapters on paranoid
     schizophrenia, try to figure out how I could have handled myself better with Lonnie.
    Kelly shook his head. “Get changed and meet me in the lot. You can follow me in. You
     living in town now?”
    “I’m staying here. In the transitional housing.”
    He gave me skeptical look, the most judgment I’d seen from him.
    “Just temporarily,” I added.
    “I’ll drive you, then. You can leave your car.” And then he disappeared, giving me
     the distinct impression that his invitation was as negotiable as a hostage taking.
    I was pooped. I obliterated my name from the duties board, dropped off my paperwork,
     and changed, tossing my scrubs in the hamper. The day had done the same to me—wiped
     me clean out and wadded me into a rumpled heap.
    Though Kelly was surely only trying to be helpful in his bossy way, I resented being
     ordered around, especially by a man. Like I needed rescuing. I didn’t want to be
rescued
—in my family, I did the rescuing.
    If I suddenly needed assistance, who in the hell was I?
    But it was good, I decided as I buttoned my sweater—an invitation to grab a quick
     drink with Kelly. I was in over my head, and he’d have advice to help me stay afloat.
     He’d had a first day once, too. We’d talk and it’d push the incident a bit further
     back in my head, so it wouldn’t be the only thing running through my mind as I tried
     to fall asleep in a strange room. That voice, those words; that accusing pizza crust
     pointed like a switchblade at my face.
    As I left the locker room and headed down the hall, I felt that corset sensation again.
     Only it wasn’t from the scare. Every step I took toward the exit, closer to Kelly,
     tighter, tighter. Funny how my body reacted to him the same way it did to the thought
     of getting assaulted by a patient.
    Punching the keycode to the foyer, I wondered idly what Kelly’s wife looked like.
     And what she’d make of some underfed, round-faced urchin of a hapless trainee LPN
     going out for a drink with her oversized husband.
    She probably wouldn’t think anything of it,
I reminded myself,
since it doesn’t mean shit. It’s a pity drink with your married coworker.
    Still, as my fingers punched the final code, those laces yanked tight, tight, tight.
     At least if I passed out, Kelly was strong enough to carry my sorry ass home.

Chapter Two
    He was waiting outside under the darkening sky, dressed in his civilian clothes—jeans
     and a black zip-up sweatshirt. It made him look like even more of a thug, but I followed
     him nonetheless. A thug who was on my side felt like a precious commodity.
    Kelly led me to the far corner of the