Bear's Claim (Bear Heat Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page A

mimicking Dr.
Faizel's stealthy, shifty manner.
    Nevertheless, she kept her
footsteps light and silent as she quickened her pace. She just had a
feeling that something was going to happen if she didn't move fast
enough. Something bad.
    Quietly, she sneaked into
Luke's room and saw that the curtains had been drawn around his bed,
shielding him off from her view. There was no reason for the
curtains to be drawn. The patient wasn't being cleaned and changed,
and the doctor wasn't examining the patient's wound.
    And Dr. Faizel wasn't even
his doctor! He had no business here at all.
    Something was going on.
    Aubrey clenched her fists.
She wouldn't let anything untoward happen to her patients. Not on
her watch.
    Aubrey stepped forward and
drew the curtains back sharply.
    She gasped and demanded,
“W-what...are you doing, doctor?”

CHAPTER
EIGHT

    Dr. Faizel was bending over a
sleeping Luke and he smiled at her as he straightened up. The
doctor's hand moved swiftly to his coat pocket, but Aubrey thought
she saw an empty syringe in his palm.
    “Dr. Faizel.”
Aubrey cleared her throat and said in a stronger voice, “What
are you doing with the patient, doctor? May I help you?”
    Dr. Faizel merely gave her a
thin smile as he squinted at her name tag. “No, I do not
require your assistance, Nurse Williams.”
    With a nod, he began to brush
past her.
    Aubrey spun round. “What
do you have in your pocket?”
    It wasn't her place to
question a doctor. It could cost her her job, but to heck with it.
She had a duty to her patients. They trusted her. She wouldn't just
keep quiet and let this strange, suspicious-looking doctor waltz in
and out of her patient's room. She stood her ground and waited for
his answer.
    Dr. Faizel raised a brow at
her. “Is it any of your concern, nurse?”
    “Yes. Yes it is.”
She swallowed then blurted out, “I saw you stick a syringe
into my patient.”
    “A syringe,” Dr.
Faizel said slowly. “Ah yes.”
    So he wasn't going to deny
it.
    “I carry a lot of
syringes. I need to collect samples for my research.” He put
his hand into his pocket and withdrew a handful of empty syringes.
“I have the hospital's authority and permission. The patients
have all signed their consent in their admission forms.”
    Aubrey bit her lip. Despite
his cool explanation, she still felt that something wasn't quite
right.
    “If...if what you said
is true,” she persisted. “Then why are all the syringes
empty? You didn't collect any samples, did you, doctor?”
    His smile twisted into a
scowl. “I was about to when you came barging into the room.
You startled me, and I almost broke the needle in the patient's arm,”
he said accusingly.
    Aubrey opened her mouth to
argue, but the doctor pushed past her impatiently. “I need to
get back to the lab. Don't you have work to do, Nurse Williams?”
    She whirled round but Dr.
Faizel was gone.
    Rubbing down the goose
pimples on her arms, she hurried over to Luke's bedside to check on
him. The young man appeared to be sleeping soundly. He hadn't been
disturbed by their raised voices.
    She thought of shaking him
awake, just to make sure he really was okay, but decided against it.
The man hadn't been sleeping well the past few nights. Hospitals
weren't the most comfortable places and everyone slept best in their
own beds.
    If Luke could finally catch
some sleep, she should let him rest.
    Aubrey turned back to look at
Luke Keller one last time before leaving his room.
    As she walked slowly back to
the counter, she debated whether or not to go track down Dr. Faizel
and confront him.
    Did he do something to Luke?
    Should she go and tell
another doctor what she had seen?
    But what had she seen
exactly?
    Dr. Faizel bending over a
patient. That's all.
    Would she accuse him of some
wrongdoing when she had no proof? Who would believe her? It was her
word against his, and...she could be mistaken.
    Luke looked so peaceful and
comfortable. He didn't look like he had been