Read The Merzetti Effect (A Vampire Romance) for Free Online Page A

Expression at last.
    “Impossible.”
    Impossible? The single word caused a fist of tension to close around her stomach. Impossible because he didn’t judge her well enough, or impossible because he refused to let her go?
    “What, am I a prisoner here or something?”
    “Of course not.”
    Another jolt of relief. “Then I want to go home.”
    “Have you forgotten you may be infected? I’ll have to monitor you. We’ll need frequent blood checks. No, you must stay here.”
    She propped herself up higher in the bed. “Of course I haven’t forgotten my exposure, Dr. Bowen. But I don’t see why I can’t go home. Send Mr. Grayson over as often as you like. Or send him over to stay with me. I just need to go home.”
    “Why?” He leaned closer as though he genuinely wanted to know the answer. “There’s no one waiting for you there. No husband, no children, no pets, no dependents. Why do you need to go home?”
    Pain, raw and unexpected, sliced through her. Is that how he saw her, alone, lonely?
    “Thank you for highlighting so succinctly what you consider the barren nature of my life. But it just so happens that I believe there’s more to life than marriage and children. Like career. Like making a difference in people’s lives.”
    “Ah, yes, your career.” He sat back in his chair, raking back the strand of hair that fell on his forehead. “I understood it was dealt a serious blow last month when you resigned from the hospital authority under a bit of a cloud. A charting episode?”
    Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Her heart lurched, then thundered. How did he know that? How the hell did he know it? Who had he been talking to?
    She paled as another thought struck her. How did he know about her domestic living arrangements? How had he known she lived alone?
    That eyebrow again, lifting eloquently. “What, no comment on the charting debacle?”
    Anger surged, choking coherent thought. “The circumstances of my leaving the hospital are nobody’s business but mine!”
    “You don’t think a prospective employer should be permitted to investigate a potential employee’s track record?”
    “Who did you talk to?” she demanded.
    “I hardly think that’s relevant.”
    “It sure as hell is relevant. They agreed to give me a clean, if not particularly enthusiastic, reference.” She found the hydraulic lever on the side of the bed and raised the head of it while she talked. “That was the deal, in exchange for my leaving. That’s all they wanted, to get rid of me. The allegations were bogus and they knew it, but they didn’t care.”
    “So you were framed?”
    “Yes, I was framed, dammit!” She paused a few seconds to bring herself under control. When she continued, her voice sounded more like her own. “Okay, I know that probably sounds pretty lame, but it’s true. They saw me as a whistleblower, not a team player. So when these allegations were raised, they jumped at the chance to get rid of me.”
    “I know.”
    “This all happened because I reported an anesthetist’s gross criminal misconduct. But I had to! Those surgeons, or at least some of them, had to have known about his drug problem, yet no one would come forward. Sooner or later, someone would have come to harm, maybe even died, and‌—”
    “I know. You did what you had to. I wholeheartedly approve of your decision.”
    That brought her up short. “You know about all this?”
    “Of course. When I pay as much for information as I did in this case, it has to be comprehensive.”
    She blinked. “You paid for information on me?”
    “You should be pleased to know the personnel department is keeping up its end of the bargain. Your reference is clean enough, for anyone making a conventional inquiry.”
    “But that wasn’t good enough for you?”
    He shrugged. “As you can see, my research is a little sensitive. I need people whose discretion I can trust absolutely.”
    She snorted. “You found it reassuring to learn that I was a