Page 42 of Intersect
He is, I think to myself, and it’s unbelievably hot. That assessing look he gets on his face when he’s mulling something over and his decisiveness during my time here would do it for me no matter what he looked like. “I don’t know about that. I’m mostly with him for his body.” I look at him from under my lashes. It’s a longshot, but sex is the only strategy that might possibly overcome his irritating professionalism. “A body I couldthoroughlyexplore if we werehome.”
He laughs, which means I’ve failed miserably. “Nice try. But you’re staying here. It’ll be fun. We’ll order in dinner and watch amovie.”
My lower lip juts out. “I’m not even vaguely interested in dinner or a movie rightnow.”
“Well, our options are pretty limited otherwise,” he says. “Connect Four? I’m no Darcy but I’d do mybest.”
I should probably give up and admit that I’m staying in the hospital tonight, but I’ve seen Nick when he’s turned on plenty of times—rational thought abandons him when he’s pushed far enough. I slide out of the hospital bed and climb into his lap, which would probably be sexier if I weren’t still attached to a heart rate monitor. “There is only one thing I want to do,” I reply, whispering the words into his ear. “And with that security guard right outside my door, I know for a fact it’s not happening here. You know how loud Iam.”
He hardens underneath me. This attempt at seduction was more about manipulation than lust when it started, but at the feel of him there it no longer is. I’d forgotten that rational thought abandons me too. I lean in and tug his lower lip between my teeth and there’s this ragged noise in his chest inresponse.
“Please don’t tempt me,” he pleads, sounding a little desperate. “I just need to know you’re safe before we go home, okay? We’re still waiting on the toxicology report, and at least here I know no one is going to walk in and kill you the second my back isturned.”
“If this woman wants to kill me she doesn’t have to walk in. She can just apparate orwhatever.”
He laughs. “Are you using terms from HarryPotter?”
I kiss his forehead. “I’m not sure what’s dorkier… that I accidentally invoked a term from Harry Potter or that you recognized it as such. But anyway, you see mypoint.”
He shakes his head. “No, I don’t. She went to some pretty extreme measures to get in before. She stole scrubs and a security badge and brought in her own drugs…she wouldn’t have gone to all that trouble if all she had to do waswishshe was in your room andwishher way backout.”
“I hate when you’re right,” I mutter, returning to mybed.
21
NICK
We get through a night in the hospital, barely. Quinn says something dirty to me pretty much every hour we’re awake, and it’s working. I’m so keyed up it hurts. But they still have no idea what was in those fluids she was given, and she’s safest here no matter how badly I’d like to take herhome.
I wake in the morning in the chair next to her bed and sneak out to my office to call the nursery again. Perhaps I’m investing too much hope in what we found, but I need this, something to focus on, something to help me believe there’s even a chance she cansurvive.
I’m intercepted by Ed Philbin just as I reach the door. He can barely meet my eye as he asks if we can “have a word.” I already know what he’s going to say. I’ve been expecting it since I threw that first punchyesterday.
We walk into the office. I’m not sure if I should bother sitting down for this or go ahead and pack my shit. “I assume this is about Quinn’s former fiancé?” I ask, taking the seat behind thedesk.
He blows out a breath. “He’s claiming you seduced a dying patient, Nick. It doesn’t lookgood.”
A few months ago, I’d be sick to my stomach right now. Instead, I’m numb. I can barely summon the effort to lie on my own behalf. “Quinn and I dated in college,” I say flatly. “We picked things back up when she came to thehospital.”
“Then you should have transferred her case,” he says, leaning forward with his hands clasped. “Do you have any proof you datedbefore?”
Does a psychiatrist’s interview with a five-year-old count? I imagine it does not. If our past was erased, all the evidence of it must be erased too, but if I admit I’ve got nothing I’m dead in the water. “Maybe. I can probably find somepictures.”
“Look,” he sighs, running a hand through his thinning hair. “You’re a good doctor and I don’t want to let you go. We’re already understaffed as it is. But this guy is making a huge stink. He called board members at home yesterday. I’m going to have to put you on administrative leave until this isresolved.”
This, too, is not the blow I’d have anticipated. I’d rather be home with Quinn right now anyway. “How long will thatbe?”
He averts his eyes. “I looked at her file,” he says. “I think under the circumstances they’ll let this goonce…”
I wait for him to finish the sentence until I realize he’s not going to.Once she dies. Those are the words he’s notsaying.
He rises. “Go home with your girlfriend. See if you can find some pictures. And…I’m sorry. We’ll be here for you once this blowsover.”
I stare bleakly at the door when it shuts behind him. I don’t give a fuck about my career right now, but Ed’s certainty that Quinn is going to die soon opens this jagged wound in my chest. Am I being naïve, hoping we can track down the woman and stop this? Probably. But I am drowning, and this is what drowning people do: they grasp at any goddamn thing they can hold onto, even the things that don’tfloat.
I pull the crumpled receipt from my pocket and dial Green Thumb’s number. When I finally get ahold of someone in charge, I emphasizeneurologistandGeorgetown. Saying you’re a doctor can be a lot like saying you’re a cop—people almost feel like they have to hear you out. “We had a customer of yours come in,” I tell him. “We only know because she left a receipt here. We’re trying to get contact information forher.”
“Ummm…she didn’t giveyouherinformation?”