Page 155 of Toxic Temptation
“Vesper Fairfax is the best surgeon you have. Sidelining her is the stupidest business decision you’ve ever made.”
“This is aboutVesper?” The color vanishes from his face. He’s waxy and pale, sweat breaking out across his forehead.
“She’s asking for basic medical equipment. Funding for machines that save children’s lives. These are hardly unreasonable requests.”
“This is highly inappropriate?—”
“You want to talk about inappropriate?” I pull out my phone, scroll to a photo, and turn the screen toward him. “Is this appropriate? You and Dr. Reed here, getting cozy in your office while your wife visits her sick mother?”
Shana gasps. Fleming’s hands start to shake.
“I’ve told Vesper already. I don’t have the funds?—”
“Bullshit. I know exactly how much this hospital made last quarter. You’re sitting on enough money to fund ten pediatric wings. You just don’t want to share.”
“My hands are tied.”
“Then untie them.” I lean forward. “Give her what she needs.”
“I-I can’t believe this,” he hisses. “She hired a… a glorifiedgangster…to enter my place of work and threaten me?”
“Hired me?” I laugh uproariously. “God, no. Jeremy, I’m doing this for free. Because I like her. And I really don’t like you.”
The sweat begins to trickle down his forehead. “You don’t understand the complexities?—”
“I understand that you’re involved with the Keres. I understand that you’ve been selling medical equipment and supplies to the highest bidder while children die in your pediatric ward.” His eyes go wide with every successive accusation. “Yeah, I know about your little side business.” I pull out a folded paper from my jacket. “This is a list of changes you’re going to make. Effective immediately. If these aren’t implemented by Friday, I’ll be back. With friends. That would be… unpleasant. I suggest you take all measures possible to avoid it.”
I drop the paper on his desk. Then, whistling, I turn for the door.
But halfway there, I stop and look back. “Oh, and Jeremy? If anything happens to Dr. Fairfax—if she gets hurt, fired, or even looks sad because of something you did—I’ll be back even sooner than Friday. And our next chat won’t be nearly as fun as this one.”
I leave them sitting there in their expensive, soulless office, and walk out into the California sunshine feeling better than I have in weeks.
I’m waiting for Osip to bring the car around when I notice a maintenance truck idling in the corner of the parking lot. Six men in matching uniforms cluster around it, all wearing caps pulled low over their faces.
Something feels wrong. When one of them turns, I see the teardrop tattoo under his left eye.
Keres.
We draw our weapons at the same time.
Then the world explodes into gunfire.
54
VESPER
I’ve effectively been fired.
Hours slashed. Pay slashed. A boss who hates my guts and probably wishes I’d disappear entirely.
And yet the only thing consuming my thoughts is the small white pill sitting in my palm and the green-eyed man who gave it to me.
How did I become this person? The girl who puts boy troubles ahead of her career imploding? The girl who sits around obsessing over aman?
Susan B. Anthony is rolling in her grave.
Questions I shouldn’t be asking keep cycling through my mind:What did last night mean to him? Does this fake, convoluted thing between us actually have potential? Is it real? Is anything?
