Page 70 of Tasting Fire
“My dad was a cop, actually a sheriff’s deputy,” she said quietly.
Since Jennifer McKay, her mother, had been a widow for as long as Cash remembered, thatwashad happened a long time ago.
“He died when he was working on a task force to shut down a drug ring.”
As traumatic as losing a parent at a young age was, there was something more to this story. He’d heard bits and pieces about her dad’s death through the years, but the details weren’t the important part here. Emmy’s feelings about it were.
She shifted from his lap and rose from the bed. Dammit. If she wouldn’t let him in, they didn’t have a chance.
Emmy disappeared into the bathroom. A flush and water run later, she came out with a washcloth and a hand towel. She nodded toward his lap. “We were probably already beyond the time limit on that thing.”
Shit. Yeah. While they’d been sitting there, things had definitely gotten messy.
“Don’t worry,” she said as she handed him the clean-up kit. “I’m on birth control.”
In a way, that disappointed him. If she got pregnant, they’d have to come to grips with one another. Have to decide what they could be together.
That’s not fair to her. Stop being a dick.
No matter how much he might want children one day, he was getting way ahead of himself by even thinking about that with Emmy.
Cash tossed the condom into a nearby trashcan and did a quick cleanup. Then he reached for Emmy, tried to pull her back into bed, but she said, “I need to walk.”
In the bedroom’s gloom, she paced a U around the bed, expanding her distance from it with each pass. But Cash just sat and watched her. She’d talk when she was ready.
Finally, she stopped near the window and fiddled with the pull string on the shade. “Kris is actually my cousin. Very few people know that. They assume she was adopted.”
It was a start. She was talking, sharing, and that was what mattered most. Cash stayed silent and still, waiting.
“Her dad and mine were brothers.” Emmy laughed, but the sound was flat and tired. “Sort of like Cain and Abel. Kris’s dad happened to be the bad boy to my dad’s good guy. I don’t remember much about him, but apparently, he was always looking for the easy money, the quick buck. Especially after Kris’s mom died. I guess he was never happy again, no matter how much he might’ve loved Kris.”
The need to reach out to her, to pull her back in the bed and against his body made Cash clench his fists.
“He got involved with some Japanese mafia types who were trying to establish a money laundering and drug manufacturing base nearby. Maybe you already know this whole story.”
“I’ve heard a few things, but I want to hear it from you.”
“Okay.” Emmy abandoned the window and returned to her pacing. “My dad was working with a group of law enforcement agencies who’d gotten word of a big amphetamine operation. They raided it and…”
Fuck it. He needed to touch her and she needed to be touched. Cash caught her hand and pressed a kiss against the damp skin of her palm.
“…and he had no idea my uncle was involved. So when they went in, my dad was surprised. You know what they say—to hesitate is to die.”
“Please tell me someone else—”
“My uncle shot my dad. Of course, at the time, all I knew was that he was gone. It wasn’t until later that I wheedled my way into the records that confirmed he’d suffered a tension pneumothorax.”
“God, Em…”
“He died before they could get the raid locked down and bring in medical help. All he needed was a damn chest tube, but nobody was there to put one in.”
He now understood what had driven her. If this happened twenty years ago, maybe more, then medics wouldn’t have been part of the raid team. Her dad died because he’d had no one to save him. Cash stroked Emmy’s arm, but she still wasn’t looking at him, lost in a history that she hadn’t actually been a part of.
“It’s funny. Most people can’t remember much about their childhoods before they were about ten, but I remember my dad so clearly. Remember what he used to tell me all the time. ‘Life is serious, Em. Give it your very best.’”
So that’s what drove her to be all work and no play. He doubted that her dad had meant for his encouragement to scar her life. Careless words from an adult could cause a kid a lifetime of pain and self-questioning.
“Em, if you’re thinking you somehow failed your dad today, you’re wrong.”
