Page 83 of Tasting Fire
“I thought you’d want to know. You might want to take a look at the online version’s op-ed before you talk to Emmy—”
“Dude, we’re both in the truck, and you’re on speakerphone.”
“Well, shit.”
Emmy scrabbled for her own phone and brought up the paper’s website.
Cash pulled to the side of the county road and hit the end call button on the steering wheel, hanging up on his cousin.
“That was rude,” she told him.
“So was his plan to keep whatever this is off your radar. You got it yet?”
She clicked into the editorials and it didn’t take a single finger of scrolling to find what had Jonah concerned. The title was “Miss Hyde or Doctor Jekyll?”
It effectively outlined all the crappy things that had happened around town since Emmy moved back and somehow laid all the blame directly at her door. Even Mr. Felder’s kitchen fire.
“What does it say?”
“Basically that I used my charms and wily nature to entice Jonah and the hospital into hiring me. And that what neither of them realized was that I was actually some kind of medical Trojan Horse. According to this person, I had plans all along to infiltrate Steele Ridge and wreak all kinds of havoc. They claim I’m harboring a grudge toward my hometown.”
“What the fuck?”
She passed him her phone. “Here. You can read it for yourself.” She’d gotten the gist of the piece just by skimming it.
Cash’s eyes went back and forth as he read and scrolled. “This is complete bullshit. And the author is Koncerned Sitizen.”
Emmy dropped her head onto the seat back and closed her eyes. Tight. Because damn if she would let a single tear escape. They wanted her gone? Then maybe sheshouldjust cut her losses and go.
“Don’t,” Cash said softly.
“Don’t what?”
“Think about whatever is putting that wounded expression on your face.” She felt his big warm hand cup the side of her face, and one of those traitor tears almost made it out of the prison she’d kept them in for years. When his thumb brushed the corner of her mouth, a sob made a break for it.
Cash unclipped her seatbelt and hauled her over the console and onto his lap. Her hip was wedged against the steering wheel, but the feel of Cash’s solid arms around her made up for the mild discomfort.
She turned her face into his shoulder. “I thought I was making the right decision. My family is here. My past is here. You’re h—”
“Did I have anything to do with your decision to come back to Steele Ridge?”
“I don’t know.” No, that wasn’t fair. Not to Cash, and not to her. Emmy made herself return to her seat, and Cash pulled back onto the road. “Yes. But I didn’t know what I planned to do about it. You could’ve been involved with someone.”
“But I wasn’t.” He glanced at her. “And since then, I’ve realized you were always the one. But we’ve still got something big standing between us, Em.”
“What do you mean?”
“What you said out at the creek, it made me understand that you don’t know a lot of things about me.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”
He held out his hand to stop her words as he turned in to St. Elizabeth’s parking lot. “Let’s drop it for now. But after we leave here, I want to show you something.”
“Okay. It shouldn’t take long to get in and out of the lab.”
But when they drew close to the emergency room entrance, Emmy spotted people crowded around the door, pushing forward and shouting. Some of them were carrying pieces of poster board. “What in the world?”
That was when she caught sight of the message carefully printed on one sign.Hasn’t Dr. Jekyll killed enough?
