Page 87 of Tasting Fire
He was another thing she wouldn’t allow anyone to take from her without a fight.
“Thanks for running interference outside.” She didn’t reach for his hand, but she brushed her arm against his as they walked down the corridor toward the lab.
“Maggie showed up and persuaded them that breaking that shit up was in their best interest.”
“Your sister is a badass.”
Cash stopped and turned her toward him. “So are you. Don’t let what happened out there shake your confidence.”
She smiled in what she knew was a determined teeth-baring expression. “Oh, I won’t. In fact, they just added fuel to the Emmy McKay fire.”
Male appreciation washed over Cash’s expression. “Have I mentioned how damn sexy confidence is?”
She couldn’t force herself to respond to his teasing tone.
“Hey,” he said, touching her arm. “Did something else happen between the ambulance bay and here? I expected you to come straight to the lab.”
“I got waylaid down in the ER.”
“Patient?”
“No.” She hated to tell him this, but it did her no good to hide it. In fact, the ER director had just inadvertently given Emmy the time she needed to dig into Jesse’s death. She gestured down the hallway to urge him toward the lab. “My boss. He’s decided I’m too much of a distraction in the ER right now. He suspended me.”
“What?” Cash tried to pull her to a stop, but they didn’t have time for that.
Emmy plowed on and joked, “Hey, I’m piling up vacation time all over the place.”
“This has gone too far. You need to take back your position on the tac team and—”
“I’m doing exactly what I need to be doing right now.” She made direct eye contact with him. Wondering. Deciding. Accepting. “And as long asyouare on my side, everything else will work out.”
She pushed open the lab door and looked back to see Cash frozen with his mouth open. She hadn’t given him a confession of love, but he mattered. Hadn’t he realized that before now?
He snapped out of his surprise and followed her. “Are you saying—”
“I’m here to pick up a lab report for Dr. McKay.” At the counter, Emmy pulled out her hospital ID and showed it to the lab tech.
“You should be able to access it through the computer system.” The tech clicked his keyboard and scanned his computer monitor.
“Max said he’d leave a printout for me.” Luckily for Emmy, she’d gone to undergrad with the lab director.
“Max?” Cash asked.
“Dr. Maximilian Causewell. The lab director.”
“Whoa. He has a first name. Who knew?” the lab tech said. “Oookay. Lemme check with him.”
The tech disappeared into the back and when he returned, Max Causewell, a pathologist who had the hair of a mad scientist and the mind of a genius, walked out with him. He eyeballed Cash suspiciously, but Emmy reassured him. “It’s fine. Promise.”
“Then come back to my office.”
They wound their way through lab equipment and squeezed into Max’s office. He plucked a file folder off his desk and handed it to Emmy.
She flipped it open and quickly scanned the report. Jesse’d had painkillers and surgery drugs in his system, but nothing immediately shoutedHe was murdered!
Still, she needed to go through the results line by line.
“What’s so important about this patient?” Max asked, kicking back in his desk chair while Emmy and Cash remained standing.
