Page 6 of Touch of Smoke
“You’re stalling,” he said. “Answer the question.”
“Here you go,” Donyell said returning to them and handing Sariya her keys. “There’s a bag in there with my flats inside too, can you bring that in?”
Sariya nodded. “Will do,” she said and hurriedly turned away.
Luckily for him she had to stop at the bar to grab her jacket off the back of the stool where she’d been earlier. So, he was able to catch up to her just as she reached out for the handle on the door. Easing his arm around her, he grabbed it and pulled it open. “After you,” he said when she looked up at him with a frown.
He wasn’t outside a good minute when the wind whipped around that corner and he felt the chill right through the light blue cable-knit Polo sweater he wore.
“You’re gonna freeze out here,” she said tossing a glance over to him.
“Probably, but I’m still gonna be waiting for you to tell me what happened with your job.”
“Why? We said we weren’t going to keep tabs on each other or make that night more than it was.” She seemed to be speedwalking down the sidewalk, heading for the corner, but he easily kept pace with her.
“You said that,” he told her. “Not me. I can keep tabs on who the hell I want, whenever I want.”
“You’re not some gangster on the streets, Ro,” she said.
He grabbed her arm to stop her. “No,” he said pulling her close. “I’m somebody who cares about you. Always have and always will, no matter what ridiculous rules you thought you were putting in place. And for the record, I’m just asking you a question, Sariya. I’m not asking for another night with you.”
He’d tried to let that ship sail all those years ago. But from the way he reacted to her without even knowing it was her just a few minutes ago, he hadn’t done a good job of it.
She sighed and looked away. “The clinic got shut down. The director’s husband was apparently a member of a crime family or mafia of sorts. At least that’s how Donyell put it when she was feeding me all the information she’d compiled from the news and social media.”
“What?” he asked.
Bringing her gaze back to his, she said, “That’s exactly how I reacted. Like what the hell is going on? One day I went in, was going over the schedule of pain management treatments we had for the day and the next, the place was getting raided. Two days after that we were shut down.”
“So, you’re not working right now.”
She shook her head.
“When did this happen?”
“Mid-December,” she replied.
He frowned. “What? You’ve been out of work all this time and nobody told me?”
She jerked back, her brow furrowed. “Why would I have told you? You don’t even live here anymore.”
This was the second time tonight she’d said something that stung him and Ro wasn’t happy about that. “It didn’t matter where I lived, Sariya. If you needed something you should’ve told me.”
“But I didn’t need anything. I have my savings, so my bills are paid. I’ve just been looking for another job but nothing’s really working out.”
“You have a master’s degree, don’t you? A specialty in your field?”
“Leadership and Health Care Management, yes. And there are positions available in that area, but not for what I want to do.”
“What do you want to do?”
“Why are we standing out here talking about this? I’m supposed to be getting her phone and shoes and you need to put a coat on before you catch pneumonia out here. You’re not built like you used to be.”
“I’m not?” He chuckled and kept her close, so close this time when he saw her brows go up, he knew she’d felt what he was referring to.
“Don’t be crass, Ro,” she spat and pulled away from him.
Laughing, he followed her. “Just honest, baby. You know I can’t be any other way.”
