"You're a former paramedic. Think about it. Could you pull them out?"
A heinous thought, and one that would be awkward at best to execute—but, yes, anyone possessing knowledge of basic anatomy and the proper sterilization techniques as well as the willingness to follow them could manage. He nodded.
"What kind of a mess would you leave?"
"After practice, not much. But neither would the final results be neat."
She nodded. "Bingo."
"You think her skills more accomplished than what you examined last night?"
"And then some." She tapped the stack of files beneath her pad of paper with the pen. "Nicole used to work the emergency room like me. And God knows you get plenty of time to practice your stitching working the ER." Her eyes clouded briefly in memory before she breathed deeply and replaced the pen to the pad. "So that leaves our boy Eddie in the number one, sloppy slot. At least until I find out differently." She pushed back her chair and stood. "Which is precisely what I aim to do this afternoon—"
"Tessa."
She looked at the hand he had clamped to her wrist to prevent her from escaping as he came to his feet as well.
"I know you do not want to hear this."
"You're right. I don't."
He worked to control the image of his parents, but as was usual of late, he was not successful. "Querida, please—"
"Agent Cortez, I've made my decision."
He stiffened at the obvious attempt to place him among her associates and nothing more. Por La Virgen, he was more. They were more. He could not prevent the anger nor the hurt from entering his own voice. "You allow this man you know all of a week to give you advice, and yet you refuse to listen to mine?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Agent Daniels."
"You eavesdropped on us? On me?"
"I did no such thing. You stood in the door."
"I stood outside the door." But her cheeks flushed. "What else did you hear?"
Her flush deepened—and he knew she now referred to her earlier conversation with Daniels, when the two had thought themselves alone in the conference room upon his arrival. When Teresa had openly teased the agent about his kiss…and Daniels had teased her in return regarding where she had allowed the agent to place his hands—on her.
He worked to prevent the renewal of jealousy, but he could not.
"Joe?"
He nodded stiffly. "I heard enough then, too."
More than.
"Good. Then you also heard enough to know that Gray is interested in finishing this job, no matter what it takes—unlike some people." She pulled her wrist from his grasp and gathered together her files, her tablet and the map.
Her pen, however, fell from the table and rolled to her feet.
He attempted to ignore those same shapely legs he had been accused of having no interest in just that morning as he bent low to retrieve the pen, only to pass another feature he had likewise been accused of having no desire for as he rose.
She believed he was not attracted to her body. She could not be more wrong.
For her body had not merely caught his interest these six years past, it had captured his awe.
And when he had seen it splayed naked before him in that tub?
He breathed through the surge of desire, banishing the image from his mind as he caught her gaze and offered up the pen. "Perhaps you should see this…interest of Agent Daniels through."
Her mouth gaped.
He well understood her shock. He had surprised himself. Never before had he been so obvious in misdirecting her attentions. Perhaps the anniversary of his parents' murder was affecting him more than he wished to believe. Or perhaps he was finally willing to send her completely to another man—if it would but keep her safe.
Gray Daniels was a good man. Perhaps the agent was the man for her.
The man he himself could never be.
"Did I…" She swallowed softly. "Did I hear you right?"
He held his breath. The first time had been difficult enough. Must he force the words a second?
Somehow, he did. "You heard correctly."
Perhaps the colored lenses were for the best today. For it was difficult enough to watch the pain as it flashed through the blue. Her nod was faint, as was the twist to her lips that was in no way a smile. "Thanks for the honesty."
She turned to leave.
"Querida—"
She stopped. Her stare no longer contained the hurt as she turned back to face him. Indeed, it contained nothing at all now, save that polite, icy distance. "You know, I think you need to find something to call me. Because that's—ah—that's not really an appropriate term for a mere…friend. Especially one you seem willing to pass off to the first man you meet. Then again, maybe you should just pass the term off to Gray right along with me. Hell, you might as well pass it on to Eddie, too. Because if you don't care who I sleep with…why should I?"
He watched her turn again and walk across the conference room. He watched as she opened the door with her free hand, then turned once more into the hallway to continue on until she reached the spare office at the end. He did not hear that door as it closed softly behind her, but he did feel the echo.
In his soul.
Ten minutes to kill.
Tess dumped her turkey sandwich onto the napkin atop the coffee table before slumping back against the couch. She glared across the nurses' lounge at the second hand flicking steadily around the clock hanging on the opposite wall. Ten more minutes before she had the honor of heading down to the pharmacy and offering herself up on a silver platter to Eddie—much like that damned, dry sandwich.
Hopefully, she'd have more luck snaring and holding the tech's interest than the sandwich had had with hers.
Damn it, snap out of it.
She had ten lousy minutes to psych herself up, and all she could do was sit here on this rock-hard institutional couch and mope about Joe. She dropped her gaze to the bowl of chocolate-coated peanuts some godsend from the previous shift had left behind on the coffee table. She scooped out several and popped them into her mouth.
Why not?
Yelling at herself hadn't helped. Not even five hours of non-stop nursing complete with not one, but two Code Blues had been able to staunch the pain of this particular wound.
Was she that bad in bed?
She must be. After all, Joe had been awfully quick to pawn her off on the first man he could as soon as he'd escaped. He truly wanted her to move on to Gray, and now.
Why?
Was he afraid she was going to whine and carry on like half the women he'd dated did when they finally figured out the man was deadly serious about his absolutely no hope of marriage prime directive? Didn't he know her better than that? All he'd had to say was no. And, gee, he'd already done that. Loud and clear.
Yes, it hurt.
But she'd have gotten over it. Eventually. What he hadn't needed to do was pass her off like some used car—and he sure as hell didn't have the right to dictate who the next driver would be.
Friendship or not, looming anniversary or not, that had definitely been out of line.
She leaned forward again and grabbed another handful of chocolate. In fact, when she saw him again, she had half a mind to—
The second those soft fingers connected with her shoulder, the candy went flying as she vaulted from the couch.
"Hey, it's just me."
Tess flushed, half in embarrassment, half in relief as she turned to Nicole. "I'm sorry. I don't know what got into me. I guess that last code rattled my nerves more than I thought." She leaned down to scoop half a dozen chocolate covered peanuts from the couch only to stop short as she caught a glimpse of her fingers.
They were shaking.
Nicole's returned to her shoulder, this time to pat consolingly. "Delayed nerves."
Tess forced the smile she'd been abusing all day into place as she straightened. "Guess you can't hide those from another nurse."
&n
bsp; Nicole grinned as she snagged the trash can from beside the couch and held it out. "Nope. Especially when they're rattling around inside me, too."
As Tess reached out to discard the candy, the woman's left wrist hijacked her view.
"Is something wrong?"
She shook her head as Nicole returned the can to the floor. "Not at all. I was just…admiring your watch. It's cute."
Unfortunately, she couldn't read much into Nicole's answering blush. After all, the watch she was wearing was a Minnie Mouse deluxe, complete with white hearts etched down the center of the snug, pink band. As distinctive as the watch was, Tess would definitely have noticed it during shift change.
Nicole fingered the face. "Thanks, it's my daughter's. I had it in my bag. The—ah—band on my old one broke right before the code."
That would explain it.
And when Nicole reached out to snag a stray candy near the cushions at the back of the couch, it explained even more. Track marks. Recent ones, too, as near as Tess could tell from the brief glimpse that she was able to snatch. Definitely needle marks.
She didn't know whether to be upset or relieved.
Tess glanced down at her own watch to cover both reactions.
It was a mistake.
While her watch wasn't as blatant as Minnie Mouse, it was definitely all Joe. He'd strapped the black leather band to her wrist six months ago. Joe had just turned thirty-two and she'd given him the scuba watch she'd caught him admiring when he'd taken her shopping the month before. Since she'd cracked the crystal on the face of hers a week earlier, Joe had taken the worn band from his wrist, wrapped it around hers and told her to keep it there until she got hers fixed. For some reason, she'd never gotten around to taking the cracked watch in or taking this one off.
At least not permanently.
She traced the deep crease stamped into the leather by the previous buckle's position. One more sign of Joe in her life. It was probably time to let this one go, too. Right along with—
Time?
Ah, damn. Eddie. Tess scooped up the remains of her turkey sandwich from the coffee table and pitched it into the trash can.
"Something wrong?"
"No. That last code just seems to have shaken my appetite along with my nerves. I think I'll head outside and grab some air."
"Need some company?"
Not where she was headed.
As rattled as her nerves actually were, she opted for avoiding the woman's searching gaze. "I'd rather be alone if you don't mind. Joe and I…well, we had a pretty bad fight last night." At least it wasn't all a lie. She didn't wait for an answer as she headed for the door.
Nicole stopped her anyway, snagging the short sleeve of her floral smock just as Tess knocked the lever to the door down and pushed it open.
"Tess, please. There's still time for you guys to save your—"
"No."
Nicole stiffened. But at least she'd released her sleeve.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap. But you're wrong. As far as Joe and I are concerned, there isn't anything left to save."
"That may be true, but I am right about Eddie. He's not worth it. This isn't worth it. Hell, who am I kidding?" The pleading gave way to skepticism. "From what I heard last night at the party after we left Eddie's bedroom, I'm not even sure you're worth it anymore. I can't believe you'd willingly sleep with that creep."
There really wasn't anything Tess could say to that, so she just abandoned the lounge completely and let the door close between them.
Nicole was right about one thing, but she was also wrong about another. Eddie might not be worth it, but what she was about to do certainly was.
Once again, it was time to dance with the devil.
And, God help her, she had every intention of letting him step on her toes.
But that was all.
Three minutes later, Tess had left the bank of elevators behind and was passing the main pharmacy window to approach the smaller meshed one at the side door—only to discover that the devil was already waltzing with someone, albeit over his phone.
Before she could move far enough away to hide, yet still discreetly listen in, Eddie turned and spied her.
To her disappointment, he continued talking into his phone as he walked up to the door to wave her inside. If he was willing to chat with her in the room, chances were good that the voice on the other end—not to mention its owner—wasn't of interest to her.
"Uno momento, Arturo." Eddie pulled the phone away from his mouth as he slipped his free hand beneath the weight of her hair at the back of her neck and leaned close to graze his lips across her temple. It was the same liberty Joe had taken more times than she could remember. Not once had the act made her skin crawl.
Until now.
"Wait for me, chiquita?"
Despite the roiling nausea, she managed a smile.
"Excellent."
Eddie shifted back to Spanish as he moved off across the interior of the lab and into the pharmacist's office at the opposite side. Unfortunately, the tech had shifted his volume as well. His voice was too low for her to make out his words.
Tess executed a sharp left the moment the office door closed and headed straight for the partition, nearly cursing to high heaven as she rounded it.
Sweet Jesus. It was all right there.
Right next to the man's waiting, black canvas bag. Valium, Percocet, Dilaudid tablets—hell, Eddie had even tossed a handful of Tylenol IVs with codeine into the pile for good measure. It was the syringes that elicited a downright audible groan.
Tuberculin. 3cc's. Marked—by her.
And they were already inside the opened bag.
If it wasn't for those missing kidneys, she could arrest the bastard right here and now. The drug angle was so solid it was almost laughable—if she'd been in the mood for humor.
Which she wasn't.
Then again, when was she ever in the mood for humor at this stage in a case?
"See something you want?"
She jumped—and would have spun about, but she quickly changed her mind as Eddie's beefy arm slid around her waist and pulled her to his chest. She settled for a shaky breath that was only half-forced as he locked her there.
And those thick, fleshy lips were at her temple again. "Relax."
Easy for him to say. At least she wasn't facing him.
"Well?"
"Well…wh-what?" Good. Keep it nervous, breathy.
His other paw came around her, his meaty fingers spreading out the pile of pills as his hot, filthy breath filled her ear. "Which piece of candy are you hungry for?"
Candy.
That really was how he thought of it. She already knew the man wasn't feeding his own sweet tooth. The irony was, Eddie's type rarely did.
No, the bastard didn't use drugs. Just people.
Kids.
He lured them in one by one with the promise of a little something to make the world all sweet and rosy again. But in the end, the result was always the same. And it was a hell of a lot uglier than a mouthful of cavities. The pile of pills faded as Tobie Jacob's cherubic face came into focus. Green-eyed, tow-headed and barely three years old. Tobie had found his mommy's stash of candy. He'd eaten it all, too. And then his tummy hurt. But by the time his lovingly stoned mommy got him to the emergency room, there wasn't much more Tess could do except hold the boy while he cried.
Oh, she pumped, and she prayed.
But Tobie died anyway.
And then there was Brad Warrington. Deep blue eyes, coal black hair and killer smile that should have lit up the world one day. Brad was seventeen, high on life and riding the winning touchdown in the state football championship the night she'd sewn up the cleat tracks a teammate had sliced into his left calf.
Just two days later, they'd met again. Only this time Brad was dead on heroin. Brad's new girlfriend had wanted something a little stronger than pills to party with that night and, well, Brad just couldn't say no.
"Tessa?"
Joe was wrong. She could do this.
She inhaled slowly, made sure her smile was firmly in place and then turned around in Eddie's arms. "I'm partial to pink, honey, but I've got another ten hours ahead of me tonight. If I pop one of those, I won't make it through the first."
"Rain check?"
She forced her smile to widen. "You'd better."
He pulled her in closer, close enough for her to feel the solid evidence of what was really on his mind, and it wasn't getting loaded—but unloaded. "So why don't we warm up now with a few honest-to-God natural endorphins?"
She slid her arms up around his neck and held her stomach down as he pressed closer. "What about your boss?"
"Like I told you on the phone, he's on his dinner break."
"What if he finishes early?"
Eddie laughed at that. "Chiquita—if he finishes early, I'll head for that supply closet he's been holing up in these past few weeks and make sure the x-ray tech he's been doing finishes on time."
Now that gave her something to work with. She pulled back.
"Hey, I was joking. Come back h—"
She drew further away, hooking her fingers onto the edge of the worktable behind her as she backed into it. A quick flex and she'd perched herself on top of the counter. In retrospect, it wasn't a bright idea. Given their height differential, she'd ended up with her breasts front and center of Eddie's greedy gaze.
Then again, why not? The man was now eye-level with the portion of her anatomy he seemed most interested in anyway.
Unfortunately, he'd yet to learn how to see with his eyes and not his hands.
She stiffened.
"Relax, cariño. I said I was kidding."
She pulled his hands slowly, but firmly away. "Well, I'm not. Listen, honey, I could care less what you can bring to this relationship by way of candy. Sure, I like it. But, frankly, you can't get me anything I can't already get through my husband."
That had his attention. "Then what do you want?"
"Money."
He didn't even blink. But he did smile. "No problem."
She held him off as he reached for her again. "I don't think you understand. I'm not talking about the piss-ant amount you've been waving in front of Joe. That damned club is so far in the red it's bleeding him dry. He needs steady access to money, and a lot of it."
Just Beyond Reach Page 18