Page 30 of The Ashes of Summer

Tamara studies me for a long moment, her expression hardening with every second that passes. Whatever she'd been expecting me to say when I walked through that door, it wasn't this. Finally, she lets out a slow breath.

“I'm not risking my license so you can go charging after your girlfriend.”

The word hangs between us.

Girlfriend.

Like that's all she is.

My jaw flexes.

"The man in that bed is the only lead I've got." I hold her gaze, refusing to let her pull this somewhere it doesn't belong. "Every minute he spends asleep is another minute Moore has with Summer. Every minute Moore has with Summer is another minute he gets to decide what happens to her before I get there."

Her face turns crimson.

"I'm not asking you to like it." I take another step, closing the space between us until there's barely enough room to breathe. “I’m asking you to get him conscious enough to answer my questions.”

The words land. I see it in the way she shifts her weight, her shoulders finding the wall behind her as though she suddenly needs something solid to lean against. Her expression doesn't change much, but it doesn't have to. I've spent enough time reading people to recognize discomfort when it walks into a room.

There's something else buried underneath it. Something she masks before I can give it a name.

"Fine," she says eventually, the word leaving her with obvious reluctance. "He's off the IV.Neurology's happy enough for us to monitor him without it. Now we're waiting."

I nod once.

"Take me to him."

She hesitates.

"I want to be standing there when he opens his eyes." My voice stays level. Calm. "I want the first thing he sees to be the man who's about to decide whether he walks out of this hospital."

She watches me for a long moment."Jacob..." she says quietly. "He's still my patient."

"For now." The words leave my mouth before I've really thought about them.

The muscles in her jaw flex.

"You don't go in there and start interrogating him."

I hold her gaze and can’t help but let the corner of my mouth twitch upward. "I won't."

She waits.

"I'll take him outside first."

The corner of her mouth twitches. She thinks I'm joking.

I let her.

It's easier than explaining I haven't made a joke all fucking day.

Chapter 9

Start The Show

Summer

Igive myself sixty seconds.