“If you talk a bit louder, all the employees will be able to hear,” he said.
I curled my lips. “I’m just so pissed.” I was really pissed at fate. Here I find a hot guy I liked, who seemed to like me, and he’s a criminal. I looked up to the clouds and shook my head. Saint Theresa must have been very busy last night and my “needs” didn’t qualify for prayer answering.
Jagger said, “Look, you don’t have any proof of why they were there. We need that.”
I bit my lips. “Are you saying you don’t think Dano is guilty? That he’s not covering up the fraud?” Please. Please say it because I believe whatever you say since it’s always true.
But Jagger merely responded, “I’m saying we need proof. Can’t close a case on assumptions. Right ones or wrong ones.” He looked past me. “Here he comes now. You’ll need to get into his house again tonight and find out more. I’ll go with you.”
“No!” I said way too loudly. He glared at me. “No need. I can handle Dano. You maybe should go see if Pansy’s any more alert.”
Suddenly I wished I could have swallowed those words.
Had I really just given Jagger an assignment? An order? Or something close to being an order?
Yikes!
He looked at me, got up off the car and walked away.
I watched his butt moving from side to side as he swaggered off, and I didn’t even get hot. Okay, I did get a wee bit warm.
I had way too much on my mind between fraud and getting back to ER Dano’s house, where who knew what would happen…again.
I hoped to hell that I wouldn’t get hot at some inopportune time.
Heading for the entrance I wondered if Jagger had agreed to my “order,” or would he show up tonight?
Dano smiled at me as we poured ourselves the usual morning drinks. The tea bags at TLC always tasted a bit stale, but I chalked that up to cheap management.
“Any word on Pansy?” I asked Dano.
He shook his head and winced.
“You shouldn’t move like that.” I sipped my tea and then I winced. Really stale.
“Damn it. I’m fine. Just the external shit hurts when I move too much. No mental problems, Nightingale.” He leaned closer. “But thanks for last night,” he said way too loudly.
Everyone in the room gave a collective stare!
I muttered, “Last night…we…Dano…ER Dano…Dan…I…” After a fast sip, which now tasted delicious, I said firmly, “You all know I had to wake him up to check his pupils and sanity.” I turned to walk out of the room and over my shoulder said, “That last part is still in question.”
The room roared.
As I reached the door I heard Dano growl-in an amazingly sensual way.
In order to get away from the embarrassment, I had headed for Lilla’s desk.
She sat there filing her nails, and I knew that all her work was already done and now her day would consist of answering the phone, directing visitors and snooping. Lilla was a dream!
“Hey,” I said, sitting down opposite her. “What’s going on?”
“Morning, chéri.” She leaned closer and smiled. Very sexy, but I knew it wasn’t as if she were flirting with me. Nope. It was more as if she knew something.
“What? What’s going on? You have some info?” I set my tea on the edge of her desk.
“No, but you do.”
“Hmm? What do you mean, Lilla?”
With her sexy smile switching to a sexy grin, she whispered, “I see you have made love.”
I blinked. Had to. Maybe her accent was confusing me, so I chuckled. “This is funny. I thought you just said I’d had sex-”
Waving a bright red polished handful of long nails in the air, she said, “You heard correctly, my chéri. Which one?”
“Huh?”
“Dano or Jagger?”
I choked on nothing. My hands, sans any long nails or bordello polish, flailed in the air, sending my tea mug spilling over. “Geez! Sorry!”
Lilla laughed, pulled several tissues from her container and said, “Relax. It only shows to women like moi, who are astute in those matters.”
“Oh, yeah. That makes me feel much better.” I took some tissue and wiped the desk. Luckily the mug had only been half full and there were no papers nearby to get soaked. The closest one only got a beige splash of a stain. “Sorry.” I picked it up and couldn’t help but glance at it. Oh, boy. I was correct.
Dano had a similar run sheet to this one-only a few of the medication charges were different-and I could swear the date, times and names were the same. I explained what I’d found to Lilla, and she showed me all the papers that recently had come in to be filed.
One more was the same. Identical information except for the final numbers-so one had to have been doctored.
“I have to go back to Dano’s tonight-”
Before I could finish, Lilla was up and wiping vigorously at my scrub’s top, which wasn’t even wet.
“What are you-” I asked.
“Don’t worry, chéri, that will come out. You use some…”
I know she kept talking, kinda wildly actually, but then I looked up to see a reflection in the glass partition behind Lilla’s desk.
“That’d be okay with Dano,” ER Dano said, standing behind me, “but he wonders what for.”
Oh, no! I smiled, Lilla wiped and then I said, “We had a date, silly, or did you forget?”
Thank goodness for Lilla’s fast actions and my quick mind!
I slowly turned around, pushed Lilla’s hand away because she was so flustered she kept wiping at nothing, and I didn’t want Dano to notice. “Oh, hey. I’ll bring dinner. How’s that? Sure. I’ll bring the eats.”
That implied I’d cook it, but before I could clarify it’d be takeout, Dano agreed and hurried past us.
I flopped backward in my chair and said, “I have to call my mother to make my dinner.”
Lilla laughed, but I wasn’t feeling very jovial.
I sat in the back of #456 while Buzz drove at top speed. Premature labor. That was the call, and I prayed the baby would calm down and decide a Friday was not a good day to be born. Specifically this Friday.
At least I’d had some time to call Stella Sokol before we got the call. It took several minutes to clarify that I didn’t have time to stay and eat, but would she make me a take-out dinner for two? Mom made the same menu on the same day of the week forever. Even before I was born. That’s how far back forever went.
Since today was Friday, my mother was making potato pancakes. Not exactly a sensual gourmet aphrodisiac.
I looked up toward the window between the cab and the back of the ambulance and noticed Dano’s hair just about touching his neckline. Damn. He looked hot even from the back.
I really wished he wasn’t involved in the fraud or…gulp…the stabbings.
Relying on gut instinct had gotten me through years of nursing and saving lives. Right now my gut said Dano wasn’t involved. I decided I’d be looking for evidence to clear his name instead of convicting him.
And besides my gut-I had Jagger.
If he’d thought Dano was guilty or a threat, he wouldn’t let me go in alone. I’d convinced myself of that.
So, if he thought so, it would be revealed tonight, if Jagger showed up.
Dano had joined me in the back of the ambulance, since the patient really did appear to be in labor. Her husband was at work, so before we left, I had called him to tell him to meet us at Saint Greg’s while Dano and Buzz worked on Angie in her living room. We’d called the ER, gotten orders from Dr. Pringle and were now following them as best we could.
However, I knew these little ones could have a mind of their own.