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“Yep.”
“Where’s your family? Do they know you’re going through this?”
“That’s another thing Tempest looks out for—I have no family.”
“Parents, siblings?”
“I was an only child and my parents died in an embassy bombing in Africa. My dad was with the State Department.”
“I’m sorry.”
“That’s why I enlisted.” He rose from the bed and placed two more pizza slices on his plate. “I didn’t tell you my sob story to ruin your appetite. Eat up.”
She nibbled at the edges of her second piece of pizza. “Did you go into the service with the intention of saving the world or just avenging the deaths of your parents?”
“Does it matter? It led me to the same place.”
“I never knew all this about you when you were my patient.”
“It’s not something I’m going to blurt out to a medical doctor.”
“Stop calling me that.” She took a fast gulp of soda and her eyes watered.
“You know it’s coming, don’t you, Ava?”
She looked up from wiping her eyes with a napkin. “What?”
“How did Dr. Arnoff recruit you? I showed you mine, and now you definitely have to show me yours.”
The pink tide rushed into her cheeks once again.
He hadn’t meant that as a sexual reference, but if she’d taken it that way then maybe this attraction he felt for her wasn’t one-sided.
She tossed the napkin onto her plate and folded her hands in her lap. “While I was still in medical school, a clinical student, my brother thought it was a good idea to use my credentials to steal meds and write prescriptions.”
“Addict?”
“Yes, just like our father before him.”
“How did his actions impact you? I can see reprimanding you for carelessness or poor judgment, but you didn’t steal the stuff.”
The knuckles of her laced fingers turned white, and she clamped her lower lip between her teeth.
“Did you?”
“I didn’t steal anything...but they thought I did.”
“Because you let them believe it.” He rolled the can between his palms. “You took the fall for your brother.”
“I had to. He was facing his third strike.” Her chin jutted forward, and her lips thinned out to a straight line. “He has an illness, and he was not going to be let off with a slap on the wrist and a treatment plan.”
“So, you allowed him to ruin your career and everything you’d worked for?”
“It’s complicated.” She rose from the chair and wedged her shoulder against the sliding glass door. “Our parents were a mess. Mom crashed her car into a tree while driving drunk and Dad dealt with the loss of his drinking partner by ingesting even more drugs before OD’ing. Even before they died, I’d always taken care of Cody. I guess I didn’t do a very good job.”
“Because raising a child is not the job for another child.” He plumped the pillows behind him and massaged his temples. “Where is your brother now?”
She traced a pattern on the window with her fingertip. “He’s in Utah, working at one of the ski resorts near Salt Lake as a snowboard instructor. I think he’s tending bar until all the lifts are open up there.”
“Did he even feel a shred of guilt letting you take the fall? Did he ever make any kind of restitution?”
“Sure he did.” A half smile curved her lip. “He hooked me up with Dr. Arnoff.”
A shaft of pain flashed behind his eyes, and he squeezed them shut.
“Are you okay?”
“Slight headache.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Your brother knew Dr. Arnoff?”
“He’d met him on a hike in the Grand Canyon.” She turned to face him, leaning her back against the glass of the door. “Cody didn’t tell me at the time, but he and Dr. Arnoff had shared some hallucinogens.”
His eyes flew open, his brows jumping. “Dr. Arnoff was into psychedelics?”
“Dr. Arnoff was into experimentation. Anyway, when Cody told Dr. Arnoff about me, the doctor said he might have a job for me at his lab. The rest—” she spread her hands “—is history.”
