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Something wasn’t right.
Noah cast a sideways glance at Emma as they stepped into her office. She hadn’t said a word since leaving R&D. What was going through that incredible brain of hers?
Did she see the full width of the nanobot’s potential like he did? As often happened when he pondered the chip, his thoughts drifted to his grandfather. Would he still be alive if a technology like this had been available when he’d received his cancer diagnosis?Abuelohad only been sixty when cancer had taken him, and a bright light had faded from the world.
“I can’t lose that chip,” Noah said after closing Emma’s office door. “Bishop doesn’t have the resources to handle something like this, and neither does his daughter. If they kept it and managed not to have it stolen out from under them, they’d still have to get a backer if they hoped to do anything substantial with it. And if that backer’s not me, I’m afraid it might end up in the hands of someone who’d exploit the technology. Someone who’d price it so high that, in essence, treatment would be contingent on a patient’s ability to pay.”
“Agreed, which is why I won’t fail in securing it.” Despite the heat of her words, her voice turned arctic.
He took one step toward her. “Emma?”
As she sank into her chair, she picked up one of the photos from her desk. As if she were touching something immensely precious, she drew her thumb over the soldier’s face. “If scientists and doctors can come together to do anything near what Braydon hopes, the impact to families devastated by trauma could be incalculable.”
Noah’s heart stumbled. He already suspected her brother had been killed in action, and her question confirmed it.
“And Iwantto be part of the team that makes that kind of miracle possible,” she continued, “even if all I do is make sure the chip stays in your hands.”
“And when that happens, I’ll stop at nothing to see that miracle comes to fruition.”Even if it comes too late to help your family.
“If this kind of technology could actually—” Her voice cracked.
Without thinking, he knelt beside her. “Emma,” he whispered, but he didn’t know what to say. Despite his parents’ best efforts, he was an only child, so he had no clue what it was like to have a sibling, let alone lose one. Well, almost no clue. As a teen, he had lost someone who’d been like a sister, and her death had nearly destroyed him.
A single tear slipped down Emma’s cheek, but she didn’t seem to notice. “What do you think an army of those tiny bots could do to bullet injuries in the brain?”
Oh, God.
Overcome with the need to offer her comfort, he ran a hand along her spine. If he could somehow siphon off some of her pain and take it upon himself, he would have.
She stiffened at his touch and lurched to her feet. “Thank you for the tour, Mr. Whitlow, but I need to get back to work. I should have a solid game plan on how to proceed with this case by Wednesday. Would you like to read my response to plaintiff? Or would you simply like an abbreviated memo to approve before I send it? David never specified how hands on you were.”
As dismissals went, her reaction said it all.Get out of my office and leave me the hell alone.But leaving her was the last thing he wanted.
“Emma, look at me.”
But she didn’t. “I need to get to work. If I don’t, I’ll—”
Her voice cracked again, and she swiped a hand over her cheek, which put him in a difficult position. He should leave her alone to battle her tears, just as she’d asked. But why did leaving feel so wrong?
Placing a hand on her shoulder, he turned her to face him. “Talk to me. Tell me what’s got you so suddenly torn up.”
“Mr. Whitlow, I—”
“Noah,” he reminded her.
She shook her head. “I just need to—” Her voice fractured into a million shards. “I just need to get back to work. I’ll find my footing.”I always do.She didn’t speak the last three words, but they resonated loud and clear.
“Okay.” He took a single step back, but it wasn’t easy with her pain clawing at his heart. Gazing into blue eyes shining with unshed tears, he did something he so rarely did. “I’m leaving you my personal cell number. If you need to talk, anytime day or night, just call me.”
When she nodded, he forced himself to take another step back. Emma Morgan had darkness and pain in her past, and if she’d let him, he’d help her ease that pain. Because, unfortunately, he had darkness and pain in his past, too.
