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I exhale a profanity. “You’re lucky you’re hurt or I’d smack you for scaring the shit out of me.”
“If you cannot call me Duncan to rouse me from death’s door, at least you could shed a tear of relief at my waking, and then throw yourself into my arms, instead of cursing and threatening to hit me.”
“Yeah, and the woman who’d have done that would have let those guys keep hitting you. Or let you fall all the way down the stairs.”
“True.” A whisper of fabric, as if he’s shifting position. “Did you threaten them with your knife?”
“I cut the guy who hit you in the stomach.”
“Thank you.”
“Hmm. I’d deserve that more if he hadn’t gotten the damn knife away from me.”
“And I would sympathize more if I weren’t smarting myself from the humiliation of being laid low without landing a single blow.”
“There were two of them, they were very big, they ambushed us, and they didn’t fight fair.”
“Despicable. Wemustcultivate a better class of assailants, Mallory.”
I sputter a laugh. “We really must, Dr. Gray.”
“Duncan. We really must,Duncan.”
I sigh. “I can’t. I’m already afraid of calling Isla by her given name in public, and that would be far less scandalous.”
“What do you call me in your head? Dr. Gray?”
I hesitate. Then I say, “Just Gray. Which sounds disrespectful. It’s not, but yes, it’s also a bit overly familiar.”
“No, it is a common form of address among male colleagues, and so I will take it as a compliment that you see me as such. You may call me that aloud as well.”
I sigh again.
“Still no?” he says, and the word comes lightly, but I hear the thread of disappointment.
“Maybe,” I say. “In private. If I slip up, people would presume they missed the ‘Dr.’”
“Excellent. And if you successfully manage to do that without slipping up, we can move on to Duncan.” A sudden movement as if he’s straightening. “How are you? I have not asked that.”
“I’ll be battered and bruised,” I say, “but I’m fine. How’s your stomach?”
“I am attempting not to vomit, which would quite ruin this little moment of ours. It is rather nice, don’t you think, sitting here in the dark?”
“How hard was that bump on your head, Gray?”
“Hard enough that I am thinking I rather like the sound of ‘Gray.’ It makes me feel less like your employer and more like your partner in theseinvestigative endeavors. Come over here.” He reaches out, touches me, and then withdraws fast. “My apologies. I ought not to blindly grab you in the dark.”
I laugh softly. “It was my elbow, which is significantly bonier than whatever you thought you grabbed.”
“Good.” He catches my elbow again and tugs me over until I am sitting beside him, leaning against each other in the dark. “You’re certain you’re all right?”
“All things considered, I am.”
There’s a long pause. “And beyond the scope of our current circumstances? How are you doing?”
I’m quiet for a moment. Then I say, “It’s good being busy.”
“I can imagine it is.” A long pause. “Last night, I don’t believe I properly expressed my sympathy for what you’re going through. That must make me seem very selfish. The man who considers only that he might lose his new assistant.”
