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I had definitely not spent much time trying to picture Cassidy Croft in a hazmat suit—in my defense, it was one time, for like five seconds, and she did work in infectious disease. But considering my circumstances, that yellow suit looked better on her than Yves Saint Laurent.
I also knew she had absolutely no business promising any outcome. If I’d just inhaled anthrax, there was literally nothing she could do to influence whether I ended up with the deadliest form of the disease.
Neither of that mattered. The minute I saw Cassie’s eyes through that plastic window and respirator mask, I knew she was right: I was going to be okay. Or at least she’d take care of me, and I was more than all right with that.
Behind her, I finally noticed, a team had already assembled a mobile containment unit around my doorway, sealing me off from the rest of the division, although I was sure they’d already evacuated.
The swarm of decontaminators followed her in. This time the Darth Vader breathing was supposed to mean the opposite of doom.
What else came as a white powder? Lots of harmless stuff—but also a lot less harmless stuff. Cocaine and... heroin and meth? I wasn’t as well versed in street drugs as Hardcastles were purported to be.
That didn’t even count the bigger threats. Ricin. Botulism. Anthrax. Plague. Smallpox.
How long before I knew what I had (other than the worst luck known to man)?
I didn’t know how Cassie stayed so calm—I would have said clinical, but her eyes were still warm, just like she’d been with her patients.
“Okay,” she said, her gaze on mine, her voice kind despite having to basically shout past her breathing apparatus. “I’m going to take a nasal swab.”
She held up the cotton swab and I pulled back. “I don’t think I’m ready to take our relationship to this level.” My attempt at a joke felt weak.
Cassie waved a hand. “This is only, like, second base.”
“On a first date? What kind of guy do you think I am?”
“The kind who will be a cooperative and helpful patient.” She offered a broad grin.
I mimicked a sigh without actually breathing on the powder on my desk. “Fine.”
I submitted to the swab. She also collected a sample of the powder from me and from the letter personally, then let the team tend to gathering as much powder as they could with their special little vacs. Cassie handed off the sample to Dr. Donaldson outside to take it to the lab, while she stayed in my office. Another cleanup crew member set up a popup shower in the hallway. Cassie didn’t seem to have any further decontamination duties but offered a reassuring thumbs up whenever I looked her way.
I did that more and more often as the minutes ticked on, even after the police arrived, although we had to do a video call with them standing outside the doors to Urban Health.
“And you’re sure you can’t think of anyone else who could have done this to you?” the detective asked for the third time.
I gritted my teeth to avoid snapping back with the obvious. Of course I knew who did this to me, but blaming Harper Tyne’s fanatical fandom would look crazy.
Cassie leaned down to bring her face mask into the picture. “I’m sorry, Detective Popovich, but I need to treat my patient now, and this is elevating his blood pressure.” If a fake smile had a sound, it was Cassie’s voice now. “If you could leave your card with Infectious Disease for us, please, I promise we’ll contact you if we come up with anything.”
The detective huffed but agreed, and Cassie virtually walked him down to her division before she ended the call.
“Thanks,” I murmured.
She touched my shoulder blade again as if to silently say she had my back. For once, I really believed someone did.
Finally, the cleanup team gave her a nod, and she patted my shoulder. “Come on, let’s get you into the shower.”
“Aren’t you supposed to buy me dinner first?”
“We can do that after.”
It was hard to tell through all her PPE, but she sounded like she might mean that. “Really?”
Cassie startled so sharply even her hazmat suit jumped. “No, not really.”
I smiled to cover the wince. Of course. “I didn’t mean the shower.”
“Neither did I—what kind of woman do you take me for?”
