Page 158 of Dangerous King
He huffs something like a laugh, but it's rough. "You're fire, Cat. But this place? These people? They extinguish things like you."
"Then don't let them."
He leans in, brushing his lips over my forehead. "Never. They'd have to go through me."
I tilt my chin up, catching his eyes. "I know what I'm walking into. Just don't shut me out."
"I won't." He threads his fingers through mine. "But don't ask me to be okay with it."
We sit like that for a while, hand in hand, the silence less sharp now. Outside the window, dawn is beginning to bleed into the sky.
Tommaso calls Enrico to report that they don't have anything new. The bakery was a dead end, literally.
An hour passes, then two. Then I've had enough.
"Enrico?"
He looks up from the monitor he's been focusing on, like he can't get enough of the squiggly lines from my heartbeat. "What do you need, sweetheart?"
"If I were one of your guys, or your brother, and we had no leads, what would you be doing right now?"
He looks pensive. He doesn't want to answer me, so I push, "Talk to me. Partners, remember?"
"I don't like where this is going." He mutters.
"Too bad, now humor me."
"I'd be on my way to interrogate Ledyanoy Prizrak," he admits.
"Okay, and if I were Dante? What would you do to get him out?"
"You're not Dante," he snaps.
"No, I'm not," I agree calmly. "But if Iwere,if I had a Glock in my belt and testosterone pouring out of my ears, you wouldn'tbe sitting here babysitting. You'd be cutting the cords of these stupid machines."
His jaw tightens.
I press on. "But because I'mme—someone who happens to have boobs in addition to having a stitched-up side—you're treating me like I'll break if someone raises their voice."
He glares. "A bomb went off next to you. You were thrown against a wall. You hadglassin your ribs. You bled all over my damn shirt. Forgive me for not tossing you a burner phone and dragging you into an interrogation room five minutes after they wheeled you out."
I exhale slowly. "I'm not asking you to drag me there right now."
"You are," he growls. "You just do it in that sweet, calm,reasonabletone that drives me insane."
I smile a little. "It's a good tone."
"It's adangeroustone." He pushes to his feet. "Fine. You want to move this forward? You want answers? Then let's make sure you're cleared. Right now."
He stomps to the doorway and slams the emergency call button by the entrance hard enough to make the wall shudder.
"Doctor!" he yells, his voice reverberating through the hall like a loaded gun. "Now."
Within seconds, a nurse appears, startled and wide-eyed. "Sir?—"
"Where's Mirani? I want an update. Five minutes ago."
She scurries away. A moment later, the attending—Dr. Mirani—walks in, already looking tired.
