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her and she walked a little more briskly as the car kept pace with her and the window slid down.
‘Can I give you a lift?’
Nina turned at the sound of Jack’s voice and saw his luxurious Jag, along with his face. ‘No, thanks.’
‘I actually want to talk to you—it turns out that you were right.’
‘Sorry?’
‘Tommy hasn’t got a head injury,’ Jack explained. ‘It’s a nasty brain lesion that’s been causing the seizures. I expect that’s where his bruises and injuries are from. I just called in Alex Rodriguez, he’s in there speaking with the father now …’ He drove alongside as Nina walked on, her boots making a crunching noise on the icy sidewalk, her breath coming out in short white shallow bursts as she struggled to hold onto both her temper and her tears, but, oblivious, Jack spoke on. ‘So there you go—we find out again that things are never as they seem. Nina, let me give you—’ He never got to finish.
‘“There you go!”‘ She swung around, biting back tired, angry tears. His car halted when she did and Nina said it again. ‘“There you go?” Is that all you have to say?’ She should stop speaking now, Nina knew, should just run for the nearest cab, except she didn’t. ‘Are you telling me that Tommy has a brain tumour?’ She was furious and let it show. ‘“Oh, hey, Nina, I just thought you might like to know …”‘
‘I’m trying to explain—’
‘And doing an appalling job at it. Have you even listened to what I’ve told you? Have you any concept what that family’s been through and now Tommy has a brain tumour? Do you expect me to do a little victory dance because I was right that Mike hadn’t beaten him? Well, I won’t because, unlike you, I don’t take cheap shots.’
‘Really?’ Jack checked, thinking of her little dig about him reading that she had delivered just that morning. ‘Or do you not even realise you’re doing it?’
‘At least I don’t gloat over other’s mistakes.’
‘Now, hold on a minute …’ Jack, rather illegally, parked the car in the hospital driveway and as he climbed out she stood there shaking with fury as several weeks of guilt and misery culminated in one very unprofessional row. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘You know full well what I’m talking about,’ Nina shouted. ‘Your little I told you so look when Baby Tanner was brought back in.’
‘Baby Tanner?’ She saw his nonplussed face, a frown marring his perfect features as he tried to recall.
‘The eight-week-old my department discharged …’ Guilt had lived with her since the night he’d been brought back and now, to add to her fury, Nina realised that he couldn’t even recall the case. ‘You don’t even remember, do you?’
‘Nina …’
‘You really can’t remember!’ She was disgusted.
‘Nina, what you fail to understand is …’
She didn’t want to understand him, she didn’t want to be inside Jack Carter’s mind. She wanted him well away, and so with words she kept him well back. ‘You’re so bloody distant from your patients,’ Nina shouted, ‘you’re so clinical and detached …’ Her temper was nearing boiling point. It was two a.m., she was tired, cold and hungry and, despite herself, she fancied the arrogant man who stood in front of her, could see him so tall and groomed and just so sexy that she was perhaps more angry with herself than with him. ‘You know what, Jack?’ she hurled at him. ‘You’re burnt out.’
‘Oh, I’m not burnt out, baby—I haven’t even fired up …’
Baby! Of all the chauvinistic, unprofessional things to call her—to relegate her … And maybe he realised the inappropriateness of his comment, because he gave a small shake of his head before walking toward her. ‘Get in the car.’ He was so close she could smell him. ‘I’ll give you a lift.’
‘I don’t want a lift.’
‘You’re upset …’
Nina could hardly breathe she was so angry, so attracted and he was so terribly close. ‘I’m more than angry,’ Nina said, ‘I’m ropeable.’
He had the audacity to smile.
‘I’m sure it could be arranged.’
He smiled in the darkness and she could see his white teeth as they both held their breath. For a very long moment she thought he might kiss her, and wouldn’t that be typical Jack Carter? Snog his way out of a row, dismiss any criticism with a stroke of his tongue.
She wanted him to, though, and that was what terrified her.
Her feelings for Jack actually terrified her. She simply didn’t know how to react around him, didn’t know how she felt.
Her eyes were savage now when they met his, as he again told her what she would do.
‘I’m going to drive you home and we’ll discuss this properly tomorrow.’
‘There’s nothing to discuss,’ Nina said.
‘Oh, I beg to differ …’ Jack said, ‘but not here, not now. Right now you need to calm down.’
He might as well have lit the match. He’d be telling her she was premenstrual next, which, as an aside, Nina realised in that dangerous flickering moment, she was.
But that wasn’t the point.
That so wasn’t the point.
‘Oh, I’ll calm down when I’m out of this place and as far away from you as I can get.’
‘Nina …’ He caught her coat as she turned to go, and swung her around.
‘Is this off the record?’ Nina checked.
‘Of course!’ Still, she was sure, there was an edge of a smile on his beautiful mouth.
‘Screw you!’
She shook him off, walked noisily on as fast as she could without slipping on ice, which he would just love, Nina thought angrily. Wouldn’t he just love watching her bottom up on the sidewalk as he slid past in his silver Jag?
She practically ran out of Angel’s, hailed a cab and climbed in, cursing under her breath as he overtook them.
At the same time, a curse come from Jack too.
What the hell was all that about? Jack wondered as he headed for his apartment.
Drama he so did not need.
Yet …
He thought of her angry face, the stamp of her boots, the bundle of passion he’d just witnessed and had actually enjoyed. Jack winced a little as he recalled his own retorts, though, which were so unlike him. He didn’t really row with anyone, didn’t really discuss, he just told people how it would be.
Still, as he headed for home she soon disappeared from his mind. He was just mildly annoyed that he had dumped Monica that morning, because he could really use a decent unwind …
Detached, clinical, yep, Jack was guilty as charged.
But no.
Nina was wrong.
He was so not burnt out.
Walking into her apartment, Nina closed the door on the world and let out a very long breath.
She would not think about Jack.
Neither would she think about Tommy.
Quite simply, she had to sleep and had learnt long ago that sometimes you simply had to turn off fear and panic and just close your eyes for a little while.
But her hands were shaking as she poured a glass of milk.
Nina