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“You look tired. Wild night?” Haley took a drink from the Styrofoam cup and scrunched her nose in distaste before taking another dutiful sip. “Were you with Lachlan Gage?”
I hid behind a huge swig of coffee, my eyes widening as it scorched my tongue and throat. I blinked back a few tears from the burn as I dumped the rest. Boiling hot coffee and Lachlan didn’t mix. I probably should also avoid heavy machinery. “Why would you ask that?”
“Because you’ve got a wine stain on your shirt, a Mercedes just dropped you off in the ambulance bay, and rumor is that a Gage told Garcia to replace you,” she added meaningfully, waggling her eyebrows. “Care to confess your sins?”
“I remain pure as the driven snow,” I said dryly.
Haley lounged back in her seat, crossing her arms and tutting under her breath. “Pure as the driven snow? This has all the hallmarks of a walk of shame.”
“Do you really think I would date someone like him?”
“A billionaire who owns half the city?” She rolled her eyes. “If he was anyone but a Gage, I’d hope you would.”
I ignored the flutter I felt at her words. “You forget that he’s dangerous.”
“True, but being with him is safer than being against him.”
I hated that she might have a point.
“Come on. Spill. What is going on?”
“I swear, nothing happened.” I opened the white cardboard box next to the coffee machine, praying there were still a few donuts left. “It’s not like that between us.”
“Us?” My back was turned, but I could hear the mischief in her tone. “What is it like between the two of you?”
“Lach did me a favor. It’s complicated.” The donut box was sadly empty. I considered dipping into the paper bag of beignets I’d stopped for on Canal Street, especially if kissing the boss’s ass was a lost cause.
“Lach, huh? Already using a nickname. That’s friendly.” Her tone bypassed suggestiveness in favor of something north of accusation.
Fuck, now I was slipping and calling him Lach? I needed to reassert some boundaries fast.
“We aren’t friends.” I didn’t know what we were, but it definitely wasn’t that.
“Look, I haven’t left the hospital in…” She paused and counted on her fingers. “I actually have no idea when I last left. I need news of the outside world. Tell me about him.”
“Black hair. Tattoos. Green eyes.” The thought of those eyes sent me reeling to last night when he’d put the pendant back on me.
Haley let out a loud whistle. “Oh, you’re in trouble.”
“Did I mention the guns and that he is disgustingly arrogant?” And confusing, hot and cold, thoughtful and thoughtless. I plopped onto the lounge’s beat-up couch. “I would never go for someone like him. Even if he’s hot—”
“So, you admit that you think he’s hot.”
“That’s just a fact.” I could admit to that much, at least. “How many bodies in the morgue right now are there because of trinity?”
I fought back a wave of guilt. Lachlan was concerned enough about the effects the drug was having on the city to try to negotiate with the other courts, but that didn’t excuse him from responsibility for his part in it.
She frowned. “Point taken, but damn, you’re a lot stronger than I am if he’s as hot as you say and rich.”
“I doubt it.” If she knew how close I’d come to giving in to my attraction to him, she wouldn’t think that.
“Sexy billionaires do not grow on trees.” She shook her head as if she knew this from wasting time looking for one. “Have you considered that you might be able to influence him?”
My brows shot up. “I know I don’t have the best track record with men, but I do know that you can’t change them.”
“I didn’t say change him.” She rolled her eyes. “But no one gets close to Lachlan Gage. Even Garcia has never actually seen him. You mentioned the staffing shortage, and, boom, we’re getting nurses.”
“Your point?”