“Sure.” Malik stood. “I’ll be outside.”
Tower waited until Jones had gone. “I’d like to offer you a job.”
* * *
Malik walkedwith Kristi to the elevator. “What was that about?”
“He offered me a job.”
“He offered you ajob?” That’snotwhat Malik had expected.
Kristi punched the call button. “He says Cobra is expanding and they need more medical staff. He said he was impressed by my grit—that’s what he called it—and how I handled the situation at the warehouse.”
Malik had to agree with Tower there. “You kicked ass.”
“He’s also watched me helping you with PT. He wants to hire me.”
“Wow.” Malik liked the idea—as long as Kristi understood what she’d be getting herself into. “What did you say?”
“I told him that I had my heart set on working with underserved populations at one of the low-income clinics. He said working full-time for Cobra comes with lots of time off, so I could have the best of both worlds—traveling with Cobra and volunteering at one of the clinics in my free time.”
“Huh.” Malik fought not to roll his eyes.
Tower had knownexactlywhat to say to catch Kristi.
That Green Beret bastard.
The elevator car arrived with ading.
They stepped inside, and Kristi pushed the button for the parking garage.
“He said he’d give me a fifty-thousand-dollar signing bonus. Can you believe that? The salary he offered is a lot more than I’d ever make working anywhere else, though the money isn’t that important to me. He said it would be a way for me to finish my goal of working on every continent.”
“Did he also tell you that you’d be on call every day of the year?”
“Yes, he was clear about that. He also told me I might find myself in a situation—God forbid—where you were gravely injured or even dead and I would have other injured people to care for. He wanted to know if I’d still be able to do my job.”
It was a valid question. “What did you say?”
“I told him about a time the six-year-old son of a fellow nurse, a friend, was brought in after being hit by a car. His mother was there at the hospital working. He died while I was fighting to save him, and I was the one who had to tell her.”
“God. Sorry.” Malik couldn’t imagine. “That must have been hard.”
“Itwasawful. Tower asked a few other questions, too—whether I’d thought of getting a master’s in nursing, how I felt about working in a male-dominated environment.”
“He turned it into a job interview.” Malik couldn’t help but laugh.
That was so like Tower.
She hadn’t applied for a job, but Tower was grilling her anyway.
“I haven’t gotten to the best part. He talked about the vacation and parental leave policies and then wanted to know if I could remain professional if you and I got divorced. I told him we’d have to get married first. He said he thought we were married already. I guess that little lie caught up with us.”
Malik laughed, but he wasn’t sure it was a lie. “Did you give him an answer?”
The elevator stopped, and the doors opened, cold air rushing in.
They walked toward Malik’s vehicle.