hanging around here, all love-struck and pining, that you have given your little wife the service we discussed at our last meeting."
The doctor's snide tone left no doubt that his comment was intended to be as crude as it sounded. Cole's distaste for the man was sudden and intense, like a kick in the teeth. Still, he curbed the impulse to lash back. The girl was nothing to him.
God, his head ached too much to be sparring like this. "Assume what you want. Though why the hell it is any of your business, I have a hard time knowing."
"It isn't," said a soft but assertive voice.
"Trissa," said Cole, and his pain seemed to fizzle away like beer foam in a salted glass.
"Good morning, Nicholas," she said as she gave him that kiss he'd expected. Better than he'd expected, actually. He hadn't imagined that her freshly washed hair would have the scent of roses as it fell forward to brush his cheek. Or that the tip of her tongue would tease the corners of his lips for a brief, sweet instant. Or that she would stop on her way up from his lips to kiss the tip of his nose and the very spot behind his ear where it hurt the most. She confused him mightily. She made it very hard to think of her as debris or nuisance.
The doctor cleared his throat impatiently, and when Cole looked up, his smirk had turned to scowl. "Excuse the intrusion, Mr. and Mrs. Brewer."
Trissa perched on the edge of the bed and fluttered her lashes at Cole saucily, then tossed her hair over her shoulder to glance back at the doctor. "Oh, Dr. Edmonds, I thought you'd gone."
"Shortly. I do have a bit of news, though perhaps you'd want to wait to hear it from Dr. Cummings."
The teasing smile melted from her face instantly. "What is it?"
"Good news, I guess. I was telling Brewer how lucky he was to have such a thick skull and a cast iron gut. The last tests came back. They're letting him go tomorrow."
Trissa yielded to the light push of Cole's fingertips on her forearm and slid off the bed away from him. It might have been the subtle but unmistakable distancing of himself away from her that tempered the enthusiasm of her response. "Thank you for telling us. I'm very pleased."
Edmonds studied her with a wry half-smile, his arms folded across his chest. "From the way the police have been hanging around here, it should be just in time for the arrest. I may be forced to admit, Brewer, that I was wrong when I assessed your various abilities. One of them, anyway. Fighting may be a strong suit after all. As to the other, well, some women settle for less than others, I suppose."
"Come out in the hall! I want a word with you, Doctor!" Trissa snapped and wheeled to stalk out. Edmonds chuckled and ambled after her. Cole could only hear the hissing anger of her whisper but not the words as she gave him the piece of her mind that nettled her. He could imagine her jabbing her tiny finger into his massive chest as she made her point.
His low rumble of a voice was clearly audible, however. "I never trusted Brewer. You're best rid of him. He's a killer." There was a slight pause in which neither spoke. "Unless, of course, that's what you wanted out of him all along. Tell me, what's the going rate for patricide? And what does he accept for legal tender?" There was a resounding crack which could only have been her palm connecting with his cheek.
Cole heaved himself painfully out of the bed to go to her aid, but she was in the door before he'd managed two steps. Her face was beet red with fury and her fists were tight, white-knuckled balls. "Ooh! What an arrogant, insufferable bastard!" She jammed a fist to her mouth as if to stifle a pending scream.
Awkwardly, Cole put an arm around her shoulder and patted her. "Really, I'm not worth the trouble. For all we know, he may be right. About me, I mean."
"No," she said adamantly. "Don't say that. Don't even think it. I talked to the police this morning. They don't have anything. It seems they suspect me as much as they do you. So for all his arrogance, Edmonds shares his perceptions with the cops." She shivered, then seemed to force the tension out of herself. "But,