pressed him,” Emmitt said. “A heads-up would have been nice.”
“If you’d kept in touch, I would have warned you.” Gray picked up his pen and the little notebook he always carried, as if he hadn’t been informed of the computer revolution. “Okay, here’s how this will work. You want me to clear you? You have to be up-front with me.”
Emmitt gave a noncommittal shrug. “What more do you want to know?”
“Were there any complications from the blast that you’re not telling me?”
“That would affect my ability to read and edit words?” When Gray waited for Emmitt to answer his own question, he sat up, and the sudden movement caused the throb in his head to settle behind his eyes. “No, Gray, I can read and write just fine.”
“Doesn’t matter. When you’re hurt on the job, you need to be fully recovered before returning—you know this.”
“You’ve been talking to Carmen.”
He closed his notepad. “I took an oath, which is why I’ll need to see the file from the hospital in China before we go any further.”
“I don’t have one.” That was the truth. “They released me. I flew home. The only paperwork I got was a bill for my insurance company. Even if I did have my medical papers from the hospital stay, which I don’t, they’d be in Mandarin.”
“Then you’ll need to call the hospital where you were treated. After they e-mail me their findings, we’ll schedule an appointment for a proper checkup.”
“Are you serious?” Emmitt scoffed. “Is this because I’m claiming my right to take Paisley to the father-daughter dance?”
Gray lifted a judgmental brow.
Okay, that came out a little angrier than he’d anticipated but, Jesus effing Christ. Why did Gray have to be such a Boy Scout all the time? Emmitt wasn’t asking for clearance to drop into a hot zone from thirty thousand feet up. All he wanted was to finish the article he’d started, which required a few more interviews and pictures.
His camera and computer had made it back to Rome, but most of his notes and all the digital recordings Emmitt had compiled for the story were accidentally shipped to the home office in New York and were now being held hostage by Carmen.
“How about we make a deal?” The throb in his head had settled firmly behind his eyes. “You send Carmen an e-mail stating that I’m good to go and I promise not to take any new assignments until after the dance.”
“Lie to Carmen Lowell?” Gray laughed. “That woman isn’t going to let you off the hook until you apologize for every transgression since you met her.”
“Which is why I need a doctor’s note. Then it wouldn’t be up to her. HR would step in and she’d have to let me finish the story.”
“Did you ever stop to think that maybe the order came from HR and Carmen was just the messenger?”
No, Emmitt hadn’t. He’d been so frustrated by the entire situation that he’d just assumed it was another one of her Carm-trums. “Remember when she sent me on a last-minute assignment to Moscow, booked me a flight that landed at three a.m. in the middle of January, only the person I was supposed to interview was in Moscow, Kansas?”
“And the story wasn’t even yours to cover?” Gray had the nerve to laugh. “I warned you about mixing business and pleasure, Em. What can I say, you made your bed—not my problem that she’s still pissed to no longer be in it. But backburning a story and having to redo the entire layout of the magazine seems a little extreme, even for Carmen.”
“I’m not so sure.” But if Carmen wasn’t behind it, that meant the higher-ups made the call, and he needed to get Gray on board more than ever.
“Either way, you see why I have to do this by the book. If I clear you and then you’re further injured on the job, I’m opening up myself and the hospital to a lawsuit.”
“We both know I’d never sue you,” Emmitt scoffed. “You’re just making shit up because you get off controlling my life.”
“Life isn’t always about you and what you need, Em,” Gray said in that calm zen way of his that pissed Emmitt off. “When my practice merged with Rome General, I had to adopt an entire binder of rules and a board I answer to. We can’t all run around the world making up the rules as we go.”
As far as direct hits went, that one sank his proverbial battleship.
Emmitt didn’t