Deadly Little Secrets Page 0,94
That, he would recycle at home.
He smiled, thinking that the lovely Ana was now without her protector. Meeting up with her again would be…intriguing.
Chapter Fifteen
No one left the hospital for two days. Pretzky had arranged for a change of clothes for Ana, taking the fabulous but ruined dress away. By the time Gates was able to accept visitors, Ana was running on two hours of sleep caught in a chair in the waiting room.
Dav went in first, and when he came out, he was pale. “He’d like to speak to you,” he said, taking Ana’s hands and bussing her on the cheek before he led her to the doors to the ICU. “Remember, he’s medicated. Lucid, but medicated, all right?”
She wasn’t sure what that meant, but she set it aside in her hurry to get to Gates.
Her first thought was how drained he looked. His wavy mass of brown hair was the only warm spot of color on the white sheets; his skin was barely a shade pinker than the fabric.
“Ana,” he croaked. “I told Dav,” he said, rasping as he looked at her. He looked angry now, irritated.
“What?” She hurried over. “What is it? What can I do?”
“You can go home, Ana. You don’t need to be here.”
The words were a hard slap to her face, a harder blow to her heart. “W-w-hat?”
“We’ve had fun, Ana, but you don’t need to be hanging out here. You’ve got your work, it’s not like we’re—” He drew a deeper, harsher breath. “We’re not an item here, Ana. Let’s be real. I’ll be leaving with Dav, you’ve got your job. We had a good time, but you don’t need to be here, okay?”
Stricken, Ana backed away. “What the hell was this then? J-j-ust a fling?” she stuttered.
“It was a joint project, a good way for us to solve this art thing.” He grimaced in pain. “Didn’t work out. I’m sorry, Agent,” he said, using her title rather than her name. The way he said it was slightly demeaning, the ultimate dismissal. “I wouldn’t have ended it this way, you gotta know that, but we both know it would have ended. We’ve both got our work. We shouldn’t have,” he restlessly waved a hand. He stopped and took a few long breaths. “On duty, in the middle of things. No. I have to focus here. Focus on getting better, not uh…” he paused, perhaps searching for a less painful way to tell her to get lost.
“It’s okay. I understand. Obviously, I misread the situation between us.” She drew on every bit of early training she’d had as a diplomat’s daughter. “However, I would have stayed for anyone. I want you to know that. Someone goes down on my watch, I stay.”
He nodded, looked away. “I get that. I’d do the same.”
The silence drew out, and he closed his eyes. He didn’t open them again, but he did speak. “It would have ended soon anyway, Ana. I’m going to be following Dav, wherever he needs me. He’ll jet off to Europe, and that would have ended it anyway. Where he goes, I go.” He made it sound like Europe was the end of the world, but she got the drift. “I’m a bad bet anyway, for flings or relationships.”
It was her, then.
He didn’t want to care about her, or put up with some weepy, clinging female when he was trying to recover. He didn’t want her. Obviously, nearly dying had made everything very clear for him.
“It’s been real, Gates,” she choked on the words but managed to keep her voice firm, level. “Someone else will be in touch if there’s anything on the art case.”
Now he just nodded, eyes still closed.
“Just so you know, Pretzky pushed the warrants through this morning. They’ve started the data run.”
He nodded, but still didn’t move. “That’s good. Let me—” He stopped, redirected to a neutral term. “Let us know the results.”
Tears closed her throat as she stood there, but she forced them away so she could speak and not sound weak. “I will. Heal quick, Gates. And be well.”
As exit lines went, it was piss-poor, but heartfelt.
She passed through the halls without seeing anything. In the waiting room, she went straight to Dav, pressing a kiss to his cheek.
“Thanks for everything. Either I or one of my colleagues will be in touch, professionally, about all this.” She didn’t look at him. Couldn’t. “We’ll keep at it.”
“Ana-aki,” Dav murmured, but she shook her head.
“Don’t,” she whispered. “I can’t, okay?