Shapeshifted (Edie Spence 3)

“I thought I heard something. ”

His right eyebrow raised in a question. “I don’t hear anything. ” He jerked his head toward the station. “Care to walk?”

While a doctor wasn’t my preferred companion, walking with him wouldn’t hurt. I made sure to stand far enough apart from him that it wouldn’t look like we were together. Even so, ladies returning from the station made clucking sounds as we walked by. I wished there was a way to signal to them that no matter how handsome he was, I was not interested in him, nor would I ever be. At all.

“So how was your first day?” he asked.

“Interesting, except for the paperwork. ”

“I’m glad Frank’s wound didn’t make you run away. ”

“Am I going to get hazed every day I’m here? Or is that just your regular clientele?” I asked in a way that I made sure sounded like I was joking.

He outright laughed, maybe the first time I’d seen him pleased. I wondered what it would be like to be him, at the helm of a perpetually sinking ship, bailing water with all his might. We might have more in common than I’d thought.

“As regular as the rising sun. Why did you even apply for this job in the first place?” His eyes tried to read me as we walked, even before I could respond.

“If you’d told me this was going to be an interrogation, I’d have walked on my own,” I said with an obviously fake grin. He snorted and I relaxed some. “Really, I just needed a change. I thought I wanted to take it easy, and the sleep clinic was great for that. But easy gets dull. ” No need to tell him about my mom’s time bomb or any legends. “Why do you work down here?” I asked instead.

“If I don’t, who will?” He shrugged, taking his coat pockets up and down with the gesture.

“Did you grow up here?”

“Nearby. ”

“Where do you live?”

His lips quirked up into a soft smile. “Nearby. ”

“How many stations away?” I asked quickly, before he could evade me.

“Past the station. I don’t take the train. ”

“Oh. ” I kept on course, hoping I was on to something. “Do you live alone?”

He drew up short and looked at me. “Why?”

“Because people are looking. ” I indicated behind myself with a head gesture. “Either you’re very single and they’re making assumptions, or you’re very married and they’re imagining the worst. ”

He almost rolled his eyes. “I live alone. You?” he asked in a tone that made it sound like he was only asking to be polite. But in my experience men didn’t ask questions like that if they didn’t want to hear the answers.

“I have a needy Siamese,” I told him. I tried to sound a little cute. Not that I was interested, but I could be flirtatious when the opportunity presented itself. “Did you report that guy from yesterday?”

He snorted, the beginning of a laugh. “I see how you are—try to get me to lower my guard with personal questions, and then in for the attack. ”

I shrugged and gave him half a grin. “There’s only one of me. It’s transparent when I’m the good cop and the bad cop. ”

He eyed me and turned serious, shaking his head softly as if to say there were a lot of things I didn’t understand. “You’d probably find a lot of bullets inside that storm drain too,” he finally said, which still wasn’t a direct answer.

“Why?”

“Because reporting things to the police won’t change anything. Not down here. You haven’t seen one yet. Nor will you. We’re off their maps, unless there’s been too many bodies to ignore. But,” he said, leaning his head forward, looking directly at me, “you seem willing to be very lax with rules. ”

“Heh. ” I hadn’t exactly been reaching for the phone yesterday. I felt a little sheepish—he had a point. “The place where I used to work, it didn’t always pay to ask questions. ”

“And yet here you are, interrogating me,” he said. He gestured me forward, and we began walking again.

“You haven’t even gotten me started yet, really. ” We had just half a block left. Now was my chance for the most important question—we were too close to the train station for him to abandon me. “Eduardo drew some blood on my last patient, but you didn’t order lab work. Did he make a mistake? Do I need to talk to him about that tomorrow?” I asked as casually as I could, trying to make myself sound managerial.

He shrugged and shook his head, too fast. “Don’t. I’ll say something to him. ”

“He did tell me to ask you, when I asked him about it,” I pressed.

“We see a lot of patients each day. Mistakes happen. We should be lucky if they’re all so benign. ”

I regretted his choice of words. It was too easy to slide in my mind from things that were benign to things that weren’t, currently growing inside my mom.

“I will talk to him,” Dr. Tovar assured me after seeing the look on my face.

“It’s not that—” I began to explain, but saw my train coming down the line. I knew I hadn’t seen a refrigerator full of blood-draw mistakes—but I wasn’t sure they were worth throwing down with my day-old boss over just yet. For his part, he looked like he wanted to ask me what was wrong, but I could see him restraining himself. Maybe I wasn’t the only one worried about crossing lines. Behind me, I heard the air brakes start. “Sounds like I should go—” I waved and started trotting backward.