Page 62 of Quinton's Quest

“You fucking do it. Otherwise, you’ll regret it.”

I moved to pull back the curtain, but by the time I got there, whoever had been speaking was gone.

Lose the sample.Not a voice I recognized. But then he might’ve…what? Used a different voice? And the woman’s voice… I searched my mind as I tried to remember all the phlebotomists I knew. Especially ones who might be working tonight.

Nope. I recalled Randy was on shift tonight. And he definitely didn’t have a female voice.

“Uh—”

I spun just in time to have the nice pregnant woman vomit on my shoes.

Lovely.

By the time I got her settled and on her way to maternity, Miriam was asleep, Finn was getting his MRI, Albert was in x-ray, Marlon was nowhere to be found, and the chief was gone as well. Those two final ones might be related—maybe I got lucky and the asshole chief took his bully son home.

I was checking the vitals of a squalling infant when I caught sight of Finn putting on his coat. I caught the mother’s gaze. “I’ll be right back.”

She nodded.

I made my way over to Finn. “MRI clear?”

He shrugged.

I put my hands on my hips. “You checking out AMA?” Against medical advice.

“I’m fine. Just got a headache. Nothing to be worried about.”

“And how will the doctor follow-up?”

He met my gaze. “You know where I live. If there’s anything to worry about, call me or something, okay? Plus, Mom’s a nurse. I’m fine. Trust me, Quinton.”

I held that stare for a long moment.What aren’t you telling me?What had Miriam said? That itshouldn’t have happened? “Are you okay?”

He arched an eyebrow.

“Are you safe?”

“Knock on the head. I’m taking a cab home. It’ll cost a fortune, but the firehall can pay for it.”

“No one else here?” Usually, when a firefighter was injured, a bunch of their buddies crowded our waiting room.

“They’re still at the cleanup.” His phone buzzed, and he checked it. “Cab’s here. I gotta go.” With that, he disappeared.

Since I didn’t have the time to chase him, I pivoted back to my infant charge whose fever was dangerously high. I smiled at her mom. “We’ll do our best to get her temperature down.”

I spent the rest of my shift moving from patient to patient. Emergency wasn’t my specialty, but they didn’t have me helping with traumas or anything like that.

Which was why I didn’t hear about the burn victim until the end of my shift.

I was staggering to the change room when Christie caught up with me.

“Good work tonight.”

“Did my best. We were swamped.”

“Height of virus season and that fire over in Mission City. All the firefighters have been sent home and the burn victim has been transferred to Vancouver.”

“Burn victim?”