Consumed (Firefighters #1)(14)

And also, Tom was being a total dick.

As the nurse tripped over her Crocs to get out, Anne closed her eyes. “You have such a way with people.”

“I’m not apologizing.”

“Yeah, why would you break with tradition.” She lifted heavy lids. “How long did it take them to get him out? And where’s he being treated? Here?”

“Why don’t we take care of you right now?” When she just looked at him, his lips thinned. “Fine. They found him at the bottom of a ten-foot pile of beams and debris. He had a dislocated shoulder, ruptured spleen, lacerated liver, and the blood pressure of a corpse when they brought him in.”

As a trained EMT with a lot of experience, she ran the profile on a patient like that. “He’ll make it,” she lied. “He’s going to be okay.”

Tom shook his head and stared across at the window. Things were pitch-black on the far side of the glass, and his mood matched the night’s dense darkness.

“Why do you hate him so much?” she muttered, aware that she was too weak for any kind of confrontation. Especially against someone like her brother.

“It’s you I care about.”

“Well, I’m going to be fine, too. Give me a week and I’ll be back at the firehouse.”

“Doing what,” he said tightly.

“My job.” When her brother went quiet, she glared at him. “Don’t start.”

“Then don’t lie to yourself.”

“About what.”

“Your career is over.” Her brother looked at her. “You’re done.”

For a moment, she thought of the shocked expression on that nurse’s face. Yup, her brother’s timing was terrific as his delivery: By all means, when someone was in a hospital bed missing part of a limb, let’s bring up the job situation.

It would be rude not to.

“Christ, Tom,” she said. “Could you have at least waited until I was released? And screw you, I can do anything.”

“Are you even kidding me. Anne. Seriously.”

“Then why are you so pissed off? This is what you’ve been waiting for, right? Me on the sidelines, like a good little girl, letting the real men do the work. These last three years, you’ve just been waiting for me to—”

“To get killed.” He leaned forward. “You got it exactly right, Anne. I’ve been waiting for the night when I have to go to our mother and tell her that you’re dead because—”

“I’m alive!”

“You lost a limb!”

“My hand! And I can still fight after this—”

“No,” he ground out as he lashed his arm through the air. “You’re med’d out. Permanently. And you know what? You deserve it.”

Anne recoiled. “You fucking bastard.”

“You never follow orders, Anne. Never. You violated safety protocol by sending Chavez up to the second floor instead of proceeding in your pairing—”

“So I saved his life. Otherwise he would have been trapped with me—”

“Or maybe he could have gotten you free before Maguire appeared with a goddamn chain saw in his hand.” Tom shook his head. “You want to know why I don’t like him? Fine. It’s because he’s just like you. He doesn’t listen, and he thinks he’s better than the rules. And that’s how people get hurt.”

“Guess you’ve done your homework. Did you interview everyone before coming in here just so you could stand there in your cloak of superiority and beat me over the head with the rule book?”

“No, I waited until I could talk to Maguire’s surgeon personally. Because I knew that was going to be the first thing you wanted to know.”

“Well, now you’ve reported your intel. So you can go.”

“Don’t get your back up with me. You were in the wrong. Maguire was insane. And both of you are in the hospital. The fact that it only cost you—”

“A place to put a wedding band,” she snapped as she lifted what was left of her arm. “Right? You want me stuck inside and knocked up with some man’s kid, being just like Mom, waiting for my husband to come home and justify my existence. That was the fucking fifties, Tom. People like me don’t have to be barefoot and pregnant anymore—hey, have you heard they let us drive cars and even vote now, too?”

“Leave Mom out of it. And this is not about you being a woman—”

“You sure about that? Oh, and as for Mom, I will bring her into anything I want. I am not going to be like her. No goddamn way I am going to get stuck living her life of reflected glory for someone who didn’t deserve the hype.”

Tom went quiet. “I do not understand you.”

“It’s more like you don’t understand our parents.”

“Yeah, well, excuse me if I’m not in a big hurry to buy into your perspective. For one, you’re in a fucking hospital bed because you did the wrong thing in a situation where your life and the lives of others depended on you following orders. And two, thanks for taking a shit all over the two people who raised us and worked their asses off so we could end up here, arguing in this hospital. Clearly, you’re a great judge of character.”

“Whatever, Tom.” Unaware she’d sat up, she let herself fall back again on the thin pillows. “You’ve never wanted me to be your equal. Tack whatever vocabulary you want on it, that’s what’s really going on here.”