“Jesus, you need help.” Reggie slapped him on the back and nearly broke him.
Mack gasped and collapsed to the table. “Help…me…”
The guys laughed, Reggie especially. They thought him funny. Charming. A great guy. Oh yeah. Cass would be his sweetheart in no time. He could feel it.
Chapter Eight
Tuesday evening, Mack felt annoyed, angry, frustrated, and a host of other negative emotions in regard to a certain wolf-eyed cop too busy to pick up the damn phone. It had been almost three days since their last encounter. Cass had yet to call, text, or shout his way. He’d thought for sure that orgasm, on top of all his charm, would have convinced her to give him another shot. And, yeah, three days wasn’t a lot. Except it was when he could think of nothing but the sexy, stubborn woman.
Mack growled under his breath as he patched up a distracted teenager who’d been more interested in groping his date than keeping his eyes on the icy roads. Mack fixed the gash over his eye with a bandage, while Brad, his partner for the day in the aid vehicle, saw to the boy’s poor date, who looked as if she’d either sprained or broken her wrist.
“I’m so sorry, Janna. Man. My parents are gonna kill me for this,” the boy kept moaning.
Mack felt for the kid, but it could have been a lot worse. This was the third accident they’d been called to, and it had only been snowing for two hours, barely six o’clock. Way too early to think they might get an easy night.
After checking over the rest of the teen, he loaded him and the girl into the back of the vehicle. Brad insisted on driving, which didn’t bother Mack at all.
They took the pair to the hospital but had to wait for a nurse to check them in.
“Holy cow, it’s crowded.” Brad sidestepped so he didn’t get run down by a pair of attendants racing after a patient being wheeled toward an OR.
“And it’s not even a full moon.”
“It’s all the ice on the roads,” another nurse said as she took the intake form Mack handed her. “Okay, you two. Come with me.”
She left with the teens, and Mack and Brad set out again, driving carefully as the snow started to really come down, from pretty, soft flakes into a downpour of white that covered everything.
“Shoot. It’s gonna stick,” Mack said, staring around them. “It’s pretty, but tonight is gonna suck.”
And suck it did. They helped a man who had fallen off his roof while putting up decorations, trying to beat the rest of his block. Mack thought him a nut. Who put up Christmas lights in mid-November?
“You sure you don’t want to go to the hospital?” Brad was asking.
The man hadn’t broken anything, that they could tell. But he clearly had pain and flinched when he shifted wrong. He stood, pretending to be just fine in front of his children, both of whom were old enough to know that standing on an icy roof with snow coming down was not a smart move.
Mack pulled the man’s wife aside. “I know he said he doesn’t want an ambulance. We can’t make him go. But it never hurts to do a thorough check. He hit hard, and I’m sure he’s got muscle strain making him sore. But it could be something else. Watch him closely to make sure he’s not concussed, and do your best to talk him into going to the hospital. We can’t see what might be wrong with him internally. Better a doctor bill than losing someone you love during the holidays.”
Mack didn’t want to scare her, but the husband didn’t look right. Beyond hurting his back when he fell, he just gave Mack the impression something worse awaited him if he didn’t get checked out.
“I have an intuition about these things,” he told her, all seriousness. “And something’s off with your husband.”
The woman looked from her husband to Mack. She studied him, a no-nonsense woman wrangling three children from ten to sixteen in addition to a dunderhead for a husband. She nodded. “Mitch, grab your wallet. We’re heading to the emergency room.”
“Damn it, Sheila. Fine. But no ambulance! We can barely afford our health insurance as it is.”
Mack had him sign the paperwork confirming his refusal, and nodded to the wife. “Best of luck, ma’am.” Withallyour kids, he wanted to say but didn’t.
He joined Brad in the truck again, and as they drove back toward the station, the snow tapered to dusty flakes, the city almost still. Then another call came in. This one sounded more chaotic than dangerous.
They pulled up on Beacon Avenue South to see a herd of cars parked alongside an elementary school and what looked like a brawl taking place on the snowy, grassy area in front of the school, well lit by moonlight and a few overhead lights.
Brad barked a laugh. “What the fuck? Are they wearing flag football belts? Is this a football game gone wrong?”
“Between adults, no less.” Mack sighed. “And to think Jed called the township wimpy for not wanting to play tackle. I bet if they played flag football like this, the Top Cops would be all in. Those monsters.” He grinned, imagining tackling Cass. Then he frowned because knowing her, she’d miss the game due to something more important. Like avoiding Mack.
“Here we go again.” Brad sighed as he pulled up behind two cop cars.
Mack’s heart raced, though he knew the folly of expecting Cass to be in attendance. Every time he saw flashing lights lately, he prayed she’d show up.
