Ray
Ray had been surprised to learn that Sloane had called not only his mother and sister when he’d realized she was missing, but her father, too. She had sensed more than a little bit of animosity between Sloane and her father when she’d introduced them, so she hadn’t expected Sloane to give her father the time of day. The fact that he’d called him had proved just how worried he must have been. Sloane had made her call him on the ride back to FBI headquarters to let him know that she was safe, but when she’d told her father that Sloane had been shot, he told her he was on his way over to meet them. Sloane’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head when he’d heard that.
Ray called Sloane’s mom next and told her what had happened, to which she too replied that she was on her way over to Sloane’s place of work. Sloane sighed dramatically.
“If I’d known getting shot was going to lead to all this attention, I’d have made more of an effort to avoid it.”
“Good,” Ray said, giving him a stern look that might have been more sincere if she wasn’t thinking about kissing him right there and then for, quite literally, taking a bullet for her. “Next time, try to bear that in mind.”
Ted chuckled, and Sloane glared at him in the rearview mirror, which just made him laugh harder. Ted swung Ray’s car into the headquarters parking lot a moment later—he’d insisted on driving, and she hadn’t argued, knowing she wouldn’t want to leave Sloane’s side even for a moment.
As soon as the vehicle was parked, Sloane took Ray’s hand and pulled her along to a door on one side of the underground parking lot. He’d punched in a code on a security panel and when the door buzzed open, he towed her along the corridor, then banged his fist on one of the doors.
The door opened and a woman in white medical scrubs stood there peering out at them.
“Been shot,” Sloane said by way of a greeting. “Graze.”
“Come in,” she said. “Let’s have a look if you need stitches.”
“I can do without them,” Sloane said. “Just patch me up, doc.”
The doctor pursed her lips. “I think I’ll be the judge of that, thank you very much.”
Sloane frowned and Ray failed to keep the smile from her face. She could get to like this doctor…although she wasn’t entirely sure why she was working out of an underground parking lot. The doctor led them along a brightly lit corridor and into a side room, which Ray was pleased to note did, in fact, look like it belonged in a hospital, and not a horror movie.
The doctor closed the door and gestured to a bed pushed up against one wall.
“Up you hop, then, and let’s have a look at this graze of yours.”
Sloane reluctantly perched on the bed and pulled his bloodied shirt aside to reveal the wound.
The doctor took one look at his arm then said, “Yep, stitches.”
Sloane heaved a sigh. Ray never would have imagined that a big strong man like Sloane, a shifter at that, could be afraid of a tiny needle, especially after he’d just been shot. But when the doctor turned around with the needle, he took one look at it and swayed, his face turning an interesting shade of green.
“Best to lie down,” the doctor said brightly. “We’re all out of sick buckets.”
He laid back and Ray ran her hand gently along his forearm. He twisted his hand round to take hold of hers, and she smoothed her thumb over the back of it.
He kept hold of her hand the entire time, and once or twice he’d held her so tightly, she thought he’d been about to break her fingers. She hid her wince—after all, hehadtaken a bullet for her. It was the least she could do.
“Let your body’s healing ability get to work on that,” the doctor said, nodding to the wound. “In around an hour, you should be fine to shift into your bear form, and you should be fine to get back to work by next week. Check in with me first, mind. In the meantime, the restroom is empty, so help yourself.”
“Thanks, doc,” Sloane said. “But I’m ready to get out of here. I’ll shift at home.”
She shrugged. “It’s your choice.”
The doctor pulled off her latex gloves and tossed them in a trash can, and headed out of the room.
“Is that why you had to come here to get stitched up instead of going to a hospital?” Ray asked. “Because they know you’re a shifter?”
He nodded. “Yeah. This medical wing is for shifters only. Everyone who works in here or comes in here is either a shifter, a shifter’s mate, or has special clearance to be in here. Come on, babe, let’s get you home.”
Flint, who Ray had learned was Sloane’s team leader, had told them before they left that Ray would have to give a statement, but he’d said she could do it the following day and for that, she’d been grateful. All she wanted to do was go home and have a long bath, then put her yoga pants on and veg out on the sofa with Sloane.
When they got back out into the parking lot, the armored SUV was just parking, and the rest of Sloane’s team were getting out.
“How was the needle, Ice?” Kit, the female member of Sloane’s team, asked.
