“Yeah, no thanks. It’s not the first concussion I’ve had.”
All that gives me is another lecture about traumatic brain injuries, and I’d had enough of those to last a lifetime.
“All the more reason…”
“Thanks, but no thanks, doc. I know the signs and symptoms.”
Like the back of my damn hand.
“Hayden.”
Walker fucking Holt, just fucking great. It was bad enough that Jackson was here, but if there were any more… I glanced around the room. Fuck.
Fucking Holts every where. Just not the one I was married to. Declan would hear I was here. Not that he’d give a fuck. Not after how we,I, left things.
“Hayden, since it was Jackson who put your head through a wall, if it’s a matter of cost…”
I glared at him for offering to pay my way. Walker should know better. I didn’t take handouts.
“I can afford my own test, Walker. I don’t need anyone’s charity.”
Well, the VA could afford it for me, but it’s the same difference. I’d just mention it the next time I was there.
Walker crossed his arms over his chest, staring at me pointedly.
“Not charity. Responsibility. And I’ll always help out a fellow Marine. Same as you would.”
I wanted to smart off and say I wasn’t a Marine anymore, but I knew the mantra Marines lived and died by. Once a Marine, always a Marine. I tried my best to school my features, but the slight tic of his jaw told me I failed.
“You have a problem with that, Sergeant?”
“No, sir, Colonel.”
Fucking officers.
“Good. Now, go with Liam and get a CT, then get your ass back here so we can game plan.”
“Yes, sir.”
I turned to the doc and stopped dead in my tracks.
11
DECLAN
Acoffee table, or what once was a coffee table, lay crushed and scattered across the floor, leading from where it had once sat to a large hole in the wall between the French doors and the fireplace.
And in the midst stood Hayden Marin, getting looked at by Liam, Walker’s doctor brother-in-law, with Walker and the chief standing close by. I couldn’t hear what the hell they were saying.
Worry churned in my gut, but experience told me Hayden wouldn’t welcome it. I shoved it down and willed my system to ignore the concern for the man who wanted nothing to do with me.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
Hayden’s gaze swung to mine. Fuck me, he was beautiful. The few years since I last saw him had been kind to him. The warm chocolate gaze turned cold as shock slowly took hold of his face.
“I could ask you the same thing.”
“Jackson’s a Holt. Katie is his girlfriend. That makes her family.”
