“No, you’re right, I don’t,” he admitted. “But I hope that he’ll be okay. And I know for a fact that he’s gonna fight hard to stay alive. He’s got a lot to live for.”
“Sometimes that’s not enough,” Maddie whispered, and Shayla knew she was thinking about her mother.
“You’re right about that, too,” Peter agreed quietly. “Sometimes, it’s not enough. But loving someone—” he met Shayla’s eyes “—and being loved in return is always a good place to start.”
As the ambulance pulled away, they were right behind it, just as Peter had promised, all the way to the ER.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Pete didn’t get a chance to put his arms around Shayla for any length of time until Maddie went into the ladies’ room.
“I still can’t believe you did that,” he said as they stood there in the hospital hallway. “I guess I should’ve clarified that waiting in the truck applied to Plans A through Double-Z.”
“I had to bring you the gun—that you should’ve taken in there with you in the first place,” she told him. “And slinging bullshit? Making stuff up? Thatismy skill set.”
“Admiral Lisa Nakamura?” he asked, laughing despite himself. “In charge of Black Ops?”
“I had to say that—in case they decided to Google her and came up blank. I had a whole long backstory,” she explained. “You weren’t really Maddie’s father, you were her secret service protection, code nameDad.” She kissed him, her eyes soft, adding, “You okay?”
Pete knew that she was thinking about the man he’d shot and killed. “I am,” he said. “That probably seems strange to you. But he was a threat, and…I won’t lose sleep over him. I’m happy to talk about it, later, if you want.”
“I might want to,” she said.
He nodded. “Okay.” He glanced at the bathroom door. “We have maybe two minutes before Maddie comes back out, and I just wanted to say…Well, you scared the living fuck out of me, but I know why you did it, and…I love you, but Jesus, please, let’s never do that again.”
She nodded, too. “I definitely prefer limiting our hands-on action-adventure to our attempts to mythbust my love scenes.”
Pete smiled and pulled her close.
The bathroom door opened, and they sprang apart as Maddie came out, grim-faced and eager for news about Dingo. “Anything?” she asked.
“Not yet,” Shayla answered.
Maddie’s face tightened, but she didn’t cry. “How long does emergency surgery take? Is this normal? Why am I asking? You don’t know. I’m sorry. I’m…” She stomped away, but then turned back to glare at Pete. “You know, youcankiss her in front of me. She’s pretty freaking badass, and you might want to make sure she feels appreciated.”
As Maddie stomped back to the waiting area, Pete kissed Shay, as ordered.
“Come on.” She tugged him back toward the waiting room. “Maddie needs her dad.”
“Dark blue sedan—doing a pretty panicked U-turn at the sight of all those emergency vehicles and police cruisers.” Hans Schlossman’s voice came in over the speaker on Izzy’s phone. The tadpole was up on the roof of a building not far from the dilapidated garage where Maddie’d been held captive. “They’re heading to you.”
The police were still busy collecting evidence and locking down the crime scene, so Izzy had gotten permission—well, in truth it had been permission-ish—from one of the detectives to put Boat Squad John to work, watching and waiting for Bob Nelson, the scumbag druglord responsible for most of the pain of the past few days.
Grunge had reported that the man plus an unknown number of minions were on their way.
In the spirit of making sure that trouble wasn’t about to follow Maddie and Dingo back home to San Diego, Izzy and the boyz decided to put their talents to use to tie up that particular loose end.
“You copy that, Gull?” Izzy asked Seagull. In lieu of headsets, they’d tied their cellphones together via conference call. Whatever worked. “Seatbelt on.”
“I’m ready,” the kid said from behind the wheel of Izzy’s car.
“D’ja get a head count in the sedan, Schloss?” Timebomb asked Hans from his position across the street.
“Two,” Hans reported. “Both in the front of the vehicle. Plus, the plates match the info Lindsey gave us. It’s definitely Bob Nelson. Or at least his car. I’m coming down.”
“Excellent, and here we go,” Izzy said as the blue sedan in question appeared, coming around the corner and moving much too fast considering the size of the street and the industrial neighborhood. Fortunately, there was no other traffic.
Except for Seagull, who pulled Izzy’s car directly in front of the sedan in an impromptu roadblock.
