Screw it. I had nothing to lose. With a couple of clicks, there was a photo of me in a jockstrap. Perhaps a few too many pounds, but with some creative flexing, there were shadows proving I had abs. Sort of. I clicked send and dropped the phone in my lap.
“I have no idea what you did with Xander, but this.” Lei waved her hand around my face. “I don’t know what to do with a boy and his puppy dog love.”
“You know, I’ve figured out why you’re single.”
“Men get scared that I have bigger balls.”
I was about to comment on her ability to drive a man to skydive without a parachute when my phone shook. It rested on my knee, and apparently I waited too long to answer. Lei’s arm snapped with lightning speed, stealingmy phone before I could stop her. She turned it long enough that it recognized my face and opened.
I rolled my eyes and leaned my head back. There was no use in climbing across the ambulance and strangling her. If that had been an option, it’d have happened months ago.
“First. Nice package. You have my respect. And it looks like I’m not the only one.”
“What did he say?”
“I might be reading between the lines, but I think he wants to go bobbing for meat popsicles. I can’t say I blame him. Jesus, what do you feed that thing? Miracle grow?”
“What did he say!” Okay, yelling wasn’t the best idea. Now she knew how interested I was in Aiden’s response. I’d be hearing about this for weeks to come.
“If I wasn’t covering this stupid concert, I’d say let’s skip coffee.” She thrust the phone into my hand. “Rude of him to not at least send a photo of him in a leather harness. You guys do that, right?”
There was no point in protesting. I had taken those photos yesterday as well.
“Mass casualty incident at Vanguard concert hall. All available units respond to stage lot C. PD will advise when secure,”barked dispatch.
“We’re ignoring that, right?” I didn’t want to beg.
“Fine, let’s go save your piece of ass,” she said, firing upthe engine. Once in a great while, I remembered why I chose her as my partner.
This was a stretch of bad luck, determined to make my life miserable. Now we needed to barrel into a concert filled with thousands of people and hope somebody, anybody, arrived to stop it from turning into a bloodbath.
She yanked the seatbelt and as soon as it clicked, she turned the key. “Let’s go save your man.”
I didn’t hate that thought. My man.
Thankfully, she didn’t see me blush.
I licked the chocolate from my fingers. Leave it to the nurses to always make sure there were snacks in the break room. Holding my hand under a bottle of disinfectant, I waited for the clear liquid and then massaged it into my hands. Okay, I was officially ready to go back into the field.
Lei leaned over the reception desk, talking to the nurse. She was describing the concert and the sheer terror on people’s faces. It had been difficult to tell if they were fleeing the scene, climbing over one another, or if they were attempting to tear each other apart. I had never witnessed chaos at that level.
This job had its share of weird, but this left me scratching my head. With thousands of people at the concert, the chances of finding Aiden were low. I left him afinal text, asking him to be careful. He had responded with, “No guts, no glory.” I wanted to call him an idiot. But it sounded dangerously similar to what I would have said, and I’m a smart guy. Sometimes.
“Come on, Lei. It’s going to be a long day.”
Lei reached out, bumping knuckles with the woman behind the counter. How she went from brash and rough around the edges to turning on the charm never ceased to amaze. The moment she turned in my direction, she froze. Her eyes widened as she leaned to the side, carefully inspecting something between me and the entrance to the emergency room.
“Villain?”
She shook her head.
“Hot man?”
Her head nodded slowly.
“My hot, or your hot?”
“Boy has some meat around his bone. He’s everything?—”
