She looked like she could have shot him herself. “Is that supposed to make me feel better?”
Colt tried to smile, but from the tightness of his expression he was obviously in a lot of pain, and it came out as more of a wince. “I thought you’d appreciate the truth.”
“God, are all men idiots or just you?”
Colt looked at him, but Scott had no idea how he was supposed to answer that.
“Let me see how close he is to death’s door,” Scott said. He gave Kate a few instructions of stuff to get him, mostly to keep her out of the way while he pulled back the bandages and talked to Colt, but she’d actually done a pretty good job. Better than she’d done on his shoulder. Apparently, Colt was a better instructor than YouTube. “The exit wound may need to be stitched or stapled closed. Do you want me to do it?”
“Fuck no,” Colt said. “I saw your handiwork when you had to patch up Ruiz once. I’ll do it myself if I have to. Just help me up.”
Scott half carried him into the living room. He laid down a blanket that was hanging over the back of the sofa, although he doubted under the circumstances that Kate would mind if the upholstery got blood on it. Colt sat rather than lay down. Scott assumed the clenched jaw was him fighting against the urge to throw up.
“How do you feel?” Scott asked.
Colt shot him a glare that saidasshole. Scott just grinned.
“I’ve felt better.”
“I think you were off a couple inches in your estimation,” Scott said, watching the door in case Kate appeared. “That bullet barely missed a few vital organs. From the amount of blood on the rug out there, you’re lucky you didn’t bleed out.”
Kate’s sudden appearance cut off Colt’s reply, which from his expression Scott was going to assume would have been angry.
“What did you say?” Kate asked.
“Nothing,” Colt said before Scott could reply. “Except that I’m going to owe you a new rug. I hope to hell it wasn’t one of the ones from your grandmother’s house. As I recall those were worth more than I make in a year.”
Apparently Scott wasn’t the only one who got shit for his bank account.
Kate ignored the bait; she wouldn’t be so easily distracted. “Shouldn’t you be lying down? You look pale.”
“I’ll be fine,” Colt said. “I just need a few minutes.”
“You sure about that?” Scott interjected, deciding to help Colt out. “I think you might be getting a little too old for the job if you let a fifty-year-old politician get the jump on you.”
“Fuck you, Ace. And anytime you want to go head-to-head in a workout just let me know. The bastard got off a lucky shot, but I still finished the mission.”
Scott looked at Kate. But she was surprised, too.
“You did?” she said. “I thought you weren’t able to put in the thumb drive.”
“I wasn’t. I had to improvise. Since the jig was up, I went ahead and grabbed the laptop. It should be in the car on the front seat.”
“I got the bag from the trunk,” she said by way of explanation. “I didn’t even look in the front.”
Scott went to retrieve the laptop and handed it to Kate when he came back in. She sat down in one of the living room chairs and started to tap. She was instantly in the zone, and Scott and Colt went over the specifics of what happened while she worked.
Scott was glad to hear that Waters hadn’t gotten a good look at Colt.
“I was out the window on the roof when he fired,” Colt said.
Scott didn’t need to ask whether Waters had seen him get away. Colt was too good for that. He would haveparked somewhere where no one could see him and out of the eyes of any security cameras.
After a few more minutes, Kate looked up. “I don’t see anything. I want to run it through a program I have, and I’ll let Mac have a look at it, too, but if Natalie downloaded a spyware program on here, I’m not seeing it.”
“Are you sure?” Scott asked.
“Not yet. Give me a couple hours.” She disappeared into her office with the laptop. Colt gave up the tough act and lay down on the couch and asked for painkillers. Scott passed the time by getting him some toast and chicken broth that Colt could eat to take with the pills he had in his bag so that he could sew up the wound. Colt was one of the toughest sons of bitches Scott knew and watching him stitch up his own bullet hole was nothing all that new.
