He glanced at the bandage on her arm again. A graze, they kept calling it. Like that made it better. It did, technically. Betterthan the alternative. But all Pierce could think was that she’d still been hit.
He flexed his hand once against his thigh and made himself breathe.
Charley shifted beside him, her fingers brushing lightly against his wrist. “You’re doing the jaw thing again.”
Pierce looked over. “What jaw thing?”
“The one where it looks like you’re one second away from grinding your teeth into powder.”
That got the faintest twitch out of him. “Didn’t realize I had a jaw thing.”
“You do.” Her mouth softened a little, though not quite into a smile. “It’s very intimidating.”
“I’m not trying to intimidate you.”
“I know.” She leaned into him a little more.”
He let out a quiet breath and forced some of the tension out of his shoulders. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be.”
That was Charley. Sitting here stitched up and exhausted and still more worried about the people around her than herself.
Pierce looked at her profile, at the shadows beneath her eyes, and thought again of everything she had told him over the last hour.
Learning who Calvin was. A man who had approached Charley because he thought he could trust her. A man who’d been shot in the chest before he could tell her enough. The most recent note with the names Dr. Marwood and Colonel Reed written on it.
Pierce didn’t like how much of the story still lived in the dark.
He especially didn’t like the way Colonel Reed’s name kept surfacing.
The waiting room doors opened.
Pierce looked up automatically, expecting Ray. However, it wasn’t just Ray. Colonel Reed followed him.
Both he and Charley tensed at the exact same moment. The tension in the room thickened as the others realized who had just walked in. Jessica straightened in her chair. Seth pushed off the wall. Cole and Zane both turned fully toward the doorway, the air shifting almost physically.
Reed looked different here than he had at the foundation. He too looked tired as if he’d gone several rounds in a ring.
Pierce came halfway out of his chair before Ray held up a hand, stopping him.
“Hold up,” Ray said. “Before anybody says anything, just listen to what he has to say.”
Pierce looked at him, then at Reed, then back again. “Ray—”
“Just listen,” Ray pressed.
Charley’s fingers tightened around his wrist. That was the only reason Pierce sat back down.
Ray and Reed crossed the waiting room. Reed stopped a few feet in front of the group, his gaze moving from face to face before landing briefly on Charley’s bandaged arm. Something like regret flickered there.
“I’m glad to see you’re all right, Ms. Taylor,” he said quietly.
Charley gave a single nod. “Thanks.”
Nobody else said a word.
Ray took the seat next to Jessica. Reed took the remaining empty seat opposite Pierce and Charley.
