Lynnette released her seatbelt on reflex, her anger reignited. “Son of a—”
Tires squealed somewhere out beyond them, and suddenly a green truck was screeching to a stop in front of the set of double-parked vehicles. Jenna breathed her boyfriend’s name even as he instructed them to stay in the truck, and then a man Lynnette did not recognize literally, but immediately recognized as a military man, swung out from the green truck with a pistol in hand.
As she and Jenna both instinctively dove for cover, gunfire splitting the air and a suspiciously tell-tale sound splattering in the back of her truck, Lynnette couldn’t help but remember something her father had said when she was younger. When he’d explained the different military branches to her, from his biased perspective, his explanation of the Marines had been simple and mildly frightening to her then-youthful mind.
“As for the Marine Corps…. Well, when you need something absolutely destroyed overnight, that’s when you send in the Marines.”
Lynnette remembered thinking, as a pre-teen, that meant the Marines were violent and uncontrollable. Scary and dangerous. Something akin to beasts held back by chains. In the few seconds it took for Jon to end the fight, she decided she had been both right and so very, very naïve in her estimation.
None of which meant she wasn’t going to give him an earful for dropping a body in her truck.
Chapter nine
The Not Knowing
Lance nearly leapt offthe bed, unhealed leg and all. “What the fuck do you mean, she was ambushed? She was out with your girl; she should have been fine!” Something sizzled and snapped in his periphery, but he ignored it. He was too fired up to give a shit about leaking electricity.
On the other end of the line, Jon kept his words calm and even. “The women went to handle one issue while I was dealing with another,” he said. “Apparently, while they were regrouping from that, four guys that I’m pretty damn sure are connected to the pair from Monday’s shooting swarmed in on them with bad intentions.” He paused at the same time as one of the machines cocooning Lance’s bed let out some type of warning alarm. “Calm down before your temper summons half the hospital. I have more to tell you.”
Lance sucked in a hard breath and closed his eyes. It wasn’t like he hadn’t had to learn to curb his temper and, more critically, the things that happened when his moods hit certainpeaks. It had just been a damn while since he’d been quite so unprepared for news that upsetting. But he reined it in, pulling the energy down and inward until it churned only inside. The benefit was, not being able to outwardly release his agitated energy meant it would find another outlet—and currently, the most obvious candidate for that was the leg still in disrepair.
Back under control, Lance said, “I need to know what happened. And why you think the new assholes are connected to the old ones.”
“That part’s easy,” Jon replied. “They mentioned PJ.”
Lance blinked and dropped back against the partially inclined mattress. “Pajama-boy?” His lip curled. “What the fuck’s his problem?”
“We obviously stepped on some toes the other day.”
Lance grunted. “Well, it would help if we had a damn clue who pajama-boy even fucking was.”
“I don’t disagree.” Jon was quiet a beat. “I took photos of the attackers and their IDs before we left the scene. I’ll send everything to Dietz, see what that wizard digs up. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”
Lance almost laughed. Dietz was gonna change his number when this shit was done. But the thought only reminded him of the reasonhehad called the man a short while earlier, and that just rekindled his anger. The frustrated sigh dragged out of him before he could stop it.
“Listen, brother,” Jon said after another moment of muted road noise, “this was never the plan. You know that. I got there as fast as I could.”
Lance rolled his jaw before replying out loud. “Yeah. I know.” It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Jon. It was that he was incredibly bothered being bedridden when someone was out there threatening his girl. “How many got away? How is she?”
“There were four attackers,” Jon said. “I dropped the two that were still conscious when I showed up. From what I’ve heard, your girl knocked out the other two herself. She’s a little beat up, but I didn’t see anything serious. Jenna told me today that your girl knows Krav Maga, so I’m betting that came in handy.”
Lance snorted, but his lips twitched. He hated the idea of Lynn in a fight. That didn’t mean he couldn’t respect her ability.Sounds like she’s got skill.He remembered how easily she’d maneuvered the flirty nurse—that wasn’t a move most people could do so easily. He’d caught glimpses. She knew how to plant her feet. There was a subtle strength in her that spoke to more than psychological backbone.
He still hated that she’d ever needed to test it, or use it. That she might be hurt.
That he didn’t have her number.
The stupid question blurted from him before he could catch it. “You don’t have Lynn’s number by chance?”
Jon huffed, the sound vaguely amused. “I do not, sorry.”
Lance let his head thump back against the pillow. “Damn it all.”
All he could do was sit, useless, and worry. Jon said he hadn’t seen anything serious. He also said he’d seen signs of injury. Those were the words that plagued Lance as the night carried on and the next shift rolled in. Day doc hadn’t made another appearance, probably to everyone’s benefit, and with the nighttime shift the grumpy male nurse was replaced by the flirty female one. There was another nurse on staff, also—Lance glimpsed her through the window—but he didn’t seem lucky enough to get away from flirty Claire.
He wasn’t in the mood to be flirted with by a woman who couldn’t take no for an answer. When it got late enough, he decided to at least feign sleep and hope she’d leave him alone. Feigning sleep led to falling asleep, but it was a restless slumber.He dreamed of struggling strategies, disputes with superiors, running laps on a track with no goal, and tumbling into a dugout in the middle of a firefight unprepared.
Lightning cracked through the sky like bombs exploding mid-air.
