Page 67 of 72 Hours

“Good?” Her expression struggled between distress, relief, and insult. “What the fuck do you mean, spouting crap like that, after all that’s happened, when we nearly got killed, and I must look such a mess.”

“Just like I said.” I sighed. “Girls. Always crying and howling.”

“You bastard.” She was frowning and smiling at the same time. It was an odd kind of combination. “You saved me, Mac. You saved my life!”

I tried to wave such nonsense away. I couldn’t really take the credit, could I? I could hear shouting outside the trailer and the throaty sound of powerful vehicles. Zac’s birds were screeching loudly in the distance. I couldn’t hear the rain on my roof, so maybe it’d eased off, but the park sounded like it was humming with the excitement of recent events. A few neighbours poked their heads in at my door, so obviously people were moving back into their homes.

Inside the trailer, there was a small knot of visitors by the alcove to the kitchen. I started to get up, but Junk’s head whipped around from the middle of a muttered conversation with Phil. He glared at me.

“Get the fuck back down on that couch,” he growled.

It looked like—yet again—there were people around me who insisted I took it easy. Lying injured on the couch was getting to be a bit of a bad habit. But I sank back gratefully. The throb of pain in my arm had woken up at the same time as me.

Phil had followed Junk’s look, and everyone saw I was awake again. There was a buzz of new sound, and Judith pushed her way to the front of the group. I was amused to see the big guys parting ways to either side of her.

“So glad to see you.” I grinned. “Boss.”

Judith smiled back. She looked tired and drawn, but as fierce in her defence of her Team as ever. Just a little tousled, where she’d obviously dried her hair with one of my less-than-luxurious towels.

Junk stood behind her, almost protectively. He looked a little dazed by her. Join the club.

“You really got him, Judith,” I said, my voice dropping to a warmer tone. “I don’t know why you came over here when I told you that Niall and I had it all under control, but I’m damned glad you did.”

She raised a fine eyebrow. “I said we’d be over to back you up, Tanner. Last time I checked, it was my job to give the orders, not yours. I’m only sorry it took us so long to get here. We only arrived at the end of it all, as Greg was making a break for it.”

“And isn’t it your job to have guys to do the heavy stuff for you?”

She was disconcerted enough to blush. “I was a field agent before I took the desk job, you know. Nothing wrong in keeping up the training.”

“In special cases.”

She nodded. “In special cases, indeed.” Her eyes met mine. This one was personal.

I grinned again, though there was a painful tug to my shoulder that made it difficult to move any of the muscles around it. “Joe Lam’s going to be glad he‘s found someone who can whoop his arse on high days and holidays. You make a perfect couple.”

Her brow furrowed. “Tanner, you may be injured, but that’s no excuse for appallingly rude personal comments.”

“Hey, cut him some slack,” Junk broke in, and to my surprise, Judith didn’t immediately slap him down. “He knows a kick-arse woman when he sees one. Like we all do.”

I saw Judith’s mouth open, then close again. I was even more amused to see a flush appearing on her cheeks.

Junk grinned at me. “Just look at this gal! She’s got the balls without needin’ to carry the bat between her legs, right?”

I bit the inside of my cheek very, very hard trying not to laugh. “Right, man.” I saw Judith was nursing her left leg, standing slightly awkwardly. “Your ankle again?”

She shrugged, but when Junk pushed her gently to the couch, she sat down quickly beside me. “It’s okay. It’s just flared up again from the activity. I’m already having treatment. Joe says I should consider acupuncture, and we’ll discuss the benefits when he starts a course for himself....” She broke off, as if embarrassed at talking about something personal.

“Someone told him yet you took the guy down yourself?” I asked softly. She shook her head and we exchanged rueful smile. I imagined there’d be hell to pay when Joe heard she’d put herself back in the front line. Despite a physical equality in their work, I suspected they might both be harbouring a strong protectiveness towards each other. The way she’d rushed straight to the hospital; the vulnerable tone to his voice when he’d spoken to me on the phone. I felt a strange warmth at being back with her, at sharing things again.

“But what the fuck happened?” Memories were trickling back into my mind. I looked across at the door, suddenly reminded of Greg’s strange exit. “Greg was groggy from the electric shock, sure, but he could still have dodged you and run for it. But he went down outside the door like a ripe pear from a tall tree. What happened?”

Judith grinned then, a smile of pure pleasure. “Don’t I always say the simplest strategies are the best?” Junk coughed rather self-consciously behind her, and she laughed. “This smart man came back to the site at about the same time as we arrived.”

“Junk?”

He had the grace to glance away. “No one fuckin’ tells me to leave my own park, you know. Especially not kids like you two. Ruthie just needed settlin’ with her cousin in town, then most of us came straight back.”

Judith pursed her lips. Maybe it was her turn to hold back a smile. “Junk showed me the quickest way to your trailer, the way through the back so that Greg wouldn’t see us approaching. We had no way of knowing what lookout arrangements he’d made, what weapons he might have had. And then when we heard the furor inside the trailer and heard someone fumbling with the door, we had to find a quick and safe way of stopping his flight.”