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“The sheriff. He did this. He beat her. I don’t know what happened.” I ball my fists, wanting to punch anything and everything right now.

“Call it in as a gunshot wound, possible concussion, and broken ribs. His jaw could be broken too.” The burly medic rattles off a list of other issues, but I can’t hear past the first few. This is all my fault. I wasn’t there to protect her.

“I should have been there,” I growl in disgust.

The second we get to the hospital, the back doors open. Nurses and doctors rush forward. I try to go with them, but a huge male nurse blocks my path. “Sir, she’s going to X-ray and probably needs other tests, so we know what we’re dealing with. You need to stay in the waiting area. We’ll update you when we can.”

“Fuck!” I punch the wall, putting my fist through the plaster and leaving a gaping hole. It’s nothing compared to the hole I’ll have in my heart if she dies.

I pace the waiting room like a caged beast until Reaper appears with Talon.

“Nina’s parking,” Talon says.

“Where the fuck were you?” I swing a right hook at Talon’s face, but he dodges it.

“Hey, what the fuck!” Talon shoves me into the wall and braces his forearm across my throat. “Calm the fuck down!”

“She’s going to die!” I scream.

“What?” Reaper steps forward.

“And you?” I push Talon away from me and redirect my rage at Reaper. “You’re supposed to be dead. He said you were dead. You’re not dead.”

“Yeah. Well, I would have been, but …” Reaper raises his shirt to show me a bulletproof vest. “I grabbed this at the last second before I went after him.”

“He’s probably got one hell of a bruise under that thing,” Talon says.

“You need to get checked out,” I tell him.

“Nope. I don’t want those doctors poking around me. I’ll be fine.” Reaper’s glare keeps me from arguing with him. There’s no point. He does whatever he wants anyway. Besides, he’s probably right about a few bruised ribs but no lasting damage.

“How’s Julia?” Nina asks as she joins us.

“I don’t know. They took her back and said they won’t know what’s wrong until they do a bunch of tests.” I slump into a nearby chair. All the adrenaline is wearing off. I’m starting to feel every one of the hits the sheriff managed to get in before I killed him.

“You should get checked out,” Nina says.

“I’m fine.”

“You don’t look fine, pres.” Talon studies me.

“I said, I’m fine! Now leave me the fuck alone!” I can’t sit, so I begin pacing from one wall to the other until something occurs to me. “Wait a fucking minute, where’s Max?”

“He’s with Matrix,” Nina whispers. “We got him out while the cops were trying to put together what happened.”

“You’re so goddamn good at hiding people. I don’t know what the hell we’d do without you,” I tell her.

“Well, I’m not going anywhere, so don’t worry about it.” Nina wraps her arms around me. Her motherly touch is so comforting I can’t help but hug her back. She’s shorter than me, so I tuck her head under my chin.

“She’s in good hands. She’s going to be okay. Just be patient,” Nina murmurs.

I laugh bitterly. Patience has never been one of my virtues unless it’s necessary for vengeance. The man who hurt my woman is dead, so there’s nowhere to direct my wrath. My default would be to rage at Blackstone, but I can’t think about him right now. I’m too worried about Julia to let that scumbag get inside my head. He’s part of the reason Julia’s in this mess. He’s the head of the local band of corrupt perverts. The sheriff was just one of his minions. I’ll deal with Blackstone later. It’s only a matter of time before he pays for what he did to me.

I let thirty minutes pass before I can’t wait another second. I march up to the nurses’ station and slam my palms on the desk.

“Julia Brant. How is she?”

“Are you a relative?” The nurse scowls.