Page 41 of A Dead Man’s Pulse (Trident Security Omega Team #1)
Chapter Twenty-Two
H is hands on top of his head, Logan paced back and forth in the hallway outside the emergency room they were treating Dakota in.
He was still shirtless, covered in her blood, and probably looked like a mad man.
She was still alive, that’s all he knew, having held her hand for the entire ambulance ride, letting go only when forced to as they wheeled her into the trauma room.
Back at the condo, he’d barely had a moment to yank the covers off the bed and cover her naked body before her fellow officers burst into the room.
Only once the paramedics arrived had he backed away to give them some room, then handed his weapon to the first TPD supervisor on scene.
They’d need it for the investigation, but he knew what they’d find—it was his bullet that had hit Dakota.
“Cowboy!” Ian stepped in front of his path. How he’d gotten there so fast was beyond Logan’s thinking right then. In fact, Devon, Mitch, Tiny, Agent Novik, and SAC Parrish were there already. “What happened?”
Tears filled his eyes. “I shot her! I fucking shot her, Ian!”
“Shit,” the man spat in a low voice before grabbing Logan’s upper arm and dragging him into an empty treatment room, away from the growing crowd of police officers. “Someone get him a shirt and towel he can clean up with.”
Logan shook his head vehemently. He didn’t want to clean the blood off himself. It was hers, and he’d been the one to spill it. “I shot her, man.”
“Okay, you said that—I’m sure it wasn’t on purpose. Now tell us what happened.”
He hadn’t realized Parrish, Novik, and Captain Bowman, who’d just arrived, had followed them into the room and shut the door. They silently gave him a moment, letting him roam the small room as best he could. Taking a deep breath, he let it out slowly. “It was Dennis Hardwick, your bartender.”
“We know,” Devon answered, stopping Logan in his tracks. “Georgia Branneth woke up a little while ago and told us right before we got the notifications of an officer down.”
Officer down. His officer. His partner. His woman.
Swallowing hard, he sat on the edge of the unoccupied gurney.
A knock at the door had the female fed stepping to the side and opening it.
Someone handed her a scrub shirt and towel, before the door shut once more.
Logan took both when she offered them to him, but he tossed the towel aside and just pulled the shirt on.
“We—Dakota and I—are sort of seeing each other.” If anyone was surprised about that small bomb, they didn’t show it.
“We were hungry after the shift, so I ran out to a diner not far from her condo. Gina—Agent Harvey was driving into the lot as I was pulling out. I was gone about twenty—twenty-five minutes, tops. I stopped at a fender bender, otherwise I would’ve been back sooner.
Shit!” He thrust his fingers through his already unruly hair in frustration.
He’d just realized if he’d returned sooner, he probably wouldn’t have been able to save the federal agent but may have saved Dakota a lot of pain and fear . . . and not shot her.
“Easy. Don’t Monday morning quarterback,” Parrish said. “What happened when you got back to the condo?”
He knew they just needed the short version here—a detailed investigation into the shooting would come later in the day.
“There was blood on the ground in front of their condo that hadn’t been there when I left.
I ditched the food and used Dakota’s key to unlock the door.
Agent Harvey’s body was partially blocking it in the foyer.
She’d been shot in the head.” His gaze met Parrish’s. “I’m sorry.”
The man gave him a stoic nod, clearly having been alerted to her line-of-duty death already.
“I drew my weapon . . . heard him attacking Dakota in her bedroom . . . kicked the door in. He turned toward me, weapon up, we both fired.”
“So, he shot her, or you did?” the SAC asked, trying to make sure he understood everything correctly.
“I did! Damn it!” He stood and started pacing again.
“I fired twice. One hit him between the eyes, the other was a through-and-through on his upper arm. It must have deflected and hit her when she lunged at him—probably to save me. She’d hit his arm, sending his shot wide.
Next thing I knew, they were both on the ground. ”
“Who called the cops?”
“I did. The second I saw Gina’s body.” He stepped toward the door Novik was blocking—he was done for now, and only one thing mattered. “I’ve got to check on Dakota. I have to see her.”
The female agent glanced at her superior who nodded. “Let him go. We’ll get the full report in a little while.” His gaze returned to Logan. “But it has to be done today, Reese.”
Novik sidestepped and opened the door for him.
In the short amount of time he’d been giving the abridged version of what had happened, the number of people in the emergency room had increased dramatically.
There were uniformed and plain-clothes officers and agents all over the place.
Logan’s own teammates, McCabe, Foster, and Morrison, along with the Alpha Team, had arrived and were talking to Mitch and Tiny.
Foster and McCabe hurried over when they saw him emerge from the room with the Sawyer brothers.
“You okay?” McCabe asked, eyeing the blood on Logan’s hands and arms.
He shook his head. “No. Not until—”
“Where’s my daughter?”
Logan pivoted to see a pale, older man, dressed in sweatpants and a T-shirt, being escorted by two police captains in full uniform.
Although he’d been younger in a newspaper photo, after he’d delivered a baby on the side of the road about ten years ago, Logan knew this was Gavin Swift, Dakota’s father.
Logan had been curious one day and Googled Dakota.
He found her name mentioned several times for various police department calls and awards—like the time she’d interrupted a domestic violence incident, saving a woman’s life and arresting her husband, all before backup arrived.
Her father had also popped up a few times.
Stepping in the man’s path, Logan growled. “If you say anything to her other than you’re glad she’s alive and you’re proud of her, I’ll kick your fucking ass.”
The man’s eyes went wide. “Who the hell are you?”
“Dakota’s boyfriend.”
He scoffed. “She doesn’t have a boyfriend.”
“You obviously haven’t even asked if she has one lately. You’ve been too busy making her feel like she’ll never measure up to your fucking expectations.”
His ashen face turned red. “What? Get the hell out of my way!”
If Ian and Dakota’s friend and former partner, Ric Hernandez, hadn’t picked that moment to get between them, Logan wasn’t sure he could’ve held back from decking the man. Ian pushed his employee back a few steps. “Easy, Cowboy. We’re all worried. Now’s not the time to get into this.”
Glaring at her father, who was giving it back in spades, he finally moved out of the man’s way. He’d made his point. There was no way he’d allow anyone to put his woman down ever again.
After the elder Swift joined a few older officers down the hall, another man stepped forward, looking like he’d also just rolled out of bed, and shook Ric’s hand before addressing Logan.
“I’m Dakota’s brother, Gerry.” He tilted his head in his father’s direction.
“Thanks for standing up for her to the old man. He’s been tough on us all our lives, but, to be honest, I think it’s his way of saying he loves us—he just doesn’t know any other way to express it.
Do we know how she is? All they were able to tell us was she was shot by the Kink Killer and she’s alive. ”
Unable to admit to Dakota’s brother that he’d been the one to shoot her, Logan replied, “She also got beat up a bit. Her blood pressure was low on the way over here, and she’s still unconscious, but the medics said she was holding her own. Just waiting to hear what the doctors have to say.”
The door to the trauma room swung open, and the ER physician stepped out.
He was immediately surrounded by the brass, Dakota’s family, Ric, and Logan, while the others held back, giving them room.
“She’s stable. We’re sending her up to the OR in a few minutes.
The bullet is lodged just under her left shoulder and doesn’t appear to be life-threatening, but it put a small fracture in the collarbone.
She’s still unconscious but responding to painful stimuli.
I think that’s the result of the assault—she took a few blows to the head.
Everything else appears to be superficial.
We’ll clean up the wounds from the whip while she’s still in the OR.
While she may have a few scars from them, I think most will heal completely. ”
“She’s my daughter. Can I see her?” The man’s voice broke, and it wasn’t until that moment that Logan realized her father was terrified he’d almost lost her. But that still didn’t mean he could make her feel as if she’d let him down.
The doctor nodded. “For a minute, and then you’ll have to wait until she’s out of surgery.”
Gavin Swift moved toward the entrance to the trauma room, then paused, glancing over his shoulder at his son and Logan, his expression somber. “Gerry, grab whatever-his-name-is and come with me. She’ll need to know you’re both here for her too.”
Dakota winced as she tried to get comfortable in the hospital bed.
She couldn’t wait to get the hell out of there.
Three days of being constantly monitored and prodded was worse than getting whipped and shot in the first place—well, almost. At least the nurses had removed the damn urine catheter last night.