Page 108 of Healing Conviction
“So… couple of questions.” Devil tapped the plastic bottle in Draco’s hands, reminding him to keep drinking. Draco lifted his mask and took another sip before helping Nora do the same again. “First, is that blood all over you, yours?”
Draco looked down, having totally forgotten he was covered in it thanks to Nora’s attacker. “No.”
“Good… second, why the fuck are your pants wet if you were in a fire?”
Draco glanced at the bridge he’d had to jump off of. “Went for a swim to escape.”
A wry laugh huffed from Devil’s chest. “Bet that brought up some memories. And, third, where’s your shirt?”
“The dripping was too loud in the forest.”
Devil paused for a second and glanced at Draco before continuing to bandage Nora up. “Why did you need to be quiet in the forest?”
“Because of the three men who were chasing Nora.”
“Hm… KIA?”
Draco nodded once to confirm their attackers were dead. They’d never needed too many words to get each other.
The curve in Devil’s frown darkened in the SUV’s dim lighting. “So you asked about the women. There were eight of them trapped in that truck. We got here right before the police and were able to go in. Saw the two guys you took down in there. Single shot to the head on one of them. Nice. You’ve still got it.”
Draco nodded once, knowing more than ever that wasn’t true. The entire mission had been one harsh reality after another. He’d put every last ounce of effort into getting them out of the woods safe and sound, but they’d barely made it. Something that wouldn’t have been a question if he’d been back to his pre-coma self.
“We broke into the truck, found the women,” Devil continued. “They’re not good, but they’re not dead. Called Marco Aguilar, that prosecutor we’ve been working with back in Ashland. He called his FBI contacts. The police arrived before the FBI did, which was an unpleasant conversation. Police officers don’t like coming to a crime scene with four guys in tactical gear and two dead men. Once they found that CEO woman, though, she actually came out and spoke on our behalf. Then she turned herself in willingly, if you can believe it. The FBI got here shortly after that and cleared it all up. Now we’ve just gotta deal with the fallout.”
“What should Nora and I do?”
He stepped away from Nora, letting her shirt fall down before scanning her one more time. “How do you feel, Nora?”
“Nora, if you say peachy keen, I swear to God—”
“I’m much better after the oxygen and having something to drink,” Nora replied through her mask. “But mybonesare tired. Is there any way I can go to sleep now?”
Her voice was earnest, and the honesty lessened his fears. Devil nodded, also seemingly satisfied.
“That should be fine. I put some numbing cream around your cuts, so that should help with any pain you might have. Draco’s gonna keep watch over you.”
“Always,” she murmured and completely relaxed in his arms. Draco wrapped his around her and hugged her, careful not to hurt her back.
Devil gave him a funny look before continuing. “I don’t think you guys need a hospital, but to be certain, I’d like for you guys to stick around a little longer. Nora’s alert and responsive and your injuries are minor. Which is good, because if you guys went to the hospital, I don’t know how we’d explain your situation without the cops. Same if you go back to CTI.”
His friend turned around and Draco peered around him to see the flames had dimmed. Devil turned back around and packed up the first aid materials while he spoke.
“The fire seems to be dying, so I say, if you’re up for it, park your truck somewhere on the other side of this reserve, sleep while we’re working here. That way you’re close by in case we need you and you can rest before getting on the road. When we’re done, one of us can drive your truck or you can follow us home. If we have to stay here longer, you can make the trek yourself after sleeping off the night. I’d say one of us could drive you now, but I barely got to sneak away to help you. I don’t want the FBI asking where one of us is when we don’t have answers yet. We can fill them in on your part later, after our team has gone over what you’ve found. But right now, we don’t have a good story as to why you guys broke into CTIby yourselves.”
Devil gave him a pointed look, obviously not happy with the way he and Nora went rogue, but Draco only shrugged. He didn’t regret it. He regretted Nora getting hurt, but not the decision to go in. Without them going in and putting a fire under BlackStone to get there quicker, who knows what would’ve happened.
“And even if we did have a good story for the authorities,” Devil continued, “you guys aren’t in any shape to field questions right now. By the way, how’reyoufeeling?”
“Like shit.”
“Sounds right. You look like it. You, uh…” Devil’s eyes darted to Nora before he whispered, “You gonna take themedicineonce you find a place to park so you can sleep through it?”
Draco shook his head. “She knows about the shots and the kit.” At Devil’s widened eyes, Draco continued. “She doesn’t knoweverything, but I plan to tell her. After what we’ve been through, she deserves to know what she risked her life for. But I’m not going to take it yet. I’ll wait until we’re safe at BlackStone to crash. That way I can leave here as soon as possible.”
Devil nodded and extracted one of the heavy-duty wipes from a pack and reached to clean Nora’s face, but Draco grabbed his wrist.
“You fixed her up, but I can dothis.”