Page 39

The tires screeched as I pulled up to the curb between Kilo and Mercy’s houses. I saw her sitting there, her head in her hands, shoulders shaking as she cried. Disconnecting the call, I jumped out of the SUV and locked it.

She looked up as I approached. Tears tracked down her face. “I’m so scared, OD.”

Shit. This was so out of my wheelhouse. I patted her shoulder as I sat next to her. I didn’t want to move her in case it…jostled…anything. I wasn’t a medic in the Army. I’d been in charge of killing things, not fixing anyone who’d been hurt. They’d made us go through basic CPR shit, but I hadn’t paid any attention.

My job had been to point and shoot. It was guys like Drifter who would know what to do in this situation. But I wasn’t about to call him or I’d end up with those fuckers driving at break neck speed, led by Kilo, as they tried to get back here. I’d tell Kilo, of course, but after someone who knew what they were doing checked on Mercy.

“You and the baby will be fine,” I told her, feeling lame as fuck. Like I knew that. The inner workings of girl junk was not my forte. I did everything in my power to make sure any woman I fucked didn’t end up in Mercy’s…condition. So I knew nothing about what would or wouldn’t be okay.

The ambulance pulled up, the sirens shutting off abruptly as the EMTs ran toward us. They were lucky because another minute of staring into Mercy’s tortured gaze and I was going to go find them and drag them here by the hair. Anything to get them here faster.

I met them a few steps from the porch. Pointing at her belly, I said, “She’s got a kid up in there. Fell onto the steps,” I said in a low voice. She didn’t need to rehash this shit again.

The male EMT bit the insides of his lips, clearly trying to contain a laugh.

I glared at him. “Something fucking funny?” I barked.

His partner put her hand on my bicep, which was what made me realize I’d reached out and grabbed the front of his uniform shirt, and made a soothing noise.

“Easy,” she said, looking between me and her partner.”

I looked over at her and all the anger drained out of me. She had light brown hair that was pulled up into some kind of messy knot on the top of her head. Those green eyes drew me right in and I forgot about killing the EMT in front of me for being a douche.

“He was only laughing because you said she had a kid up in there,” the woman explained gently. “It’s a weird way to tell us she’s pregnant. We don’t have time for this though.”

Mercy. Damn it.

The gorgeous woman in front of me was right. Mercy was all that mattered right now. I let the EMT go.

“Sorry,” he muttered. “I forget not everyone gets the whole dark humor thing,” he said as the woman bent down and started speaking with Mercy. “They’re horrified if you crack a smile in this kind of situation, not realizing sometimes you have to or you’ll lose it.”

I glanced over at him. Why was he talking to me? I didn’t need him to talk to me. I needed him to fix her . Even though his partner was already working on her I wanted them both focusing there. She was taking Mercy’s vitals. I knew that much thanks to Drifter, and having it done enough times to myself. Then it clicked why this guy was here with me and not down there with them. He thought Mercy and that baby were mine. He was trying to keep the panicked father under control so his partner could work.

“I get dark humor,” I told him. Shit, he had no idea how much I got it. I remember once Kilo and I were on base, joking around while we waited in line in the chow hall. I was recounting one of my stories and how the blood and brain matter sprayed all over the wall when I was done with the job. Told him all about how it looked just like a baby elephant. I may have said a few other things. Darker things. We were laughing. The poor lady behind the counter was watching us with horror on her face.

This guy was right. Most civilians didn’t get it. You see so many fucking atrocities that you either develop a seriously disturbed sense of humor, drank, or offed yourself. Those were the most popular options anyway.

“Was in the military,” I told him when he arched a brow. “She’s a friend,” I added. “You don’t have to hover over me, just help her.” I reached out and shoved the guy closer to his partner and my best friend’s girl.

Folding my arms over my chest, I watched as they worked on her. The worry was distracting me from anything else, so when the female EMT got up and motioned for me to follow her back toward the ambulance, I almost missed it when she stopped and frowned at the back of my SUV.

The windows were tinted, but not heavy enough that she wouldn’t see the crates back there if she looked hard enough. I stepped between her and my ride. I didn’t need that kind of trouble right now. “What’s up?” I prompted.

She blinked at me. My question seemed to snap her focus back onto me. Her gaze turned wary as she watched me, probably because of the aggression I’d shown to her partner. “I think she’s going to be just fine. Sounds like she caught the brunt of the fall on one of her wrists, which may be broken, but I think her cramping is from stress. We need to get her back to the hospital and let one of the doctors make that call though and let them take a look at that wrist. That alright?”

“Yeah,” I told her, relief thick inside my chest. I wasn’t going to have to give Kilo bad news while he was on the road. “What do you need from me?”

“Nothing,” she said, walking to the back of the ambulance, “just grabbing a gurney. Are you riding with us to the hospital?”

“Yes.” Fuck. Relay needed to hurry or I was going to have to leave these guns here in plain sight. There was no way I was leaving Mercy alone though.

“Good.” I arched a brow at her. “For your wife,” she added.

“That’s my best friend’s wife and kid,” I told her, then grabbed the gurney from her and pulled it out of the ambulance myself. It was her job, but I wasn’t going to let her heft heavy awkward shit while I stood there like an asshole.

She gave me a look of disbelief as I set the gurney down in front of her. “You can’t do that,” she told me.

“Do what?”

“Touch the medical equipment. I-”

“Can we please just get my friend in the ambulance?” I asked, staring intently into her eyes. I didn’t miss the spark of interest in the jade depths, but she took a quick step back. I had to bite back a smile at the look of indecision on her face. I was a cocky bastard pretty much every day of the week so it wasn’t hard for me to see that she was attracted to me and trying to fight it. “Then you can keep yelling at me all you want.”

Her mouth dropped open and now she looked offended, but she kept her mouth shut and brought the gurney over to where Mercy was sitting and they loaded her up.

I knew Miss you-can’t-touch-that would bite my head off if I just picked Mercy up and put her in the ambulance, so I let them do their thing and just stood back and watched the way green eyes’ uniform pants stretched over a deliciously fat ass while I waited.

Kilo would skin me alive if he found out I was hitting on the woman who was helping to save his old lady and son—and I wasn’t going to stop worrying until some asshole doctor confirmed she and the baby were fine—so I planned to wait until after Mercy was okay to see how fast I could get this EMT naked.

Judging by the dark looks she was tossing my way now, it wasn’t going to be as easy as I was hoping. But a girl with an ass like that? She was worth trying for. I gave her a toothy smile as she glared at me over her shoulder when I fell into step behind her. Probably a bit too close for her comfort, but allowed me to catch the scent of one of those girly flower scents women liked so much. I was pretty sure it was coming from her hair, but a thorough inspection was going to be warranted.

Relay pulled up as they were loading Mercy into the ambulance. “Shit. What happened?” he asked, looking worried. We all loved Kilo’s old lady like a sister. And what was even more important was Kilo was completely gone over her. So we didn’t want a damn thing to happen to her.

“She fell. Take the SUV to the address I texted. Warrant will take those weapons off your hands. Keep your phone on. I’m going to stay with her so I’m going to need you to take over for now.” Everyone else was busy today. None of the other guys were even close enough to take over, so it was going to fall on our Chaplain to run some shit today.

Wasn’t like he couldn’t handle it. The fucker had been a pararescuer in the Air Force. Most of us made fun of the Air Force for being soft, but pararescuers were bat shit crazy. PJs went into places that would make Green Berets and Navy Seals nervous in order to rescue and help other military members. All without a second thought. And though I knew Relay had almost as much medical knowledge and ability as Drifter, I hadn’t sent him here to stay with Mercy because the fucker didn’t do that shit anymore.

Ruck and I, as well as the rest of our brothers, respected his request not to have to patch people up anymore. He’d gone through enough that we didn’t want to send him spiraling back down a dark fucking rabbit hole again. He’d barely made it out the last time. And the psycho son of a bitch was forever changed because of it.

Drifter was happy enough—and even more capable as a combat surgeon—of taking care of whatever the fuck we needed as a club most of the time. Which left Relay to help us put people in the dirt versus pulling them back from the brink. Somehow the switch from one to the other helped him.

I had no doubt that Relay would step in if he needed to save one of our lives, but he had some dark shit swirling around inside of him because of whatever had happened while he served. Saving people’s lives wasn’t his mission anymore.

A muscle in his jaw clenched. “I’ll get it handled.” He paused, then looked at me. “She bleeding?”

He wanted to help. For Kilo. For Mercy. But I saw the agony there in his dark eyes. Shit he usually kept under lock and key and far away from the rest of us as he could.

“I don’t know,” I said, hesitating. “She said something about cramping.” Looking down, I saw his fingers flexing into a fist. “They’ve got this, Brother,” I told him. “Those medics know what they’re doing, and we’re on our way to some good doctors.”

“Doubtful,” he scoffed. “You’re right,” he said after a minute. “I’ll let you know once Warrant’s on his way back to Wyoming.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re going to owe me a beer for leaving my fucking door unlocked.”

“It’ll be fine for a bit,” I told him with a chuckle. I didn’t have time to deal with both his demons and Mercy so I was glad to see him chain them back up and go back to his usual asshole self instead of the tortured soul I knew resided somewhere in there.

“You coming?”

I glanced over my shoulder and a slow smile spread over my face. “Yeah, I am,” I told the woman I had a feeling would become my current obsession. At least until she let me fuck her brains out. That was the way I worked.

Her cheeks went pink at the dark promise in my words. If I had my way we’d both be coming later. Once Mercy was safe and resting of course. I wondered if this woman knew of any secluded spots in the hospital? I just needed about twenty minutes. Then we could go our separate ways, both a lot happier.

She rolled her eyes at me as I raked my own over her body as I climbed up into the ambulance. This was going to be fun.