Page 4 of The Unbuttoned Ranger (Texas Heat: The Heart of a Texas Ranger #1)

Sharp felt a sense of dread he didn ’ t want to experience as he strolled down the corridor of the hospital toward Echo ’ s room.

Spending three weeks in the recovery unit himself had been like a bad dream for Sharp.

The staff had all been welcoming, but for a man who liked his freedom being confined in a dank room for any amount of time was too close to prison for his taste.

Already breaking the news to Zane who took it like a champ, he saved Echo for last. He was a man who lived by his own rules.

“ Back already?”

Sharp’s gaze found the smiling nurse standing behind the counter at the nurse ’ s station.

Bethany was her name. A cute blonde with deep dimples and a nice body that even the scrubs didn ’ t hide.

She ’ d flirted with him on occasion, but Sharp had kept his distance.

“ Just here to see Echo. How ’ s he behaving? ”

“ Maybe you can calm him down this morning. He ’ s been causing the nurses problems.”

“ I ’ ll see what I can do.”

“ Too bad you ’ re not a patient still. You ’ re missed on the floor.” She winked.

“ Thanks, but I want to put this place behind me.”

Her bottom lip puckered. “ Ouch.” Her eyes glistened.

Sharp started to respond when he heard a commotion down the hall. “ What the hell?”

“ There ’ s your boy again. Throwing a four alarm hissy fit,” she hummed.

About halfway down the hall he saw the cause of all the chaos. A circle of nurses had Echo cornered. He was buck naked and didn ’ t seem a bit concerned with the idea.

“ Get back to your room, Echo, or we ’ re going to have to sedate you,” one of the veteran nurses warned him.

“ If I told you once I ’ ve told you a hundred times,” his speech was a bit slurred. “ No one ’ s giving me a sponge bath.” His scowl warned that he was dead serious.

“ Fine, but you can ’ t be out here in the hall in your birthday suit,” the nurse said calmly.

“ I demand better clothing too. This isn ’ t prison so why in the hell should I be expected to wear a gown. If you haven ’ t noticed I ’ m not a woman,” he growled.

“ All our patients wear gowns, sir,” another nurse told him.

“ Then I choose to stay naked.” His barreled chest puffed out as if it were a statement of its own. Echo was harmless but as stubborn as an old mule.

Sharp shook his head. It was a bit humorous that Echo was surrounded by staff trying to talk him down. “ Excuse me, ladies.” Sharp cut a path through the semi-circle.

“ Thank goodness. Think you can talk some sense into him, Sharp?” the charge nurse asked.

Echo’s eyes widened when he spotted Sharp. “ Have you come to rescue me?”

“ Why are you giving the nurses a hard time, Echo?”

“ I ’ m being treated like a prisoner, dude. The food tastes like slop. They ’ re trying to force me into wearing a gown, and Vernice here keeps trying to touch me.” He stuck his thumb in the silver-haired, grandmotherly aide ’ s direction.

She looked mortified as she smacked her gums. “ Behave yourself, young man. Hospital protocol states that any patient who can ’ t stand up to bathe themselves must be bathed by a nurse.”

“ You behave yourself, Miss Vernice. Don ’ t pretend you ’ re not enjoying yourself,” he shot back.

Her wrinkled cheeks turned bright crimson.

“ Pain meds?” Sharp asked one of the nurses. She nodded vehemently.

“ How about we go into your room, Echo? I need to talk to you,” Sharp said firmly.

“ Fine, but I ain ’ t wearing that gown,” Echo huffed like a toddler.

As if he knew it was a lost cause, his shoulders slumped some. He strode down the hallway and into his room.

“ Sorry, ladies.” Sharp apologized for his buddy. “ Show’s over.”

“ Tell him if he doesn ’ t bathe himself we ’ ll have no choice but to do it,” one of the nurses called out.

“ I ’ ll do my best.” Once they were inside the room, Sharp closed the door and said, “ I get this isn ’ t a walk in the park, but you know you ’ re only pissing them off and that ’ s not good for anyone.”

“ I heard you got your walking papers.” Echo pulled a sheet around his waist then sat down on the end of the bed.

“ Yesterday.”

“ You look like you dodged death and lived to tell about it.”

“ You can say that again.” Sharp dragged a chair over and straddled it. “ How are you feeling? Has the doc said when you ’ re getting out?”

Echo scraped his fingers down his whiskered jaw. “ In a few days. It can ’ t come fast enough.” He looked tired. Out of the four men shot, Echo had been the closest to death’s door.

“ I know the last time we talked you said you didn ’ t remember anything from the day of the ambush. Has anything changed?”

Echo thought about it then shook his head. “ Nah. I remember sitting at the desk at the office, heard a noise and then felt the sting. I flipped the desk, drew my gun and started shooting. Other than that, I draw a blank. How did the meeting go? I figure that ’ s why you ’ re here.”

“ Delta asked for us to lay low. Give the bureau an opportunity to investigate. As of right now they ’ ve disassembled the team due to risk factors.”

“ Really?” Echo burst into laughter.

“ That ’ s a better reaction than most of the team gave.”

“ That ’ s because I ’ ve been dealing with bureaucratic bullshit longer than some of those boys have been off their Ma ’ s tit.

” Echo was the oldest member but could still run faster and carry more than any of them.

He was a beast. Any other man getting shot three times would have succumbed to their injuries.

“ I say we wait and see.”

“ You and I both know they don ’ t give a shit about the team.”

“ Most of them probably not. But I trust Delta. He ’ s on to something that he can ’ t reveal yet.” Sharp then approached the more sensitive subject. “ Think you can stop giving the nurses a rough time?”

Echo growled. “ I don ’ t need to be treated like a toddler. I ’ m also not going to have a woman old enough to be my mom rubbing my dick. I can take care of that job myself.”

“ You are taking some good pain meds, aren’t you?” Sharp laughed.

“ There ’ s nothing wrong with a man not wanting to be bathed,” he huffed.

“ What ’ s the problem?” What Sharp knew about Echo was that he never turned down a woman ’ s touch.

“ It ’ s been a while, if you get my drift.

If one of them touches me near the jewels I ’ m afraid it ’ ll turn into a shooting contest. I’ve never been into hitting an innocent bystander if you catch my drift” He sat back in bed, squinting.

“ Bad enough that when they change my bandages they rub up against me. The pain meds are making me loopy and horny.”

“ Then bathe your swamp ass, wear something to cover yourself, and be nice so they’ll release you.”

“ Can we change the subject?”

“ Fine with me.”

Echo flipped on the TV and scrolled the stations, mainly for background noise. “ So, you ’ re really going to disappear for a bit?”

Sharp nodded. “ That ’ s the plan. Something tells me if the shooters wanted us dead, we would be. At least one of those bullets would have done the job.”

“ A warning then?”

“ I think so.”

“ Any thoughts?”

“ I need to think on it a bit.” Sharp stood. “ We ’ ll stay in touch. In the meantime, be good.”

“ I ’ m always good, at least that ’ s what she said.” He laughed.

A nurse popped in with a tray of supplies. “ Looks like someone ’ s mood has changed. You going to let me draw these labs?”

“ I ’ ll behave, if you think you can handle it.” Echo spread his arms open wide.

“ He ’ s all yours,” Sharp said as he left the room. Good to see his buddy still had a sense of humor.