LITMIR.BIZ

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told the officer, “The ambulance is on its way. I’m an EMT. I’ll see to him until it gets here.”

      The officer, frowning in worry, handed Zack the blanket and then set off to clear the street.

      Mick started to pull free, desperate to find the woman and make certain she was okay, but just then she stepped around the elderly couple. Her face, her beautiful face, was creased with worry, with disbelief. From a slight distance, they stared at each other, and there was no distraction in her gaze now, no oblivion. The horror of what had just happened darkened her eyes to midnight.

      A bruise discolored her cheekbone from when he’d pushed her head down. His stomach cramped with that realization. She trembled all over, and Mick shook off Zack to go to her, needing to hold her, to apologize, though he didn’t even know her name, had no idea who she was or why the robbers had wanted to kill her.

      Zack, who’d been looking at the wound in his shoulder, drew him back. “Damn it, Mick, you’re ready to drop.”

      Mick started to deny that, but then his legs gave out, and if it hadn’t been for Josh and Zack supporting him, he’d have been sitting in the middle of the sidewalk instead of on the curb with a folded blanket beneath him. His vision swam, closed in.

      “You’re losing a lot of blood,” Zack said in his calm, professional voice, but Mick heard the concern, the anger, as his friend began first aid.

      “Don’t let her get away.” Mick meant to say it loud and clear, an order that couldn’t be ignored. But the words emerged as a faint whisper, and that infuriated him. He’d finally met her—sort of—and he sounded weak, looked weak.

      At the moment, he was weak. Too weak.

      But she’d felt so good beneath him for that brief, charged moment, adding to his adrenaline rush, further arousing him though they’d been in the middle of a very dangerous situation. It was so absurd, but even as he’d braced for that bullet, he’d been aware of her under him, her ass cuddling his groin, her head fitting neatly under his chin.

      He forced his head up and said again, trying for more than a whisper this time, “Don’t let her get away.”

      He knew Josh heard him because he leaned closer. “Who?”

      “In…the running clothes. Black hair.” That was the very best description he could muster under the circumstances.

      Josh looked up, eyes narrowed as he scanned the crowd and then settled on someone. He said, “You’ve got it, buddy. Now you just rest. I’ll take care of it.” He got to his feet and stalked forward purposefully, saying in a tone that brooked no argument, “Miss? I need to see you, please.”

      And Mick blacked out.

      CHAPTER TWO

      “WHERE IS SHE?” The sound of his own voice, foggy and dark and thin, appalled him. Mick tried to clear his throat, but it was impossible.

      “Shh,” he heard Zack say. “Take it easy.”

      Mick struggled to open his eyes, then wished he hadn’t. What the hell had they done to him? His shoulder didn’t hurt, at least not at the moment, but he felt as if his brain might explode, and every muscle he possessed was sluggish, refusing to cooperate with his brain’s commands.

      More cautiously this time, he cracked his eyes open and found Zack on guard at his bedside. Where was Josh? Where was she?

      “The woman?” he asked again, and he sounded like a dying frog.

      Zack lifted a glass of water with a straw to Mick’s mouth. He wanted to tell Zack to jam the straw in his ear, but he couldn’t. He gave in to his thirst and took several quick sips. He started to move his arm, and fire burned down his side. Now his shoulder hurt. He ground his teeth, hissing for breath.

      “The anesthesia is wearing off,” Zack explained. “You’ll be groggy a little longer, but overall you’re fine. They left the bullet in—that’s two for you now, right? Taking it out would only have caused more damage. You lost too much blood already.”

      Mick was still registering what Zack had said when his friend leaned forward and growled, not two inches from his nose, “You scared the hell out of me! Don’t you know if you get shot you should stay down? Swinging your arm around that way just encouraged it to bleed more.”

      Mick grunted, as much from the pounding in his head as in reply. “Where the hell is she?”

      Exasperated, Zack sighed. He didn’t need to ask She who? “Josh has been keeping a close eye on her, since right before you passed out and bashed your damn head on the ground. Yeah, that’s why your head feels like it’s splitting. I’m surprised you don’t have a concussion, as hard as you hit. If you didn’t have to be so damn macho, if you’d just tell someone when you were ready to faint—”

      “I did not faint.” Mick’s voice, his words, were gaining strength, and he grumbled, “I passed out from blood loss.”

      “Yeah, well, they look about the same when you drop right in the middle of a crowd.”

      It hurt, but Mick narrowed his eyes and said, “Zack? Come closer.”

      Zack, filled with new concern, leaned down close.

      “Where the hell is she!”

      Zack jerked back and grimaced. “All right, all right, you don’t have to bust my eardrum. You said, all ominous cloak and dagger, ‘Don’t let her get away.’ Neither Josh nor I knew if that meant she should be arrested, or if she was the lady you’d been watching for.”

      Mick jerked—and the sudden movement squeezed the breath right out of his lungs. Damn, he’d forgotten how badly a bullet hurt. Through clenched teeth, he snarled, “You didn’t…?”

      “Turn her over to the cops? Nope. They questioned her, of course, but Josh followed them to the station and then picked her up afterward. She’s fine, just shook up and babbling about you being a hero—no surprise there, I suppose. She claims you took that bullet for her, and she wants to see you, overflowing with gratitude and all that, but, of course, since we didn’t know what the hell was going on…”

      “I’m going to kill you.”

      Zack grinned. “We collected her for you, but she’s none too happy right now. Josh is more or less, er, detaining her. No, don’t look like that. You know he wouldn’t hurt her. But he’s taxing himself; it’s been over four hours, after all.”

      Four hours! Mick wanted to groan again, thinking of her waiting that long, Josh coercing her into hanging around….

      “No,” Zack said, correctly reading his mind, “she didn’t want to leave, she wanted to see you. And she’s not happy when she doesn’t get what she wants. She’s actually—” Zack coughed. “She’s a very determined lady.”

      Zack looked at Mick’s IV and added, “Evidently, she wants you.”

      That was a revelation, one he could easily live with. His head pounded, but Mick held back all wimpy sounds of distress and said, “Get her for me.”

      “Don’t be an idiot! You’re hardly in any shape to start getting acquainted.” Zack stood, towering over the bed. “I assumed once you came to, you’d explain what the hell’s going on, we could then explain it to her, and then we’d let the lady go home so you could get some rest.”

      “Do not let her leave here alone.” Mick had awakened with a feeling of panic, again seeing that gun aimed at her—just her, no one else, and for no apparent reason. Until he figured things out, he wanted her watched. He wanted her protected.

      It pissed him off royally that he had to ask others to do that for him.

      “Mick, we can’t just refuse to let her leave.”

      Giving Zack a sour look, Mick said, “Get her.”

      “Damn,

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