Operation: Midnight Escape

Jake rose and carried some wood to the potbellied stove. When both the fireplace and stove were blazing, he walked to the kitchen where Leigh had set out the first-aid kit.

“Nice kit,” she said.

“Courtesy of the MIDNIGHT Agency,” he said.

She opened the lid and picked up a wrapped syringe. “Looks like they thought of everything.”

“Yeah, I think Cutter used to be a Boy Scout.”

Her smile was short-lived. “I’m sorry you left the agency on bad terms. I know how much your career means to you.”

Jake said nothing.

“Was it because of me?”

“It was because of a difference of opinion between Sean Cutter and me. It’s not the first time.”

“Will you be able to go back?”

Jake sighed, the gravity of what he had done this morning weighing him down. “I don’t think he’ll ask me to come back.”

Not wanting to deal with that at the moment, he looked down to where the blood was still seeping through his coat. “Are you up to handling this bullet wound?”

“I was ready hours ago.” But he didn’t miss the flicker of uncertainty in her eyes. She motioned toward the table. “Why don’t you take off your coat and have a seat?”

Jake worked the coat off his shoulders. He tugged his shirt from the waistband and was dismayed to see so much blood. The bullet had gone though his coat, through his blue jeans and grazed his right hip, close to the muscular part of the buttock. Terrific. He pondered the dilemma, but there was no way around it. He was going to have to remove his pants.

“I hate to do this to you, Leigh, but I’m going to have to lose the pants.”

She looked more horrified by the idea of seeing his bare butt than she did at the prospect of treating a potentially serious bullet wound. But she quickly regained her composure. “It won’t be the first time I’ve seen you without them.”

Her cheeks were flushed. Jake could feel that same heat creeping up his own cheeks. And other parts of his body he didn’t want to think about.

Without looking at her, he unsnapped his jeans, tugged them down and stepped out of them. He wore plain white boxer briefs. He glanced at the blood-soaked material. “Going to need a new wardrobe after this,” he muttered. “Bullet put a hole in everything but my shoes.”

Leigh was looking everywhere but into his eyes. Jake wasn’t shy, but he didn’t like the idea of dropping his pants in front of a woman he’d spent the past six years trying to get out of his system. One stray thought, and his body might just react in a way he didn’t want it to. Something like that was hard to hide when you were half naked.

Because he needed something to do, he reached into the first-aid kit and picked up the syringe. “Think you can get some antibiotics into me?”

“I have a feeling you’re not talking about a pill.”

He smiled as he tore the wrapper from the syringe. “Penicillin. Intramuscular injection. Needs to go in the hip.” He patted his left hip. “Alcohol swabs are in the kit.”

“Jake, I’ve never given a shot before.”

“You’ll do fine. Find the muscle. Jab the needle straight in.” He demonstrated. “Depress the plunger. Out quickly.” He handed her the syringe.

“What if I hurt you?”

“It won’t be the first time.”

He hadn’t meant to say that. In the last hours he hadn’t meant for a lot of things to happen.

She started to turn away, but he reached out and touched her arm. A small thrill raced through him when her gaze met his. “I’m a big guy,” he said. “That’s a small needle. You’re not going to hurt me.” When she hesitated, he frowned. “What will hurt me is if I pick up an infection from that damn bullet.” Bracing himself against the table with one hand, he used the other to pull down one side of his boxers. “Ready?”

Chapter Five

Leigh had never been squeamish, but her hands were shaking as she scrubbed a small area with alcohol, set her hand against his hip and took aim with the needle. His flesh was warm and granite hard beneath her palm. Even though the moment was not sexual in any way, she found herself remembering what it had been like to touch him intimately. Six years ago she hadn’t been able to get enough of him….