Caught in the Act

“I’ll be right there.”

She looked suspicious at his delay, but didn’t question him on it. She turned and moseyed out.

The door had barely closed before Angel and Dane came back in. Angel propped her hands on her hips and said, “Now that she’s not within hearing distance, tell me the truth. Does your shoulder hurt?”

With a crooked grin, Mick admitted, “Hell, yes.” Then he turned to Zack. “If you could see about some pain medicine…?”

“The doctor ordered it for when you woke up, but you were too bullheaded to take it.”

“It would’ve made me sleepy.”

Josh shook his head. “And God forbid he miss a single second of Delilah Piper’s visit.”

Zack, always something of a peacemaker as well as an EMT, laughed. “I’ll go get your nurse and she can take care of you.”

Josh walked over to the bed, where both Dane and Alec now hovered. Josh knew they were dying for some answers. Together the two men ran a private investigations firm, and they could sniff out trouble without even trying.

“The other men got away. The police are still looking, but they haven’t turned up anyone.”

Mick’s curse was especially foul. “What about the one I shot? Did they find out anything from him?”

“The idiot had ID on him. He’s Rudy Glasgow, and he’s still unconscious.” Josh knew that despite Mick’s injuries, he’d want to know it all. Still, he hesitated before saying, “It doesn’t look good.”

Mick dropped back onto the pillow with an aggrieved sigh. “I know my shot to his leg didn’t put him under. Was it the head wound from when he fell?”

“Yeah. You two mirror each other—both shot, both with conked heads. Only his was worse. He rattled something in his skull and the docs don’t know when he’ll come to, which means they don’t know when he’ll be able to answer questions, if ever. You were lucky that you landed more on Zack than the concrete when you fell.”

Not amused, Mick cursed again.

“I also turned your gun over to the officer first on the scene. He insisted, of course, and with you passed out cold…” Josh shrugged.

“That’s standard procedure,” Mick assured him, not worried. “I’ll be issued a new one.”

Josh nodded. “I notified your sergeant and he’s getting in touch with Internal Affairs.”

“Which means I’ll have to see the damn psychiatrist, too.” He groaned.

“Just procedure?” Josh asked, though he already knew any shooting required a follow-up visit with the shrink, just to keep the officers healthy in mind and body.

“Yeah.” Mick looked weary beyond belief. “When she leaves here tonight—”

Dane held up a hand. “We won’t let anything happen to her. I promise.”

And Josh assumed that meant one or both of them would be tailing her the rest of the night, even after she finished her hospital visit. Delilah wouldn’t like it if she knew. But then, Dane and Alec were damn good, so she wouldn’t find out unless they wanted her to know.

Alec looked thoughtful, and with his intense, dark features, the look was almost menacing. It had taken Josh some time to get used to him. “So you think the robbery was a sham? Just an excuse to shoot her?”

“They aimed for her head,” Mick rumbled in disgust, describing how he’d covered her, and the shooter’s angle. He gave details he hadn’t given when Delilah was in the room. “They didn’t threaten anyone else. Hell, they didn’t even look at anyone else.”

“But why her?” Dane asked.

“I haven’t got a clue. Far as I can figure, she was just a customer, like the other two in the shop.”

Though Mick said it, he didn’t look quite convinced. Josh didn’t like any of it, especially since his friend seemed determined to be in the middle of it all. “I’d better get out there or she’ll leave without me.”

“She doesn’t have a car here, does she?” Mick asked, concerned over the possibility.

“No, but believe me, that wouldn’t stop her. Prepare yourself, Mick, because she’s about the most obstinate, bullheaded woman I’ve ever run across.” He squeezed Mick’s left shoulder. “Take it easy while we’re gone.”

“You won’t let her out of your sight?”

“Just when she showers.” He grinned at Mick’s warning growl. It amused the hell out of him how possessive his friend had gotten, and how quickly. “Quit worrying. I’ll bring her back safe and sound.”

CHAPTER THREE

MICK WATCHED JOSH GO, and though he trusted Josh implicitly, he cursed the injury that kept him confined to bed. “She could have been killed today.”

Angel sat beside him on the narrow mattress. “Is that why you agreed to go home with her? So you can protect her?”

He nodded, but he saw that both Alec and Dane knew his reasons were more varied than that. And more territorial, more sexual. Protecting wasn’t the only activity he had in mind. He’d never burned for a woman before, but now he felt like an inferno ready to combust.

Why the hell would someone want her dead?

Mick remembered the way she’d been looking the place over, the way she’d initially smiled at the men—a smile he’d considered merely polite, stranger to stranger.

Zack came back in, the nurse trailing him. She gave Mick a dose of morphine through his IV, and seconds later the discomfort receded and lethargy settled in.

Mick relished the relief from the searing pain, even while he fought to stay awake and sharp enough to think.

“Relax,” Dane ordered him.

“I have to figure out what’s going on.” A vague sense of impending doom, of limited time plagued him.

Dane shook his head. “No. You’re in no shape to start snooping around. Let it go for now. The bastard who shot you isn’t going anywhere, and he won’t stay out forever. When he comes to, you can question him. Or better yet, let someone else do it.”

“No.” Even with the morphine clouding his mind, Mick knew he wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity to get some answers. “I need to call my sergeant, to tell him I want to stay advised. And I need to talk to the head nurse. I need to—”

Angel pressed her fingers over his mouth. “You need to sleep. I have a feeling when Delilah gets back, you’ll be determined to stay awake and alert.”

Alec cocked a brow while cuddling Celia to his side. “He wouldn’t want to miss a minute of that, as Josh said.”

Mick relaxed, thinking of Delilah’s emotional strength, her boldness, how she’d kissed him, her taste, her heat. They were right—he didn’t want to miss that. In the next instant, he fell asleep.

MICK WOKE TO THE SOUND of quiet tapping. The room was dim, with only one light glowing in the corner. The curtains were all closed, but he could tell it was night. He’d probably slept another four hours or so, and it enraged him. There was a lot to consider, a lot to do, not the least of which would be getting to know Delilah.

The tapping continued, light and quick. He bit back a groan as he turned his head on the soft pillow and zeroed in on the source. There, sprawled in the room’s only chair, a laptop resting across her thighs, was Delilah.

God, she was lovely.