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“Arrogant ass. Let him figure it out on his own.” Hands gently smoothed the covers over his chest as Snow snorted and mimicked, “Hulk is not sorry. Hulk is hulk.”
The chuckle over Snow’s Bruce Banner reference made Lucas open his eyes and focus on his friend.
“What?” Snow cracked a grin.
“It was almost like watching you face yourself down in a mirror.”
Snow glanced toward the door. “Probably why I didn’t like him.”
Lucas’s thoughts were still slogging through a marsh and he didn’t want to worry about saying something he shouldn’t to a cop.
But his break was far too short. The door hadn’t been shut more than a couple of minutes when Rowe returned followed by a second man he couldn’t recall ever seeing. Detective Banner had been good looking in a scruffy, law enforcement sort of way, but he had nothing on this striking man. Nearly as tall as Snow, he had nice, strong shoulders and a broad chest that stretched the black T-shirt he was wearing. His thick shoulder-length hair was so dark it looked black, matching his dark eyes inset under a heavy brow. This man moved with a smooth, hypnotic grace and Lucas suddenly felt better. Good enough to touch.
It took a moment to realize he was ogling the man as he crossed the room. He was never so blatant. Blame it on the drugs being pumped into his body. Lucas looked up to see Snow smirking. It was on the tip of his tongue to deny it when Snow’s eyes moved to Lucas’s left and then back. Lucas glanced over and nearly groaned. The heart monitor gave him away. The second the man had walked into the room, his heart rate had spiked and Snow saw it.
“I’m not fucking dead,” Lucas growled in a low voice, pulling at his blanket as if to settle it more comfortably around him. He was grateful that the drugs and lingering pain were keeping the rest of his body from reacting.
“Thank God!” Rowe, oblivious to what the two men were secretly conversing about, leaned over the bed, his tone a feral snarl. “Because I’m still trying to decide whether to kill you. What the hell happened? And if you say mugging one more time, I swear to Christ I’m gonna crawl into that bed and strangle you.”
“Well, at least we finally know what it takes to get him in bed with you.” Snow snickered.
Rowe threw the doctor a glare, tensing as if he couldn’t decide whether to take a chunk out of Snow or keep his attention on Lucas.
Lucas started to roll his eyes but stopped suddenly when the room swam. “Don’t you have rounds or some other doctor things to do?” He didn’t need Snow antagonizing Rowe. Judging by the man’s flushed face, his blood pressure was already through the roof.
“I’m off the clock now.” Snow then dropped into the chair at Lucas’s side and set his feet up on the end of the bed as if he were getting ready to watch a show.
“Where the hell is my lawyer?” Lucas muttered. If he was going to get interrogated again, he wanted his lawyer there to protect him from Rowe.
“And that’s another thing!” Rowe paced to the door and back. “How the hell did your lawyer get here so fast? You were here twenty minutes and she swoops in like some damn raptor.”
“She’s listed as his emergency contact,” Snow answered before Lucas could open his mouth.
The idea stopped Rowe short. “Are you kidding me?”
Lucas gave a small shrug. “Most days, Snow is here. If I’m brought in, he’ll know.”
Rowe scrubbed his hand over his face and walked to the far side of the room and then back. “She’s a shark, Lucas. You watch her.”
“Yeah, she’s great,” Snow said slowly. “Almost makes me wish I was bi.”
Lucas started to smile, but the pain from his split lip stopped him. “She’s too much even for you to handle, my friend.”
Sarah Carlston was tiny but she was a terror in the court room and the boardroom. Lucas adored her but he was also smart enough to fear her a little. It didn’t hurt that he paid her a fat retainer to keep her on his side.
“That wasn’t a damned mugging.” Rowe’s voice dipped low so that it was little more than a rumble of thunder sweeping through the room. “Was this about the Price Hill thing you mentioned a couple weeks ago?”
“It was.” There was a lot that was fuzzy about that night, but the three men grabbing him—that was crystal clear. Lucas remembered the anger that filled his veins and then the fear. He hadn’t felt fear like that since his tour in Afghanistan when Snow had been pinned down. He did plan to tell the cops the truth, once he figured out a bit more himself first.
