I’m already up, Allie in my arms, her cheek pressed to my chest as if the sound hurts her.
“Careful—pressure on the arm?—”
I shoot the medic a glare so cold that she shuts up mid-breath.
We hit the snow, the cold biting through my boots as I cross the short stretch to the safehouse steps. The front door swings open before we reach it—Dr. Brandt in a thermal vest, gloves on, a trauma kit slung over his shoulder.
“Stryker.” He scans Allie with quick, sharp eyes. “Inside. Stat.”
I shoulder past him and move through the foyer—a warm burst of pine, fire, and heated air wrapping around us.
Hawkeye enters behind us, shaking snow off his jacket. Brandt gestures toward the main room—a wide space with a stone fireplace, discreet medical lights, and a leather couch positioned near the window.
“Lay her here,” Brandt says.
“No.” I tighten my grip.
Hawkeye exhales hard. “Stryker.”
“Not happening,” I snap. “She stays with me.”
Brandt glances at Hawkeye—asking permission without asking.
Hawkeye lifts a hand, silent, controlled.
“Let him hold her.”
Smart man.
I sit on the couch with Allie still in my lap. The windows cast soft light over us—cold blue from the snow, gold from the fire. She blinks once, disoriented, lashes fluttering against her cheek.
“There you are,” I whisper. “Stay with me, sweetheart.”
Brandt kneels beside us, opening gauze, saline, sutures. A faint chemical tang from the antiseptic drifts up.
“Allie,” he says gently. “I’m going to need to clean and close the wound, all right?”
She nods a fraction. “I’m keeping my jacket on.”
My woman is stubborn, I’ll give her that.
“How about if I hold onto it and promise no one else will touch it?” I offer.
Even though she looks up at me, her eyes are unfocused.
“It will stay with us.”
Allie offers the faintest nod, and I carefully help her out of the jacket, internally cursing myself when she winces.
He begins working—careful, slow, clinical—while Hawkeye positions himself on the other side of the coffee table, arms folded. Watching. Thinking.
Calculating.
His gaze flicks over me. Then Allie. Then back to me.
He wants answers.
Too damn bad.
