Page 38 of Playing With Forever

I glanced down at my arm, and sure enough, there was blood.

“Just a cut.”

“I need backup in room two,” Echo called in. “Officer needs medical attention.”

Echo had just signed me up for hours’ worth of paperwork and a trip to the back of an ambo.

“Dick.”

“Safety first, partner.”

Lucas came into the room, gun drawn and alert. But when he saw the suspect on the floor, his gaze cut to me, then to the slash on my arm.

“Go. The rest of the house is clear.”

Like a petulant child, I sulked out of the house to the waiting ambulance.

Fifteen minutes later, I was informed I needed stitches. My protests were ignored, as was my tantrum fit for a toddler.

Two hours later, I was sitting on a gurney in the ER, deep in my revenge fantasy when the curtain was thrown open, and in stormed a red-faced, wild-eyed Josie.

What the fuck?

“Are you okay?” she wheezed. “Echo called, said you were hurt.”

Oh, yeah, payback was going to be a bitch.

“He shouldn’t’ve called you.”

“That’s not an answer, Evan.”

I sighed and shifted on the bed, opening my legs and ordering, “Come here, Josie.”

She walked right into the space I’d made, put her hands on my shoulders, and mine went to her waist.

Apparently, a freaked-out Josie didn’t mind being told what to do.

“I’m fine, honey. It’s just a cut.”

“You were stabbed?” she asked with wide eyes.

“No, just a cut. A small one.”

One I would’ve treated back at the station with super glue now I had three stitches for no reason except Echo wanted a reason to call Josie.

Son of a bitch, as soon as I got home, I was having Lindy give me that website she’d gone on about that anonymously delivered dog shit to people’s houses. Only I was signing the card—no anonymous bullshit. I wanted him to know what I thought about this stunt.

“Thank God,” she breathed, and her forehead hit mine.

I don’t know how long we stood there in silence before the nurse came in with my discharge papers, but it was long enough for Josie to relax.

“We’ll have the results of your drug test back in twenty-four hours,” the nurse announced.

“Drug test?” Josie’s voice was three octaves higher than normal.

“Procedure, baby. Nothing to worry about.”

“Keep your stitches dry for forty-eight hours. Any redness, call your GP. Same for the area getting hot to the touch or if you get a fever.”