Page 44 of Too Guarded to Love

Nic reached into the charred vehicle and grabbed the screaming toddler from Tessa’s arms. Cradling him against his chest with one hand, he offered the other to Tessa. Tears streamed down her face as she scrambled out. Hudson followed and reached for his son. Hot pain spread through Nic’s shoulder as he handed the baby over.

He ignored the blood seeping through his shirt and searched for Olivia as Chris and Linc helped Scarlett and Beth from the car. He spotted her behind the destroyed guard desk, barking instructions to a paramedic.

He was going to strangle her.

Nic jumped over the rubble and grabbed Olivia’s hand. “Let’s go.”

“No, I need to help.”

He scooped her in his arms, not caring if her brother or everyone in headquarters watched. “Don’t test me, baby.”

“I’m not your baby. I’m a doctor and Parker needs⁠—”

He pointed to Hudson. “That’s the surgeon who saved Chris’s life when he lost his arm in the middle of a burning battlefield. He can handle it.”

Nic ignored her protests and ushered her to an alcove by the stairwell. His body still trembled from adrenaline as he set her against the wall.

He blinked against the sharp haze ringing his vision as he took in the crimson stains on her shirt and hands. “What the hell were you thinking? I told you to stay put.”

For a split second too long back there, he’d thought about abandoning Scarlett and Beth, and Hudson and his family, to whisk Olivia away from danger.

“I’m a doctor, Nic.” She looked over his shoulder toward the paramedics working on the guards. “I wasn’t about to cower in a corner and let Parker bleed out.”

“I watched you almost get crushed to death.”

“I was doing my job.”

His vision blurred as VIPER’s garage mutated into a Middle Eastern village. The concrete dematerialized to sand. Olivia’s features metamorphized into Rachel’s as the blood on her shirt spread to her stomach and collapsed into a gaping hole where her organs used to be. Bile rocketed up his throat as he fought to separate the two women, the past from the present, and fear from anger.

He didn’t do so well with the last one. “I don’t care about your job. I care about keeping you safe.”

“I care about my job. I may have been forced to abandon my patients in Atlanta, but I wasn’t about to ignore an injured person.” She wiped her reddened eyes with the back of her hand. “Don’t give me shit for helping⁠—”

He caught her wrist and pinned it above her head. “Don’t you give me shit about keeping you safe. Are you hurt?”

“I’m…” Her gaze landed on his chest. “You’re bleeding.” She yanked her hand from his grip and shoved it up his T-shirt. Blood dripped from his shoulder and down his torso. Her fingers stilled on the source. “Why are there already stitches in the wound?” Her mouth dropped open. “Did the sniper’s bullet tear through me and…oh God. It hit you.” She pulled his shirt up. “Take this off so I can⁠—”

He grasped her hand and held it against his chest. “I don’t care about me. Answer my question. Are. You. Hurt?”

“No.”

He wiped blood from her forehead and held his finger in front of her face. A crimson drop dripped from his steel finger.

She shook her head. “Not my blood.”

He wiped away more to reveal a shallow cut. “Lying again?”

She gripped his wrist. “I’m okay.”

“No, you’re not. You’re bleeding.” Kane had counted on him to keep his sister safe, and she’d been hurt. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t listened to him. It hadn’t mattered that Rachel hadn’t listened either. He’d been responsible and he’d failed.

A mind comms alert stopped his spiraling thoughts.

“Level Black is in effect. Repeat Level Black is in effect. Report in immediately.”

The message repeated over the intercom.

Alarm flashed in Olivia’s eyes. “What’s Level Black?”