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A wide smile spread across her ex’s boyish features. “Hello, Rosalie. I didn’t know you were in town. You should have called me.”
“Rosalie?” Shred’s eyes lit up like a switch had been flipped. He lined up his gun with her chest. “I know that name. You’re my job. I’m supposed to kill the nurse in the snowman shirt and then tell you— Fuck.” He shrugged his shoulders so hard his entire body and Annie’s shook. “I can’t remember what the demon said to tell you.”
“It’s okay. We all forget things.” Her instincts screamed that Shred’s ramblings and confusion weren’t the product of a paranoia-causing drug he’d willingly taken. Somebody had doped him up and programmed him to play a deadly game.
Malgor’s new game.
Pain sizzled in her scar as she assessed the situation. Cannon’s body vibrated like a Taser next to her. Shred’s grip on reality seemed near combustion. She couldn’t let the explosion happen in the ER.
“Why don’t we take this conversation outside so the air can clear your head?”
“I can’t. My mission is in here.” He aimed his gun at the ceiling.
“Secure Annie,” she hissed as she holstered her weapon and lunged forward. Wrapping her hand around Shred’s skinny wrist, she squeezed hard. He yelped as Cannon yanked Annie away. Rosalie slammed her shoulder into Shred’s chest. His head banged against the window behind him with a sickening crack. She twisted to avoid his knee to her gut. Air whooshed from her lungs as her ribs absorbed the blow.
“Duck,” Easton yelled.
On instinct, she dropped at the command. She rolled and sprang from the floor as Easton swung his rifle and connected it with Shred’s groin. The gun flew out of the teen’s hands as she dove at his legs and wrapped both arms around his thighs. Before they hit the hard tile, Cannon grabbed Shred by the back of his sweatshirt and shoved him face down.
The teen cried out as Cannon secured both of his hands in a move so smooth Rosalie would swear it had been practiced a hundred times.
Cannon met her gaze. “Are you hurt?”
She rubbed her side where Shred’s knee had connected. “Just a scratch.”
“Bullshit. You should have let me handle him.”
“I did my job and appreciate your assistance, Cannon, but I’m the special agent here.”
He tightened his grip on Shred’s wrists. “I told you that I have skills you know nothing about.”
“Until you get a badge, I’m the one who handles the bad guys.” She glared at Easton, who hadn’t respected her expertise, and back to Cannon, who suffered the same chauvinistic malady.
Easton slung his rifle over his shoulder like a good ’ole boy and grinned at Rosalie. “It’s great to see you, darlin’.”
“I ain’t your darling. And put your rifle back in your truck.”
Easton winked at her. “But you could be my darlin’ again. I’m over what happened.”
“I’m not.” Even among the chaos, she could appreciate his dimples that dazzled even when he wasn’t smiling and his laughing country-boy blue eyes, but she’d never been his darling.
She searched for Annie and spotted the young man behind the intake desk helping her up. None of the snowmen on her shirt, nor anything else on her body, appeared to be harmed.
Barnett handed Rosalie cuffs. She accepted them, unsure who deserved to have them slapped on their wrists more—the crazed gunman, her cocky ex, or Dr. I’ve Got Skills You Know Nothing About.
Kneeling, she reached for Shred’s hands.
Cannon shifted his hold to Shred’s forearms as he looked at her. “Did you injure anything else besides your ribs?”
“No.” She raised her voice over Shred’s cries about the demon. “How do you know Easton?”
“I’ve known the pain in the ass since he was born. How doyouknow him?”
His question held a sharp edge she couldn’t classify. “That’s a story for another time.”
She cuffed Shred, then stepped to the side while Officer Barnett hauled the teen to his feet. Squaring her shoulders, she faced the trembling gunman. “What did the demon send you here to tell me?”
Sweat poured from his brow. “I failed, and now he’s going to kill me. Believe me, he’s out there.”
