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“You don’t really expect me to answer that, do you?” he drawled as the police burst into the shop both from the open alley door and after smashing in the front door with a battering ram.
“McKay?” called Thorn Wilder.
“We’re over here,” answered Lori. “We’re going to need an ambulance. Ryker’s been shot.”
“Not bad, McKay. I don’t know that I would have gotten shot to get her to take me in her arms, but hey, to each his own.”
“Shut up Wilder. Not all of us have our girl just fall into our laps, so to speak.”
He nodded towards Lori’s head. “What happened to you? Did you head-butt someone?”
“Yeah, after Annette over there tried to strangle me with a vintage typewriter ribbon. It’s around here somewhere. It’s one of the ones on the ground. It’ll have my DNA as well as Annette’s, as we both handled several.”
“Not to worry, Lori, our people will figure it out,” Thorn assured her.
“Middleton is handcuffed up at the hotel. An author named Ezra Kane has him…”
“Yep, we already dispatched people to the hotel to pick up Middleton. MCU will be taking custody of all three of them as well as the guy that got murdered. Kenny with our forensics team said the morgue technician was more than happy to give him up. This can all wait. We need to get both of you to the hospital. Jess, Fiona, Christie, and Slade are all en route.”
“How’d you manage that?” asked Lori.
“Money talks,” laughed Thorn.
The paramedics tried to split them up, but neither Ryker nor Lori were having any of that. Trying to get Ryker to lie down while she sat up had been a sticking point.
“You need to lie down. The worst they’re worried about with me is a concussion, and they’ll want me to stay awake. That’s easier to do if I’m sitting up.”
As Ryker had pointed out, Bleak Ridge wasn’t all that big, so the ride in the paramedics’ vehicle didn’t take long. It didn’t matter, she held Ryker’s hand the entire way. Once they were at the hospital they were separated while the doctors determined she only had a bump on her head. Ryker was a bit more difficult. He refused to have the bullet removed surgically, insisting on a local and having the ER doctor dig the damn thing out.
“You’re being a jackass, McKay,” said Thorn.
Lori could hear them as only a curtain separated them.
“You should listen to your friend, Mr. McKay,” said the doctor.
“Either you take it out here with a local, or I’ll have myself discharged AMA and have my regular doctor do it tomorrow. Your choice.”
“You should know,” Thorn said to the doctor, “this guy once had bullets and shrapnel pulled from his legs with a local.”
Lori flung open the curtain and hopped to her feet. “Seriously? Are you some kind of masochist?”
“First,” said Ryker, “sit down. Second, Thorn will vouch for this. My choices were a derelict local surgeon who cared more about his outlawed Mercedes than he did for his patients, or one of the army medics that I knew and trusted.”
“Said army medic’s little brother being one of the guys that Ryker saved,” added Thorn.
“Lori? Lori?” Jessica breezed in before turning to Ryker. “Jesus, McKay, you look like shit.”
The ER doctor grabbed the curtain and tried to pull it shut. Lori stopped him. “No way. If he’s doing this here, then I’m going to be with him.”
“Told you,” said Fiona as she strolled in with Christie. In answer to Lori’s quirked eyebrow, Fiona continued, “Slade has gone to the local cop shop. He sent someone to unlock Middleton.”
Christie winced when she saw Ryker’s shoulder. “That’s gonna leave a mark. But according to Fi, Lori will be happy to play slutty nurse and kiss it to make it all better.” They all turned to look at her. “What? We all know it’s true. We ladies are just more willing to say it out loud. You boys should know murder isn’t the only thing we talk about at our meetings. The last one got pretty raucous. And we probably know far more about Slade and Thorn’s sexual exploits and predilections than they’d like us to.” She looked between Lori and Ryker. “Now, it looks like I’ll be the only one living vicariously through my friends. Oh well, it sucks to get old.”
Lori, Jessica, and Fiona all found things to throw at their friend, who dodged or batted them away, laughing.
“Would you people mind giving me a little privacy so I can get this bullet out?” said the doctor with a pained expression.
Lori glanced at her friends and grinned. “Why, yes, yes we would.”
