“You’re sure about this?”
The uncertainty in my second-in-command’s voice had me fighting annoyance. “I’m sure.”
Jack sighed. “We’re gonna miss the hell out of you. Things won’t be the same.”
I set down the tweezers I’d been using to lift out a watch’s face. “I’m not disappearing. I’ll be a chopper ride away. I’ll still sit in on meetings when you need me. I’ll always be a second set of eyes.”
“But you won’t be in the field with us.”
“No.” Because what would I prove to Wren if I left every other week to take on some job? And more than that, I didn’t feel the pull to take off to parts unknown like I had before. Maybe because I wasn’t trying to distract and numb myself any longer. I was facing things for the first time. And as painful as it had been, I couldn’t imagine anything more worth it.
“I wanna meet this girl.”
I grinned down at Shadow and gave her head a scratch. “You’re gonna like her.”
“I know I will, which just annoys me because she’s stealing my best friend.”
I chuckled. “She has an awesome dog, too. I’m training her for SAR.”
“You’ve already got a sidekick.”
I leaned down, pressing my forehead to Shadow’s. “What do you think? You gonna be my sidekick?”
Shadow let out a low woof, and Jack laughed. “I think that’s a yes.”
My phone beeped, and I pulled it away from my ear. The name on the screen had dread pooling in my gut. “That’s my brother on the other line. I need to take this.”
“Sure. Keep me updated and let me know if you need some backup out there.”
“Will do.” I hit the button on the screen to switch calls. “Law?”
There was a split second of silence before he spoke. “Wren’s fine.”
Everything in me locked, my muscles turning to stone, heartbeat stilling. “What happened?”
“She was attacked outside the station.”
He barely had the third word out before I was moving. My keys were in my hand, and I was jogging toward the door, giving Shadow the command to stay. She obeyed, but I could tell she didn’t want to.
I yanked open my SUV’s door. “Is she hurt?”
My voice didn’t sound like my own. Even. No emotion.
“The doc is taking a look at her right now.”
“Station?” I clipped.
“Yes. Drive safe.”
I hung up before he could say anything else. Rocks flew as I reversed out of my makeshift parking spot and took off down the dirt road. My pulse pounded in my neck, and images flashed in my mind.
Wren. Too pale. Blood everywhere.
The sickly slow beat of her pulse fluttering beneath my fingertips.
I slammed my fist into the steering wheel, trying to shake the memories free.
“She’s fine.” I said the two words over and over, a mantra and a prayer. I said them more times than I could count in the five minutes it took me to get to the station—less than half the time it should’ve taken.
I screeched to a halt in front of the building and threw my vehicle into park. Jumping out, I ran for the door. The officer behind the front desk pushed a button, making the door buzz before I could reach it. It flew open, and I charged inside. “Where is she?”
“They’ve got her in the gym,” Abel called from dispatch.
There was none of his telltale grumpiness in his expression, only concern.
My ribs tightened around my lungs, making it hard to take a full breath, but I forced myself down the hall toward the gym. The door was open, and as I stepped through, I saw a cluster of people huddled around a massage table.
A woman who looked to be in her fifties was bent over, holding a small penlight.
My legs carried me toward the group, but it was as if I were on autopilot. Everything in me had gone numb.
Clint took one look at me and stepped back, clearing the way.
Wren lay on the table, an ice pack pressed to her head. It wasn’t until I saw her chest rise and fall that I took a full breath. But as soon as I did, rage filled my lungs.
Wren shifted as she saw me, the ice pack slipping. The side of her face was already turning black and blue. Angry scrapes stood out against her smooth skin, and blood seeped through her long-sleeved white blouse.
Blood.
Wren was bleeding.
In a flash, she stood and moved to me. The ice pack fell to the floor as she grabbed my hands. “I’m fine. A little banged up. That’s all.”
I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t. All I could do was stare at the blood staining her T-shirt.
“Tell him I’m fine, doc.”
“Wren will be perfectly all right,” the doctor said.
“You’re bleeding.” The words were raw, as though they were wrapped in barbed wire, and someone had ripped them from my throat.
Lawson cursed. “She scraped her arm when she fell. It’s nothing serious.”
My head snapped in his direction. “Someone. Attacked. Wren. Outside your damned police station. How is that not serious?” I growled.
Lawson winced. “Bad choice of words.”
Wren looked up, wariness seeping into her expression for the first time. “I’m okay. I took a knock on the head. I’ll look rough for a couple of days. That’s it.”
“You promised me.”
Her brows furrowed.
“You promised me you wouldn’t go anywhere alone.”
How could I believe anything she told me? How could I trust her to keep herself safe?
Wren stared at me. “I stepped out our back door in an extremely lit police station parking lot because I needed a second to breathe. There were people right inside.”
“He got to you!”
The words vibrated the air as I bellowed them.
A single tear slid from Wren’s eye, but she wiped it away quickly. “That’s not on me.”
I reared back. Of course, it wasn’t on her. I squeezed my eyes closed, struggling to breathe evenly. I was screwing this all up. And I couldn’t. There was too much at stake.
I moved in a flash, wrapping Wren in my arms. I fought the urge to tighten my hold, the instinct was so strong, but I didn’t want to hurt her. “I can’t lose you,” I croaked.
“I’m right here,” she whispered.
But someone could take her from me at any moment. How could I have forgotten that?
