“Not great,” he replied, staring at the ceiling and swallowing a grunt as he moved his leg back into a comfortable position. Okay. Fuck that. There wasn’t a comfortable position. Just some that were less painful than others.
“You can sit up now,” she ordered.
He did, and using his hands to shift his body around, he swung his legs off the table, his gaze landing on the crutches propped in the corner of her office. They weren’t pink, and he hated them. “So? What do you think? Can you fix me?”
“I can certainly help you improve your strength and mobility,” she replied, rolling her stool over until she sat in front of him. “How much is up to you.” She cupped her hands around his joint, her fingers gentle as she poked and prodded over scar tissue, into muscles, and along bones. “The surgeon did a nice job.”
Jamie looked at his X-rays clipped to the lighted view box, and an assortment of metal parts glowed back at him. Due to the damage caused by the high-caliber bullet, the orthopedic specialist brought in by Samuel had done a rapid-fire partial knee replacement.
A miracle he could walk, really. An even bigger miracle he’d survived the Mass Gen massacre at all. He shouldn’t have. And if it hadn’t been for his father, he wouldn’t have. Which reminded him, he needed to call his parents soon and do a check-in.
“If we go at this hard, how long before I can ditch the walking aids?”
Eve lifted her cobalt eyes to his. “A week or two for the crutches. Another three to five for the cane.”
He frowned and hooked his hair behind his ear with his thumb. “Too long. Adam put me back on rotation, and I need to be at full strength as soon as possible.”
She dropped her hands and shook her head. “Absolutely not. We can’t rush your recovery and risk causing more damage. I’ll speak to him, and we can work out a reasonable schedule for your return to work.”
“No.” Adam and Jay were right. The JTT was stretched thin, and until he managed to convince Summer to take the baby and go, he needed to contribute. “As long as Kosamina’s daughter is here, keeping her safe is my responsibility.”
“As long as she’s here?”
“We’re a renegade black ops unit wanted by every federal enforcement agency, Eve. Eventually, they’re going to figure out where we’re holed up, and when they do, Johnson and his backers will be on us in hours. What happens then? We’re outnumbered and outgunned on every side. I can’t let Halia be caught in the crossfire, and if anything happened to Summer…”
“Summer?”
A mental picture of the little vixen standing up to him in the boardroom caused his heart rate to accelerate. He couldn’t do it. Couldn’t let another woman die in his place. “Ko’s dead because of me. I can’t let that happen again.”
“Oh, Jamie, no.” Her eyes welled with tears, and she grabbed his hand between hers, offering a comforting squeeze. “That’s not true.”
“It is true.” He pulled his hand free. He wasn’t worth the pain she felt on his behalf, and he certainly didn’t deserve to be consoled. “My choices put her in danger. If I hadn’t joined the JTT, she’d be alive today.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do know, and I can’t keep making the same mistakes, or more people are going to suffer. We understood what kind of personal risk we were taking when we joined the JTT, but the residual risk to the people we love, the people we care about the most? We didn’t see that coming until it was too late. And I can’t—I won’t—watch anyone else die on my account. I’m sorry, but Halia and Summer don’t belong here. It’s not safe.”
Eve breathed deep, held the air in her lungs for a heartbeat, and then slowly let it go. “I understand where you’re coming from. And, of course, your feelings are valid. But as someone who comes from outside the group. Someone who survived being kidnapped by a serial killer. I can honestly say theworldis a dangerous place. None of us knows how or when our end will come. But at least here—with the JTT—we can see the danger coming, and we can do something about it. If we let Halia go, she won’t have the same advantage, and she’ll be far more vulnerable. As for Summer, she’s been through a lot, and she’s tougher than you think. She knows the risk, and she’s elected to stay. Her choices aren’t on you, Jamie, and if you try to force her to go, you’ll have a fight on your hands. Not just from Summer, but from Adam and Gray and the rest of us as well. She’s a part of our inner circle now, and we look after our own.”
“What do you mean, she’s been through a lot? Is she in trouble?” Protective instincts flaring, his leg muscles contracted, preparing him for battle despite the fact he had no adversary, was unarmed, could barely walk, and wore nothing but gym shorts and a T-shirt.
Fuck. He needed to get his guns back and his knee squared away. ASAP.
“She went through some rough patches and faced a few challenges before she came to us, but if you want to know more, you’ll have to ask her yourself.”
“Yeah, not sure she’s in the mood to open up to me at the moment.”
Eve grinned. “Well, your introduction was a little unconventional.”
Jamie grunted. “You might say that. But after this morning, she’s probably even more inclined to use her hoof pick to cave in my skull.”
“Okay…” Her eyes narrowed. “How’d you mess up this time?”
He sighed. “She overheard me telling Jay she didn’t belong here.”
“Ouch.”
“Yep.”
