Matt opened his eyes to a bright light overhead, an annoying beep-beep-beep and his left shoulder hurting like a mother. What in the holy hell?
“Jesus,” he muttered.
Taylor’s face appeared, her forehead creasing as she studied him. “Hey there. We’re still in the ER. How do you feel?”
“Whupped.”
“It’s the drugs. You woke up in the ambulance and they gave you something for the pain.”
No wonder. “They knock me out. For future reference, I don’t do pain meds.”
“Okay, tough guy, I’ll make a note. The good news is the bullet passed straight through and didn’t wreck anything important on its journey. The doc said you probably won’t need surgery. They might be able to just stitch you up.”
“When can I leave?”
“Relax, fella. We didn’t get that far. They caught a trauma so you got bumped.”
He glanced down, took in his bare chest and the blood-soaked bandage on his left shoulder and wiggled his fingers. Good sign. “Where’s my shirt?”
“They cut it off you in the ambulance. Sorry.”
His parents. He needed to call them. With all Dad’s contacts at the PD, he’d get wind of this.
“I called your father,” she said. “I looked in your phone for the number. I hope that’s okay.”
Was it? Heck yeah. Even if having a woman—or anyone for that matter—handle things for him was…weird, he didn’t mind. Appreciated it even.
He lifted his good hand and she grabbed hold. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Then she leaned in and kissed him. His impression was the kiss was meant to be quick, but, as always with her, things went to another level and before he knew it his tongue found its way into her mouth. Another thing he could get used to.
At least until her phone rang.
She intensified the kiss, sending the message that whoever it was could wait, but…he knew her. Like him, she operated a certain way and that meant when in the middle of a case, the job came first.
He squeezed her hand and retreated half an inch. “You should take that.”
“I don’t need to.”
“Yeah, you do. We still have a kid to find.”
That got her attention and by the third ring she’d checked the screen. “It’s Meredith, my boss.”
Given the events of the evening, this call would go one of two ways. Either Taylor was getting canned or she was a hero. Time would tell.
She poked the screen, grabbing the call on the fourth ring. “Hi, Mer….Really? When?” She met Matt’s gaze and bit her lip. “I’m not sure I can get there right now.”
“Whatever it is,” he said, “go.”
Shaking him off, she continued to listen, her gaze steady on Matt. “All right,” she said. “But, I’m at the hospital with Matt. Let me call you back.”
After disconnecting, she propped a hip on the bed. “Well, I’m being reinstated.”
“You shouldn’t have been suspended in the first place, so I’m glad they got their heads out of their asses. Morons.”
“Ros isn’t talking, but Glaw is a regular chatterbox. Mer has agents standing by at the crime scene. When the techs are done, they’re going to tear the place apart and see what they can find. She wants me over at Ros’s apartment to help search it. Since I’ve been on the case, she thinks I might recognize something. More or less, this is her way of apologizing.”
