Disavowed(95)

“Is there an ambulance coming?” she asked.

“Yeah, should be here any minute,” Schroder answered. “Come on. I’ll help you get this wounded bear out to the street.”

“I can fucking walk on my own,” Matt growled, but his arm tightened around her shoulders in a possessive grip, clearly not wanting to let her go.

“Okay,” Schroder said cheerfully. “I’ll just walk a step behind, ready to catch you if you keel over.”

They started walking through the trees toward the road. Up ahead she could see the other four members of the team standing around Georgia and Balducci, both lying facedown on the ground with their hands cuffed behind them. With a broken arm and a bullet wound in the leg, Balducci had to be in a shitload of pain. The thought made Briar smile.

She moved slowly with Matt, trying to hide how weak her legs felt. The adrenaline crash had left her cold all over and slightly queasy. All because of her terror for Matt.

When the ambulances arrived medics loaded Balducci onto one and Alex was there to assign someone to ride with him to the hospital. She explained to him about Georgia but he insisted she be brought in for questioning. Mostly to do with an FBI agent she’d assaulted and dumped on the side of the road, the government-owned van she’d totaled and the pesky matter of interfering with a federal investigation.

Matt grumbled and protested the paramedics’ attention but he finally sat on the edge of the ambulance’s deck and allowed them to check him over, his mouth pressed into a thin line of displeasure while Schroder stood by to discuss everything with them.

Briar left him to walk over to Georgia, who was about to be put into the back of another SUV, Alex standing next to her. The other Valkyrie glanced over as she approached, pale blue gaze piercing. She still had blood on her face and neck but the paramedics had bandaged the cut near her hairline.

Briar stopped when she reached her, offered a smile. “I’m glad you didn’t kill him.”

Georgia studied her eyes for a moment, clearly not as happy about the night’s outcome. “He’d better either get a life sentence or the death penalty.”

“He will,” Alex said from beside the vehicle’s back door. He set a hand between Georgia’s shoulder blades. “Shall we?” It wasn’t a question, even though it was posed as one.

Georgia obediently turned and allowed him to help her slide into the backseat. She met Briar’s gaze just before he shut the door. “You’ll be around?”

Briar nodded. “Got a few things to take care of here.” She glanced over to Matt before looking back at her.

Georgia’s mouth twitched in the semblance of a smile and her frigid eyes warmed slightly. “Yeah, guess you do.”

Alex shut the door then rounded the back of the vehicle and slid into the back with her. Briar raised her hand in farewell as it drove away. When she looked back at Matt, he was watching her with his arm secured in a sling, the hilt of the knife still protruding from the back of his shoulder.

But he wasn’t merely looking at her, she realized. He was staring at her with such respect and longing in his eyes it turned her heart over.

She crossed to him, stuffing her hands into her pockets. He was gonna be damn sore for a while and pulling that blade through his shoulder wasn’t the most fun way to spend an evening. The bandaged cut on his head had stopped bleeding, leaving only dried blood on his face and neck.

He reached out his free hand, caught her forearm and tugged her to him. She set one hand on his uninjured shoulder and the other on the side of his face, her thumb stroking gently over his whisker-roughened cheek. “That looks pretty damn nasty.”

He grunted. “Speared by a fucking KA-BAR.” He sounded utterly disgusted by that.

In the expanding silence they stared at each other for a few seconds. “I’m still not sorry,” she admitted.

His lips curved, his eyes twinkling with humor. “I know. But I’m sorry for yelling.” He groaned and bent his head, leaning his forehead against her chest. Briar bent over him, pressing a kiss to the top of his head. “You would go right for my bald spot,” he grumbled, sounding mildly annoyed.

The idea that he was self-conscious about such a silly thing even while wounded and in pain made her laugh. “It’s not bald, it’s only thinning a little and it’s not very big anyway. And you’re so damn sexy I’d want to do you even if you were totally bald.”

He grunted but didn’t lift his head, as though he was content right where he was and didn’t want her to let go. “You’re going with me to the hospital, right?”