Or I should be. I’ve never had an artery hit before, and it usually only requires a cleaning and bandage before I’m ready to rock again. This sucker, however, feels like they tried to tear my arm off and I can’t say I appreciate the effort they made on my behalf.
“Hey, Jace. Bro, keep those baby blues open, fella. We need to talk.”
I struggle up through the sinking numbness and open my eyes to focus on Jared where he’s leaning over me way too close for comfort.
“Step away, you big baby. You’re in my personal space here,” I mutter through a dry throat and lips that feel like cotton wool.
“Ahh, there’s our Jace. I see the meds haven’t softened that disposition any, huh?” Miah quips, making me laugh hard enough to jolt my shoulder.
“Shut up.”
Wyatt’s here too, and it’s only when I don’t see Roman’s goofy grin that it all comes back to me with a bang. I sit straight up in bed, ignoring the pain in my shoulder.
“Jar—”
“Whoa, big guy, take it easy there, will ya? You just came out of surgery. They had to repair your artery and sew you back up.”
Yeah, fine, whatever.
“The phone.”
“I got it, bro, no worries. Now tell me everything from the beginning,” Wyatt barks, putting on his commander cap with an ease that makes me think he misses his days as a footloose and fancy-free soldier.
“I got onto Farmer’s Road and found Roman’s cell phone. You saw the blood?”
Jared and Miah both nod.
“That was it, man. I bent to get it and got one in the shoulder. I rolled and flipped behind my car, but to be honest, I was dazed for a few seconds and it wasn’t just luck that saved me from that second shot, man. Whoever was shooting purposely missed me that second time and aimed for my shoulder instead of any vitals.”
“That’s it?” Miah asks, and I can already see that mind of his working all the angles.
“Yup. Far as I can tell, the fire was purposely shoddy.”
Which is bugging me. I have no doubt in my mind that the person shooting at me was sent to carry out a hit, a warning to us to stop our investigation.
That being said, I was spared only because the shooter did not want to kill me.
“So we have at least one friendly in the Patriots,” Jared muses, rubbing at his chin in thought.
“Patriots?”
Jared stills and looks down at me with a sigh before shaking his head.
“That’s who they are. The Pure Patriots, who are apparently working out of a town nearby ours. If the intel is accurate, they have at least one senator in their pockets, as well as a mole in the SEALs and ties to this community that are not only dirty cops. According to Trace—”
“Trace? How the hell is Tracy involved in this?” I demand, getting that scratchy feeling down my neck as the words are forced out.
Jared pauses and rubs at his neck, a sure sign that he’s stressed or annoyed, at the very least. Not much fazes Jared—nothing trivial, at least—so the fact that he’s just about crawling out of his skin right now makes me jumpy.
“She’s Bureau. She’s been here to gather intel the whole time,” he finally admits, wincing when I growl.
Bureau? As in those FBI idiots who almost got Clari killed?
“No! No fucking way. Do you assholes hear me? She is not getting involved in any of this shit,” I yell, ripping cords and IVs out of my arm to get out of the bed. “How do you know any of this? Where is she?”
“Bathroom,” Miah and Wyatt both say at once, sharing a look when they realize she’s been gone way too long to be in the bathroom anymore.
Wyatt takes off without another word and I spend my time arguing with Jared while struggling into a set of scrubs a size too small for my six-three frame.
“You need to rest.”
“I need to get my girl, go home, and figure out where Roman is. In that fucking order.”
“You can’t—”
“She’s not in the bathroom and the nurses remember seeing her headed for the exit. She left man.” Wyatt breathes, wheezing out a huff with his hands planted on his knees.
She left? Without seeing me? Without a word?
“Jace, man, don’t get mad, okay? She was plenty upset when we found you in the driveway bleeding to death. I never saw a woman get that hysterical about a few drops of blood in my life. And it wasn’t the blood that was getting to her. It’s that you were shot.”
“Yeah? Then why the hell isn’t she in here with me making sure I’m okay?” I sneer, feeling all hurt and shit.
“Because she realized something while we were talking and she’s probably hotfooted it out of here to go investigate is why,” Jared growls, slamming a fist into the wall to my left. “Fuck, I have never met a more stubborn and hotheaded female than Trace, and that’s saying a lot, man. We all know Ma.”