Tattoo(32)

“He stabbed me with a needle!” she accused, glancing at me with wet eyes and then glaring at the man.

Seeing her bleeding yet again really, really pissed me off. Before I could think twice, I plowed into the man, charging him backward and ramming him into the side of the car. I pinned him with my forearm up against the side and looked into his face.

“She’s been shot, kidnapped, and traumatized, and you stab her with a goddamn needle?” I growled.

The man’s eyes widened and I knew I looked rather scary, with my bloody hands and clothes and the wild look I knew was swimming in my eyes. “I didn’t mean to!” he protested. “She wouldn’t hold still.”

“West,” Mac said from right beside me. “What the hell are you doing?”

I blew out a breath and felt some of the initial panic and anger I felt at seeing her blood ebb away. I dropped the man and he collapsed onto his ass on the bench beneath him. “No, fucking bedside manner,” I muttered and strode the short distance toward Taylor.

She was still cradling her hand in her lap, her hair was tangled, her clothes were dirty, bloody, too big and her lips were dry and cracked.

I dropped down on my haunches in front of her and picked through the small kit off to the side. I reached for her hand and she gave it willingly, not even uttering a word of protest. I cleaned off the blood, wiping it away and watching as a bead of fresh new blood welled to the surface. I covered it with a small piece of gauze and then picked up the IV, which the asshole was trying to put in the back of her hand.

“Want me to kiss it and make it better?” I asked softly, speaking only to her. Those jewel-like eyes glanced up away from her hand and fastened onto me.

Without waiting for her reply (like she’d say no), I lifted her hand and pressed my lips near the area I was applying pressure to. Before pulling back, I let my tongue glide over her in a single caress and was rewarded with a spattering of goose bumps racing up her arm.

As I lowered her hand I felt her eyes on me once more and I took advantage of the moment to gently slide the new IV into place.

She winced and I squeezed her fingers. “All done.”

After I tossed aside the bloody gauze, I applied fresh padding and some medical tape to the back of her hand to hold the IV in place. “Don’t move around too much,” I told her. “The more you do, the more it will tug on your skin.”

“Thanks,” she said, giving me a little smile as I returned her hand to her lap. I stood up and, without thinking, leaned down and pressed a kiss to the center of her forehead.

The silence around us seemed rather penetrating so I glanced around. Mac, Mr. Shaw, a couple EMTs, and a few cops were all standing there watching us with their mouths slackened.

“What?” I bellowed. Throats cleared and people started moving around again.

They acted like me being nice was some sort of miracle, like I was usually akin to a caveman with a bad case of monkey butt.

Okay, yeah… that might be accurate.

“Taylor,” Mr. Shaw said, brushing past me like I was some piece of garbage on the street.

“Dad!” she said, and I heard the relief in her tone. I guess if she loved him I would try not to deck him.

“You get them all?” I asked Mac, stepping down from the back of the ambulance.

“All of them but one.”

“Snake is still gone?” I should have gone after him. He was the mind behind this whole thing; he was the one that would do something like this again.

“His name is Snake?” Mac asked.

“That’s what he said.”

“I need you to come down to the station so we can get all your knowledge into a statement.”

Movement around the building paused our conversation and we watched several officers coming out with the large bags full of cash.

“Yeah, I figured,” I said. “Let’s go.” I motioned toward one of the black unmarked sedans.

“Wait,” Taylor called, and I looked back. “He needs to come to the hospital!”

Mac looked at me with a shrewd gaze. He sighed. “Is that your blood, West?” he asked, looking at my shirt.

“It’s not that bad,” I lamented.

“Go,” he ordered.

I was about to protest, but he held up his hand. “Just freaking go. If you don’t, the department head will be breathing down my ass for weeks.”

I didn’t protest too much. I’d lost more blood than I wanted to admit, and I was feeling a little lightheaded.

“I’ll meet you at the hospital after we wrap this up here,” Mac said before turning away to issue orders.

I climbed into the back of the ambulance, sitting across from Taylor and her father.