The Shadow of Mudflap (A Foxtrot Team Novel #1)

by Christi Snow

  This had never been a joke, but now someone had actually died. Coach Allred’s death drove home the danger for the team and those around him that he loved. TC, Shanae, the entire football team…they were all at risk and that terrified him.

  By lunchtime, that fear had morphed into anger. He needed to know who to blame.

  He searched out Shanae and found her down in one of the treatment rooms with a couple of other paramedics. Wearing normal paramedic gear of a t-shirt, cargo pants, and lace up boots, she’d never looked more beautiful. His breath caught and his heart hammered in his chest. At the sight of her, simply standing there, discussing something with the two men, he had to resist the urge to pick her up and carry her out of here, away from the danger stalking the team. If anything happened to her, he didn’t think he could handle it. Just the thought of it took his breath away.

  She looked up at him, frowning at whatever she could see on his face before she came over to him in the doorway. “Are you okay?”

  “Not really, no.” He stared at her, visualizing her bloody and dying. It wasn’t something he could live with. “Can I talk to you?”

  She gave him a hesitant nod and turned back to the men. “Hey guys, I’ll be right back.”

  The guys shot them curious glances, but Mudflap ignored them as he set a hand in the small of Shanae’s back. He pushed her to a private room a few doors down.

  As soon as the door shut behind them, he pressed her up against it. An inexplicable need to feel her breathing, her heart beating against him, rose inside. He needed to know she was alive and safe even if it was just for the moment. Desperation rose and he brushed a soft, searching kiss against her lips. She responded immediately by opening her mouth to him with a groan and tugging him harder against her. She felt so damn good, so perfect, with her body flush against his.

  By the time he pulled away, they were both breathing hard. He ran his hand up her side and traced just under her breast. Her breath hitched and he closed his eyes against the draw of her. This wasn’t why he dragged her back here. It was time to get back on course.

  “I didn’t get to talk to you alone after the craziness last night.” He ignored the husky tone to his voice as he cleared his throat. “Thank you for yesterday. You were amazing.”

  “Hmm,” she purred as she cupped his erection, throbbing against the confining fly of his jeans. “It was my pleasure.”

  Stifling a groan and the urge to thrust against her hand, he kissed the top of her head. “I didn’t bring you here to maul you, although that’s really tempting.” He growled and tried to convince his body to withdraw from her fucking fantastic touch. “We need to talk.”

  She took a step away from him, with a flash of hurt and distrust in her eyes.

  Realizing what that sounded like, he immediately corrected. “No, not that kind of talk.” That was the furthest thing from his mind. “Damn, did you miss how perfect we fit together yesterday?” He shook his head at her. “Darlin’, what’s between us is good. I’m not gonna give that up. I want to talk to you about this operation and what you know. Friday night, you were with Riley.” He watched her closely and hated the guarded, still look that came over her. “Does he have something to do with what’s going on here? Is he a suspect?”

  “Mudflap, I’ve told you all I’m allowed to tell you at this point.”

  He clenched his jaw. He figured as much, but hoped he could get more out of her. “Okay, I won’t press.” He’d string Riley up by the balls himself if he had to, anything to keep Shanae, TC, and these kids safe.

  Brushing a thumb across the side of her cheek, he gazed into her eyes. “You know I care about you, right?”

  She nodded.

  Relief flooded him that they were on the same page there although she still wasn’t safe. He wanted her away from the danger. “Can I convince you to back out of this case? We both know the Coach’s death this morning wasn’t an accident. I couldn’t handle it if anything happened to you.”

  She reached up and grabbed hold of his hand. “Hey, it’s okay. This is my job and I’m damn good at it. I’ll be okay, I promise.”

  “You can’t make a promise like that.”

  “You’re right, I can’t. I could get hit on the Marsha Sharp Freeway tomorrow, but when it comes to my job, I know what I’m doing. I’ll be fine.” She reached up on tip toes, caressed his cheek with her lips and whispered in his ear, “I really need you to stay safe too, okay?”

  He swallowed hard and nodded, praying that everyone stayed safe from here on out. But the growing dread in his belly warned him that probably wasn’t going to be the case.

  * * *

  The rest of the week was subdued as a pall hung over everything. They had Coach Allred’s funeral on Thursday, on top of a week’s worth of hard, long, quiet practices. Worry about the tough away game in Austin against Texas loomed and that certainly didn’t help anything.

  Mudflap worried as he glanced around the buses at the milling groups of players in the pre-dawn hours. They were about to head out for the game against Texas and these boys were not ready mentally for what was shaping up to be their toughest game yet this season. With the National Championship on the line for both teams, this was a make or break week for the Red Raiders.

  Lines of stress bracketed TC’s mouth as he corralled the players onto the buses. All the intel seemed to point that the danger for them was entirely within the Lubbock city limits, but the Austin Foxtrot Teams were standing by just in case. In the meantime, they were down to a fairly small number of security personnel on this trip, although it was higher than it had been for their last away game with the events of this week.

  Shanae and Cord from the Lubbock Foxtrot Team were riding on another bus, much to Mudflap’s dismay. He would have liked to have ridden with her, but he would just have to be satisfied with the time he’d had with her in his bed the night before. A satisfied smile crept over his face. Everything else in their world may have gone to crap, but things seemed really good between the two of them.

  Mudflap looked up as Ridge, the freshman receiver, walked up to him.

  “Do you have any aspirin?” he asked. “My head is killing me this morning.”

  Besides exhaustion from the early morning hour, Mudflap didn’t see any signs that Ridge had been out partying the night before, but he still had to ask. “Hangover?”

  “No, too many all-nighters this week. I had a huge trig exam yesterday worth half my grade, plus with the game and the coach dying… I just haven’t been able to sleep.”

  “Okay.” Mudflap nodded as he dug into his pocket for his keys. He looked around the parking lot. They still probably had around ten minutes before the buses pulled out. “The med kits are already packed in the buses, but there’s some aspirin in my desk. If we hustle, we can go grab you some. But we need to hurry, because Coach Davidson isn’t in the mood to wait for our asses this morning.”

  “Thanks.”

  “No problem, kid.” He waved over to Shanae, standing next to the other bus, to let her know they’d be right back. She gave a quick nod and then went back to work on the clipboard with the checklist for her bus.

  The two of them headed back toward the offices and Mudflap looked around at the shadows in the corners for anything out of place. There was a Texas Tech maintenance truck which wasn’t normally there, but they were supposed to be doing some sort of work on the heating system in the building over the weekend while the team was out of town. Mudflap chalked it up to being there for that.

  As they entered the training facility, all was quiet. Everyone was already outside by the buses and all the equipment had been loaded the night before. Their footsteps echoed down the quiet hall.

  When they got to the offices, Mudflap unlocked the door and headed to his desk. The aspirin were right where he’d left them. He shook a couple out onto Ridge’s palm and then grabbed a bottle of water out of the mini-fridge so he could wash the medicine down.

  “Head out to the bus. I�
�ll relock everything and be right behind you. If the coach realizes you aren’t out there right now, he’s gonna chew your ass.”

  “Thanks, Mudflap.”

  He followed the kid out and stopped to relock the office door. Ridge took off jogging down the hall, ready to hit the road. Mudflap followed more slowly, rubbing at the back of his neck. Something seemed off, but as he glanced around, he sure couldn’t see what it might be. All was quiet and it didn’t look like anything was out of place.

  Damn, he was tired and could really use some coffee. Hesitating at the exterior doors to the building, he still couldn’t see that anything was wrong. Shaking his head, he turned back to the door to lock it.

  A glint of gold in the corner of the entrance caught his eye. He bent down to pick up what looked to be another coin, but it was hard to tell exactly in the dim pre-dawn light.

  There was a split-second of time between the blast of noise, the incredible heat across his back, and his head meeting the crumbling brick wall of the training facility. Then all he knew was darkness.

  Shanae

  (Five minutes earlier)

  A shiver of awareness slid down her spine as she watched Mudflap walk away with the team’s star receiver. Damn, the man was built. She thought about the things he’d done to her in his bed last night, and in his shower, and against his wall. A shiver of want ran through her. Hmm…

  “Shanae!”

  “What?”

  “You just missed two players climbing onto the bus.” Cord smirked at her distraction. “I think someone is smitten.”

  Heat flooded her cheeks. Damn. Thank God it was dark out here. Was she actually blushing? She hadn’t blushed since she was twelve. Living on the racetrack had broken her of that a long time ago. Maybe some deflection would work. “Smitten? Really? Are you sure you’re a guy, Cord?”

  He just grinned cockily and she resisted the urge to grind her teeth.

  “Maybe you should go catch him for a goodbye kiss before we take off on separate buses. I can handle this here.”

  She glanced at the clipboard and then back to where Mudflap had disappeared around the corner. A goodbye kiss would be nice. She winked at Cord as she shoved the clipboard at him. “Thanks. I’ll be right back.” She took off at a fast trot toward the building.

  She was almost there when she literally ran into Ridge as he came barreling around the corner. They danced for a moment when he grabbed her to steady her. A blast of heat and noise slammed them to the ground, Ridge dead weight on top of her. A profound ringing buzzed in her ears.

  She tried to get her confused brain working again. Did something explode?

  It took a moment for the world to come back into alignment.

  “Shanae, are you okay?” Cord yelled as he gingerly moved Ridge’s weight off her.

  Taking stock, everything hurt, but she seemed to just be bruised and banged up. But if that was the case, why was there blood everywhere? She turned back to Ridge in a panic. He’d taken the brunt of the explosion and probably saved her. She assessed his injuries. He’d taken several pieces of shrapnel to his back and his left leg was obviously broken.

  The memory of where she’d been headed flooded back. She swung a horrified gaze to the smoldering building, a building where Mudflap had been moments before. With trembling legs, she stood, planning to get to that doorway of the building right around the corner, but Cord grabbed her and held her still as he whispered in her ear, “Hang on. You have a patient right here that needs your help first. There are other emergency personnel over there to help him.”

  She shook her head in denial before whispering, “Mudflap…”

  He grabbed her chin and turned her face so she could only see him. “Shanae, snap out of it. I need you here first. There are personnel already over there.”

  Already? How was that possible? Had she blacked out when the explosion happened? Oh my God! She couldn’t see the front of the building, but even from her angle, she could see that it was gone. She began to hyperventilate.

  “Shanae! Focus! I need your help or this kid is going to bleed out. Now!”

  Years of trauma training kicked in and she began to help Cord stabilize Ridge. The bone in his leg had severed the artery. If they didn’t get the bleeding stopped, he was going to be dead in less than two minutes. That had to be her entire focus now, regardless of whether the love of her life had just died twenty feet away.

  She loved him. She swallowed down a sob as the realization hit her. This was the wrong fucking time to realize that.

  Game 9 Results:

  Texas Tech (4): 27

  vs.

  Texas (3): 24

  Week 10 (first half): It Takes the Whole Team

  Halftime Texting

  Shanae: I know you won’t get this since I’m watching you unconscious in your hospital bed and your phone was destroyed by the bomb.

  Shanae: You scared me today. I thought I’d lost you.

  Shanae: Don’t ever do that to me again, okay?

  Shanae: I like you. I mean I really, really like you. So much more than I should.

  Shanae: Damn, you weren’t supposed to sneak into my heart, Mudflap.

  Shanae: I need you to wake up now, okay?

  Mudflap

  Mudflap swallowed hard against the swell of nausea that came from simply trying to turn his head. Goddamn, that hurt. What happened?

  It felt like someone had stuck his head in a vice.

  And left it there.

  For about two fucking months.

  He couldn’t hold back the groan that came from deep in his chest.

  Cold hands grabbed and stroked his palm, reassuring him even through the waves of pain pounding at him. Then he sensed her nearby, not just holding his hand. Smelled her. The sweetest whiff of Shanae floated under his nose as she lightly brushed her lips across his cheek. Regardless of the pain, he turned to that sensation, needing more of it.

  “Mudflap,” she whispered into his ear. “Come on, baby. Come back to me. Let me see those beautiful eyes of yours.”

  He swallowed, willing the drums in his head to stop and the nausea to abate. Because no matter how bad it hurt right now, tossing his cookies was going to make it hurt a hell of a lot more. And he wanted to see her, too.

  She continued to stroke him. The need to see her finally won out over his pain and rolling stomach and he managed to pry his eyes open.

  Her golden brown eyes glistened with unshed tears, but her smile was huge. “Hey you,” she whispered, her voice breaking with emotion. “It’s good to finally have you back.”

  “Wha…” He swallowed against the pounding in his head. His entire body throbbed with pain. “What happened?”

  She put a straw to his lips and the sip of water helped to center him a bit. He hadn’t realized how thirsty he was. He glanced around the sterile hospital room. How long had he been out?

  “There was a car bomb in a Texas Tech maintenance truck parked near the front door of the training center this morning. You were right there when it went off. Everyone agrees it’s a miracle you survived. Even more amazing is the fact that besides bruises and abrasions, you just have a bad concussion. Somehow, the way that you were standing saved your life.”

  “What time is it?”

  She looked down at her watch. “Around three o’clock in the morning. You’ve been in and out of consciousness all day, but this is the first time your eyes look like you’re really here with me. Do you remember anything since the blast?”

  “No.” He swallowed against the shooting pain in his head. He was beginning to remember the explosion, though. He’d bent over to pick up another damn gold coin. First, Grant. Now, him. Waylaid by a coin. That couldn’t be just a coincidence, could it? “I saw something glinting on the ground. I think it may have been another coin.”

  Everything in Shanae’s body language stilled. She knew something. He could see it in her eyes, but just as he had that thought, another one occurred to him. “Ridge, he was the
re, too. Is he okay?”

  “He got hit by a lot of shrapnel. They got him stabilized enough late this afternoon so they could operate on his leg. He came out of surgery a few hours ago with several new pieces of hardware holding his leg together. He’s in ICU though, still in critical condition, but a lot of that is because he lost so much blood today. The broken bone in his leg nicked an artery and he almost died.”

  “Will he be able to play football again?”

  “They aren’t sure. The docs aren’t promising anything until they see how his physical therapy goes.”

  “Was anyone else hurt?”

  “No, but everyone was really shaken up. They went ahead to Austin for the game, although your brother really didn’t want to leave you. I promised him I’d take care of you. He should be here anytime now. He’s been on the phone almost constantly checking on you, even through the game.”

  Mudflap winced. Of all the times for TC and the team to be distracted, this wasn’t the day for it. He was almost afraid to ask. “How’d they do?”

  Her face broke into a huge smile. “They pulled it off. Tech won by three points. One more game and the Red Raiders should be headed toward the National Championship game.”

  Mudflap

  The next morning, TC came dragging in. Mudflap still had an excruciatingly painful headache, but they were letting him go home today. It said something about the shape TC was in that Mudflap felt bad to be the one in bed, when TC so obviously needed one.

  “Shouldn’t you still be in Austin, celebrating with your team?” He must have spent the rest of the night driving after the game to already be back here.

  TC rolled his exhausted eyes. “Like I could do that when two very important members of my team were here in the hospital. How are you feeling?”