by Arianna Hart
“I think while we’re there we might want to have you checked out too. You’re not looking too good, partner.”
Mac nodded numbly and reached for the handle on the van. Another police car pulled up behind them, blocking the van in. Tom and Mac turned as one to see who needed them now.
An officer got out of the car. His hat was low over his brow and Mac couldn’t get a look at his face.
“Do you know him?” Mac asked Tom. Something about the way he moved triggered something in Mac’s memory, but he couldn’t remember what.
“He doesn’t look familiar, but there’s a lot of Hartford cops I don’t know. Could be a friend of Liam’s who wants to know how Caitlyn is.”
They waited for the officer to introduce himself as he walked closer, but he remained silent. Just as Tom stepped forward to hail him, Mac saw the cop’s hand reach for his gun.
“Get down!”
Mac and Tom dove in different directions as shots exploded into the night. The sound of gunfire spooked the already wired crowd and people scattered, knocking each other over and adding to the confusion.
The cop came after Mac, who was trapped against the van. He reached blindly for some way to defend himself and only came up with sand. Throwing it in his face, Mac bought himself time to maneuver and kick out at the cop’s kneecap. Bone ground against bone, and the cop dropped to the street with a scream of agony.
Tom ran over and put his gun to the cop’s head and disarmed him. Mac got up gingerly. Blood oozed from multiple scrapes on his arms, and more body aches made themselves felt.
“Do you recognize him?” Tom pulled off the hat that had covered his face. Revealing a jagged scar across his cheek.
Oh yeah.
“It’s Nadowny’s body guard. He’s no cop.”
“Looks like he’ll be joining his boss in jail tonight then. Where’d you get the squad car, buddy?” Tom asked as he handcuffed him.
“I want to talk to my lawyer.”
“Absolutely. You’ll need him.” Tom looked up at Mac. “Call this in. We need to find out if he stole an unoccupied vehicle or killed the cop that was in it.”
Mac ground his teeth in frustration. He knew it was important to take care of this, but he wanted to be with Caitlyn. His head spun as he reached for the microphone attached to the radio in the car.
Tom hauled his prisoner to his feet and opened the back of the squad car.
“I think you can cancel that call. I know what happened to the driver.” Tom pointed to the back seat where Liam’s friend Mark lay trussed up in his underwear like a roped calf.
“At least he’s not dead,” Mac said before the night spun around him and the world went gray, then black.
Chapter Twenty-four
Mac shifted uncomfortably in the hard plastic chair of the family lounge. He felt like he’d been hit by a truck, but didn’t want to take the painkillers the doctor had given him. With everything else that had gone on in the last twenty-four hours, the pain was about the only thing keeping him awake.
Tom sprawled across two chairs, snoring softly, and Liam paced the tiny waiting room, jiggling the change in his pocket. Empty coffee cups littered the room and Mac’s stomach grumbled. He should probably grab a snack or a nap like Tom was doing, but he just couldn’t. With his luck, as soon as he went to the cafeteria the doctor would come in with news.
Jim and Maggie had come in twice already to give them updates. Caitlyn was in surgery, the bullet had lodged in her shoulder blade, which may have saved her life. If the gun had been a higher caliber, it would have shattered the bone and ripped open an artery.
The hospital overflowed with people waiting to hear about loved ones injured during the riots. A triage tent had been set up outside the emergency room and the Red Cross had set up stations where family members could go for information. The advance warning Caitlyn had given had kept the chaos to a manageable level. Mac thought it was ironic that the life she saved by calling in her friends was her own.
All eyes turned as the door opened and a doctor dressed in surgical scrubs walked in. When she spotted Liam, her eyes widened and she walked over. Mac nudged Tom who woke quickly and stood.
“I take it you’re all Caitlyn’s family?” she said, trying to cover a yawn.
“Yes,” Tom said, speaking for all of them.
“I’m Dr. Patel, I performed the surgery on her shoulder.”
Liam shifted uncomfortably but didn’t say anything. The doctor avoided looking at him and focused mainly on Tom. She was a tiny thing, petite and probably no taller than five feet three inches. That she stood close to a foot shorter than the three men surrounding her didn’t seem to affect her in the least. There was an interesting by-play going on between her and Liam, but Mac was too numb with worry to figure it out.
“How is she? Is she going to be okay?” Mac couldn’t take the suspense.
“She made it through the surgery with flying colors. Her arm is going to be immobilized for a while, and I want her on bed rest for at least two weeks, but she’ll live. As long as she doesn’t get any secondary infections, she should be back to her old self again before you know it.”
“When can we see her?”
“She’s in recovery now, Jim’s sitting with her. Once a room opens up on the trauma floor, they’ll move her in there and you can visit with her briefly. She’ll be pretty disoriented for a while from the blood loss and anesthesia, so you might want to wait until tomorrow. It wouldn’t hurt for all of you to get some rest and take showers before you come back. She won’t know you’re there anyway.” Dr. Patel looked pointedly at Mac, who still had dried blood caked on his face.
“I just want to see her, even if she doesn’t know I’m there. If I can see her for a minute, I promise I’ll go home and wash up before I come back.”
“You can see her for one minute, but don’t disturb her. I want her to rest for as long as she can.” She turned and motioned them to follow her.
The recovery room was dimly lit and quiet. Harried-looking nurses monitored several beds as well as patients in lounge chairs along one wall. Jim sat in a curtained off area next to a bed. Tubes and wires ran in a tangle over Caitlyn’s face and body.
She lay so still beneath the sheet. Jim moved out of the way so Mac could squat by the side of the bed. He was afraid to touch her. She looked so pale and fragile.
“Rest easy, sweetheart. I’ll be here when you wake up,” Mac murmured, more for his benefit than hers.
Caitlyn’s eyes fluttered open slightly, but didn’t focus before they slipped closed again.
“I’ll be back soon.” Even though it tore his heart in half, Mac moved away from the bed and let Tom and Liam have a turn.
He waited in the hallway for Tom to finish. Thank God she was okay. He hadn’t blown it. There was still a chance for them, if she’d listen to him and believe what he said.
Mac snorted to himself. Would she believe him? He’d spent so much time telling her how they couldn’t be together and how important his job was to him. How he wasn’t the family man sort of guy. Why should she believe him now? He sounded fickle even to himself.
“I’ll make you believe, Caitlyn. I’ll do whatever it takes.” His head swam again.
Tomorrow, or rather later on today, after he had a chance to grab a few Z’s and a shower, he’d come back and wait with her. Even if he couldn’t tell her how he felt, at least he’d be near her to reassure himself she was still alive.
Tom came out into the hall and took a drink from a water fountain before joining him. “We can go as soon as Liam gets done. He doesn’t have a car here either.”
“Okay.” Mac weaved a bit on his feet.
“Are you all right, buddy? I don’t want you passing out on me again. Did the doctor really say you could leave? Or did you sign yourself out?”
“I’m fine. The doctor said it was just a reaction to the knock on my head and breathing in too much smoke. Some fluids and rest and I’ll be good as new.�
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“I notice you didn’t answer the question.”
“I didn’t have time to wait for some overworked doctor to sign discharge orders, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Tom grabbed his shoulder. “Then you’re going right back down there. I’m not having you drop on me again.”
“Hold up, would you? Look, they told me to get some rest and replace my fluids and gave me some painkillers. If we go back down there, we’ll be there forever. The ER is overwhelmed as it is. I can rest just as easily at Jim’s place as I can there and I’ll drink a gallon of water, okay?”
Mac was counting on the fact that Tom didn’t like hospitals any more than he did to keep him out of the ER. Tom looked at him skeptically for another minute, then relented. “Get a drink while we’re waiting for Liam.”
“Yes, sir.” Mac gave him a mock salute and crossed to the water fountain.
As he turned his head to get a drink, he caught a glimpse of Liam talking softly to Dr. Patel in the alcove of a doorway. Mac averted his gaze quickly, but not before he saw Liam brush his hand over the tiny doctor’s cheek.
Well, well, well. Looks like there’s a little something more going on there than Liam let on. Dr. Patel was attractive enough from what Mac could see in the baggy green scrubs and cap. She had almost black eyes and a pert little nose to go with her dusky skin and jet-black brows. Very interesting.
Mac finished his drink of water and walked back where Tom waited. He wished Liam all the luck in the world with his love life. Lord knew he’d need it.
* * *
The first thing Caitlyn noticed when she came out of the fog she was in was the noise. Someone’s IV line alarm was beeping. She’d have to get that. Her arm felt like it weighed a hundred pounds and she was so disoriented. She couldn’t seem to open her eyes. Why was she at work? What time was it?
“Shh, it’s okay. Go back to sleep.” Caitlyn felt a hand squeeze her fingers gently, then the world went dark again.
The next time she woke, her head was a little clearer, but pain throbbed from her shoulder through her whole body. Even her fingernails hurt. She tried to sit up, to relieve an ache her back, but she couldn’t use her left arm.
The memories came back like a movie on fast forward. The warehouse, the mayor, Mac’s face snarling in rage. The gun. She’d been shot, she remembered that. The mayor had pulled a gun from his jacket pocket and Mac was so focused on punching him that he wasn’t paying attention. She hadn’t thought more than to get him out of the way and stop the gun. Did she really shove him out of the way? Looking down at her arm wrapped tightly to her chest she realized she must have. And gotten shot for her efforts.
Where was Mac now? She looked around the room and spotted Tom in one of the chairs, sound asleep. That man could sleep through the apocalypse.
“Tom,” she croaked. Her voice was raspy from disuse. How long had she been out of it anyway?
“Huh? What?” Tom woke with a start and shook his head as if to clear it. “Hey. You’re awake.”
“More awake than you, I bet. How long have I been out?”
“About a day and a half,” Tom said, coming over to help her sit up. “Are you in pain? Do you want some more meds? I’ll call the nurse.”
“Yeah, that would be good. My arm really hurts.” A day and a half? What’d she miss? “What happened? I don’t remember anything after the warehouse catching on fire. Did they get the mayor? Is Mac okay?”
“Hold on, I’ll tell you everything, just let me tell the nurse you’re awake. They’ll want to take more vitals I’m sure. Someone’s been in here every twenty minutes poking at you,” he grumbled.
“It’s their job. What’s wrong? Did they interrupt your nap?” Caitlyn teased, reaching for the cup of ice chips by the bed. Her mouth felt like it was coated in fur.
“Very funny. Just see if you’re laughing when they start poking at you now that you’re awake.”
Caitlyn smiled in good humor. If Tom was grumbling about not getting enough sleep, things couldn’t be too bad. She was dying to ask him about Mac, but held her tongue. She’d get the whole story when he was ready to tell it and not a minute before.
A nurse she didn’t recognize bustled in and made some notes on the chart at the foot of her bed. After seeing if she needed anything, she quietly left the room.
“Finally. Now tell me everything.”
“Okay, I don’t know what you know, so if I’m repeating things, bear with me.”
Caitlyn nodded for him to continue.
“We figured out that Nadowny was involved with Carlos about five minutes too late to keep him from grabbing you. It turns out the chief was running his own undercover operation with Miguel, which was why he was involved.”
“I’ll bet Liam’s relieved. He really respected the chief.” Caitlyn had been worried about him.
“Yeah, it’s a load off his mind. There’s still some dirty cops, but Miguel has fingered most of them, and I’m sure the rest will be weeded out after all the evidence has been sifted.”
“Go on,” she urged. She hoped they caught the one who ran her license plate.
“Nadowny called, giving us two hours to gather what evidence we had in exchange for you.”
“Yeah, I remember that. I told you not to do it.”
Tom snorted. “Oh sure, like that was going to happen. Will you stop interrupting me?”
“Fine.” She rolled her eyes.
“Okay, so Mac shows up with a quick tap in his shoe. He’s telling us everything that’s going on in the warehouse and we’re recording it. Meanwhile, the chief has pulled out all the stops and called in mutual aid from every department he can call, page, or email.”
“What happened with the mob? When Mac and I got out of the warehouse, they were coming back towards us. I heard some of the gang members saying they were headed downtown near the shops for better looting.”
“I’m getting to that. Since we knew what, approximately, was going to happen, we had forces in place to prevent the looting. The area near the warehouse got hit worse than we expected, which is why we didn’t have any backup for Mac. They were overwhelmed. It’s really too bad, because those folks are the ones who can least afford to replace their stuff.” He shook his head. “Anyway, the rest of the city is pretty much undamaged. Some broken windows and flipped cars, but nothing too major.”
“How’d the hospital do? I called in as many people as I could, but I ran out of time before I got grabbed.”
“From what I could tell, they were busy but handling it. Maggie should be stopping by any second, you can ask her.”
Caitlyn nodded as Tom filled her in on the mayor’s arrest and the subsequent arrests that were coming in.
“The news media is losing their collective minds. Every day there’s another screaming headline. Poor Mac has been on the cover of almost every newspaper in the country.”
“How is he doing? He’d gotten pretty banged up himself and his wound wasn’t really ready for that much activity.”
“He’s fine, got a little loopy from breathing in too much smoke, but after some sleep and some fluids he’s fine. I’m sure he’ll be in here soon too. He’s been here almost every other minute since you came out of surgery.”
A little thrill went through her at his words. She tried to squash the hope burning in her chest, but it wasn’t easy. Just because he wanted to make sure she was okay didn’t mean he wanted to hang around forever. Still, he could have taken off, making a million excuses.
“What about Liam and Jim? Are they okay? I remember Jim in the ambulance, but it’s kind of fuzzy. And the last time I saw Liam was when he brought me back to the van.”
“Where you should have stayed, then you never would have been shot.”
“But if I had waited for you all to do something, Mac would have been dead.”
“We had to go through proper channels. If we went barreling in there without the warrant in place, anything we got as evidence wouldn’t m
ean squat.”
“Were you able to get anything? Nadowny started the fire in the office.”
“Yeah, Miguel snuck into the warehouse and stole the van before it caught on fire.”
“Would’ve been nice if he could’ve helped me out while he was there,” Mac said from the doorway. He held a bouquet of roses and a colorful balloon.
Caitlyn’s heart dropped straight to her toes and right back up again at the sight of him. His face was a mass of bruises, but the blue eyes sparkled at her just the same.
“Are those for me?” she asked, feeling shy all of a sudden.
“Uh, yeah. I thought you might like something pretty to look at when you woke up. Guess I was too late.”
“Hey, she had me. I’m better looking than a bunch of stupid flowers.” Tom stood and winked at her.
Mac gave him a meaningful look and Tom hesitated a moment before bending down to kiss her on the forehead. “I’m going to grab a cup of coffee and some lunch before Mac strains a muscle glaring at me.”
“Thanks,” she said, kissing him on the cheek.
“No prob.” He nudged Mac in the shoulder on his way out and shut the door quietly behind him.
Mac shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot before he crossed the room and put the flowers on the little table near her.
“How are you feeling?” he asked, sitting on the edge of the bed.
“A little rough around the edges, but okay.” She really wished she’d had time for a quick swish of mouthwash before he came in.
“You had me—us—really worried for a while. You lost a lot of blood.”
“I’ll be fine. You got us out of the fire.” The memory of the trip out of the warehouse was a blur of smoke and heat and pain. She couldn’t remember details, just a vague fear for her life and Mac’s.
“I would’ve been a goner if you hadn’t stopped Nadowny from shooting me, so I guess that makes us even. Did Tom fill you in on everything that happened?”
“Pretty much. I’m sure I’ll have more questions later, but for now I’m just glad everyone’s okay.”