Page 45 of Hawk

“It always does,” I told him, and lifted him in my arms. “The key is to pretend it doesn’t by thinking about something else, like cruising on your bike or kissing your girlfriend.”

“Yuk,” Landon said, and I remembered back to when I was that age and girls had cooties.

“Take the van,” Justin insisted, and pushed the keys into Laura’s hand. “Thank you. Both of you.”

“Of course. I’ll have Diesel get with you about this shit,” I told him as we walked to the van.

“Thanks.” He raked a hand through his hair. “I gotta go do a head count, make sure everyone’s okay, and then explain this to the parents.”

“Good luck,” Laura called out as she settled behind the steering wheel.

It wasn’t how I planned on this day going, but it was step towards figuring out who the fuck was targeting Laura.

Or me.

Maybe both of us.

Chapter Twenty

Laura

“Are you sure you’re all right, Kristy? No offense, but you still don’t look that great.” Her skin was pale and the dark purple crescents under her eyes were the most obvious indicators of her lingering sickness, but she’d lost a few pounds recently too. I felt guilty for not noticing sooner, but the drive by shooting at the community center a few days ago had thrown me. “Talk to me.”

Kristy smiled, but it didn’t reach her usually lively and expressive eyes. “I’m fine. At least I will be. I think. I hope.”

My heart skidded to a stop at the uncertainty of her words. “What does that even mean?”

“It means I suspect it may be something other than a simple cold, but I don’t have any answers yet. When I have some, you’ll be the first to know. Promise.”

I stared at Kristy for a long time, and the longer I stared, the more I noticed. She hadn’t washed her hair in more than a few days and her scrubs were wrinkled, which wouldn’t be unusual for a nurse except Kristy kept her scrubs clean and her hair styled because she always said Mr. Right could land on her exam table just as easily as a bar. “Yeah, okay, but I expect updates even if there’s nothing to know.”

“Fine, Mom.” Her smile was a little brighter this time, so I let it go. For now. “Good to see you back at work,” she said, and rolled her wrist for me to fill her in.

“After all that happened, I was too unfocused and figured I needed to take some time off.” I’d wanted to take longer, but after three days the guilt had gotten to be too much. Plus, there’d been no other incidents, and I couldn’t hide out forever.

She arched an eyebrow and leaned forward. “And how did you spend these days off? On your back, I hope.”

I rolled my eyes, but I couldn’t stop the flush that crept up my skin. “And my knees. And on top.”

“Oh. My. God. It’s about damn time! Tell me everything!” She laughed and the sparkle returned to her eyes as I told her about what had been happening with Hawk and me. “So you’re, like, dating for real now, right?”

I exhaled deeply. “That is a question I don’t have an answer for. It feels like it at times, but he hasn’t said anything and I haven’t either, so who knows?” I couldn’t deny how much it bothered me not to know what was going on with us. “But with the constant state of danger,” I leaned forward and looked around to make sure we were alone, “Like the fucking drive by shooting at the community center. It feels odd to ask at the moment. Right?”

“It’s never wrong to talk about your feelings, but yeah, you don’t want him distracted while he’s keeping you safe either.” Kristy sighed and took a half-hearted bite of her sandwich. “I need you to stay alive.”

“Nurse Carpenter, the police would like a word with you.” Dr. Lipski scowled from his position in the doorway of the nurses’ breakroom, as if taking a step further might somehow weaken his medical prowess.

“Oh. Okay. Thanks, Dr. Lipski.”

His lips pursed in disapproval. “You should really take care to handle personal matters on your own time.”

“Thanks,” I sniped back. “But if you ever dealt with patients, you’d know that sometimes the injuries that land them in the ER require police intervention.” I stood abruptly and walked to the door, sizing him up before I brushed past him.

“Wait up,” Kristy called, and joined me in the hall. “He’s such an asshole. Why are the cops coming to see you here? Do you think it’s about the drive by thing? Oh, what if they know who the guys are who killed that baker?”

“I have no idea, and guessing won’t lessen my anxiety.” Neither would burying my head in the sand. But the minute we turned the corner, I saw the cop who was definitely not here to question me about a police matter. “Fucking shit,” I whispered under my breath. “Stay with me.”

“I got your back, Laura.”

---