Page 7 of An Indecent Longing

So he tried to make it easier. “Ben Shaw. Ian Keller sent me.”

The woman’s head snapped around and she stared at him through wide eyes, her mouth open for seconds before she snapped it closed. But her hands never faltered as she applied pressure to the leg of the wounded woman.

“What did you—” She shook her head. “Doesn’t matter. Blank. My bag.”

Ben turned to the big man by her side, but he remained exactly where he was.

“Ian.” Ben knew his cousin hadn’t turned off their comms. “I need a reference.”

“Give your ear piece to Blank.” Ian’s voice practically bit through his link.

Ben dug out his earpiece and handed it over.

The guard stuck it close to his ear and barked, “Keller, what the fuck?” Then he fell silent for several seconds until finally he nodded and handed the ear piece back to Ben.

The big guy stood. “I’ll be back with your bag. You go nowhere without him. You.” He pointed at Ben. “Anything happens to her, you better hope you’re dead.”

Then he took off at a dead run.

“Hands,” she demanded. “Here.”

He obeyed without hesitation, replacing her hands with his on the woman’s leg.

She gave orders with the authority of someone used to having them obeyed. Ben followed every one because she obviously knew what the hell she was talking about.

Doctor, nurse, medic, EMT. Someone in the medical field.

He was betting on doctor. She had that air of earned arrogance that intrigued the hell out of him.

Who was she? How did Ian know her? And why had his cousin been so adamant that Ben stay with her?

Still pressing on the woman’s leg, he watched Dorrie check the woman’s other injuries then move to a man propped against the wall, holding his stomach and moaning. After pressing on various places on the man’s abdomen, she moved to another woman slumped across one of the tables.

Blank hustled back into the room with her bag. She didn’t have to say a word. He’d already opened it for her and she reached inside with sure hands.

Then she went to work with single-minded focus.

She’d apparently already triaged the wounded and was working on the woman she’d found slumped against the table. Ben realized that woman must have been shot in the chest. Blood had soaked through the entire bodice of her light-colored dress.

Dorrie looked almost as bad with blood smeared all over her hands and arms.

The carnage didn’t bother Ben, not after what he’d seen in the service and, later, in the private sector.

Dorrie mesmerized him. Couldn’t take his eyes off her. Her slim fingers worked to save the woman’s life, her concentration scalpel-sharp.

In the distance, he heard sirens approaching. Thirty seconds later, bodies poured into the room. Police, fire, EMTs. Where before there’d only been the sounds of quiet moaning, now there were raised voices as the EMTs shouted at each other.

Dorrie continued to work with steady care.

Ben had been relieved by a pair of EMTs, and he gladly gave up his post to the professionals. It meant he could move closer to Dorrie, where Ian had told him to stay. And not to leave.

She and another EMT were having a rapid-fire discussion when he got within hearing distance. Something about BPs and clots and bleeds followed by a whole lot of jargon.

Stopping next to her guard, Ben leaned closer.

“Is she always like this?” He kept his voice to a level only Blank would hear.

“Yeah. Don’t get in her way. You won’t like her foot in your ass.”

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