Page 72 of Montana Manhunt

“Oh, man.” He growled. “I love this jacket.”

“At the moment, so do I. The jacket protected your back. Want to find a pair of leather pants to wear?”

He snorted. “Forget it. I can’t imagine anything worse to restrict movement. I need to be on my feet, Violet.”

“Hold your horses, buddy. You have a piece of metal sticking out of your calf.”

“So yank it out and slap a Band-Aid on it. We’re sitting ducks out here.” He grimaced. “Well, laying ducks.”

She grinned. “Give me a minute.”

“Hurry.”

“Yeah, yeah. That’s what you all say.”

Violet opened her mike bag, tugged on a pair of rubber gloves, and pulled out supplies to patch the worst injury. She ripped the pants to have better access to the wound and scowled. The metal was lodged deep in the muscle. “This is going to hurt.”

“Don’t care. Just do it. I have to be on my feet so I can protect the rest of you.”

She hoped he still felt the same way in a few minutes. Violet readied her supplies and tugged on a pair of rubber gloves. After cleaning around the wound, she tossed aside the soiled wipe, pressed down on his calf, and gripped the metal. “On three. One,” she said and removed the piece of metal sticking out of Grant’s calf.

Grant grunted. “Lady, you can’t count.”

Violet quickly cleaned the wound and taped it closed. “Didn’t want you to tense up on me.”

The operative glared. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you enjoyed that.”

“I’ll never tell.” A moment later, she shoved the medical detritus into a plastic bag and dumped it into her mike bag to deal with later. “No running a marathon, but you can stand and maneuver at least. It will hurt, though.”

Grant scrambled to his feet, swayed a moment, then steadied himself with a little help from Rayne. He inclined his head toward Noah. “Patch him up fast, Vi. We need to get out of here.”

Violet was already on her knees beside Noah, assessing the injuries to his body. Too many for her to handle on her own. She’d have to deal with the mangled steel sticking out of histhigh in order to move him. The rest would wait until he was in the emergency room at the hospital.

No, he wouldn’t like it, but that was tough. Her man had too many pieces of shrapnel embedded in his body. If she missed a piece, the wound would become infected and cause further damage. That wasn’t happening on her watch.

After ripping the material of his pant leg further, she yanked off her soiled gloves and tugged on a fresh pair. She cleaned the area around the wound, tossed aside the soiled wipe, and laid her hand on his leg. “Ready, Noah?”

He gave a slight nod.

Without giving him a chance to prepare, Violet grasped the piece of metal in Noah’s thigh and tugged it free.

Noah groaned as blood spilled from the wound. Sweat beaded on his pale face.

Violet worked quickly to staunch the blood flow and bandage his thigh. When she finished, she said, “Let’s get him into the SUV. Backseat, face down. Grant, once Noah’s set, you need to lie down in the back on your stomach.”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re not,” she snapped. “Do it or you’ll be getting a ride to the ER in an ambulance.”

“Grant.” Noah looked at his teammate.

The other man scowled. “Fine, but I’m doing it under protest. I can’t watch for trouble in that position.”

“I’ll keep watch.” Rayne squeezed his hand and released him. “Come on. Let’s get this done so we can leave. Someone is watching us.”

A snort. “Several people are watching us.”

“At least one of them isn’t friendly.”

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