Page 71 of Doing Life

“Are you sure I can’t come?” Lance said.

He could hear jingling over the phone, then Dan said, “I got the keys, man. Let’s go.”

“Yeah. We’ll be there in a minute.” Lance hung up before Sloan could tell him no again.

Sloan shook his head. Blind. Hurt. Not able to drive. Lance was still going to come to his rescue.

That was the cutest goddamn thing he’d ever seen in his entire life.

Sloan didn’t mind being rescued, assuming Lance was doing the rescuing, that was.

“You want a drag?” Leah asked.

He shook his head. “No. Lance doesn’t like how it smells.” He glanced at her, shaking his head. “So. You couldn’t stay out of trouble for one whole day?”

She rolled her eyes at him. “No, I needed something to talk about when I got home.” Her lips twisted. “Mr. Warren always loves it when I come home with stories.” Her cigarette shook just a little bit. “I knew he was trouble when he walked in the door. I should have just hit the emergency button. But nine times out of ten, the asshole guy ends up being someone who just needs something to eat or a minute out of the heat. To be honest, I thought he was gonna steal a Snickers bar and try to get out with maybe a beer.”

“Yeah, well. He would have been smart to have done that. Now he’s done something big enough he’ll do real time for it.”

“He shot at you. I heard it.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “I think you’ve been shot at enough in your life, Sloan.”

“Yes, ma’am. And now I have to do goddamn paperwork. Pardon my French.”

She chuckled. “I speak that language really well.”

The perp was led out, his hands cuffed behind him. Ben winked. “I’ll run him in, but the collar is yours, man.”

“Yeah, I’ll fill out the forms.”

Ben nodded, and Glen came to stand with him as the ambulance and fire truck pulled up. “We took a bunch of evidence pictures. You bag the firearm?”

“Yeah. I did it while I was in the car.” He grabbed the sealed bag and handed it over. “I’ll be in as soon as I get looked at.”

“We’ll wrap it up quick,” Lara said. “I know you were almost off shift.”

“Thanks, guys. I appreciate you.” This was a damn good crew. And he was grateful to be working with them on a day like today.

Chapter Twenty

“Are you all right, man?”

“I’m fine, Dan. Just drive. Just drive.” He wasn’t going to be able to do this. He wasn’t going to be able to let this happen and not go see and touch and know his Sloan was okay.

“I’m serious; this is big. You’ve done a lot of work?—”

He rolled his eyes. “I’m not going to get any less blind. I want to see him, touch him, and make sure he’s okay. I can still clean out a wound as damn near as well as anybody else.”

“I’m just sort of worried about your mental health, man.”

How had he ever thought for a second that Dan and Sloan could date? How dumb was he? “I’m fine. I mean, am I aggravated that Sloan got shot at? Yes. Is there any human being on earth who wouldn’t be aggravated if their lover got shot at? No, not if they’re sane. I’m sane. See, I probably have a sticker or a button somewhere that says sane that I can’t even see. I’m fine. I just want to see him. I want to know he’s all right.”

“All right. What are you going to do in New Mexico when this sort of thing happens?”

“I don’t know, not exactly, but I do know that one of thethings that I can do is hire help.” Some kid whose job it would be to get him around when Sloan was at work. “You know, I’m not stupid, man. I don’t need home health care or nursing care. I need a student or a retired person who’s willing to drive me around when I need to go somewhere. And really, that’s it.”

He was going to go back to school. He wasn’t sure what sort of things he could do. But he thought he could go and figure out his options. He’d already emailed the School for the Blind in Albuquerque. The VA was there in Santa Fe. There was a chance he could become a massage therapist. He had options, and he wasn’t sure exactly what the plan was, but he was beginning to believe there was a possible plan. It would just take a lot of figuring.

He had nothing but time, so he could figure.

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