Page 28 of Come For Me
Chapter Eleven
Hedlon at least had the good sense to keep his team off Dain as he held his shaky wife. He waited till paramedics arrived to check her over before pissing Dain off.
“Interfering with a police investigation.”
“Good thing I did interfere, Hedlon. I got the hostages out; what did you do?” Livie was brushing back a lock of her shining red hair with a hand that shook. Dain wanted to be over there with her, not talking to this prick.
“You circumvented the rules, put yourself and other civilians in danger, put my men in danger—”
Dain snorted at that. “Your men weren’t even around. They were downstairs waiting on the negotiators to do their job.”
Hedlon took a step toward Dain, the stubborn expression on his face promising trouble. Dain’d had enough. “Don’t do it, Hedlon. Just don’t.” And then, because he knew Jack would expect at least a show of reconciliation, “Look, I understand you’re angry. I can even understand how you might think I ‘circumvented the rules.’” Dain let his gaze flick over Hedlon’s left hand. “You’re married. If your pregnant wife was in a situation like this, would you be waiting outside the perimeter for someone to give permission to go get her? Would you?”
Hedlon hesitated. Eyed Dain. Lips tight, he shook his head.
That’s what I thought, dickhead.
Hedlon didn’t try to stop Dain as he walked toward Livie. He needed his mate in his arms, and he was going to have her. Once he gathered Livie up and turned to sit on the gurney, Livie in his lap, he noticed Hedlon was already gone.
Jack, King, and Saint appeared at the bend of the back hall, directly in Dain’s line of sight, and strolled casually toward them. Dain noticed Jack’s gaze taking in the chaos surrounding them.
Jack raised his eyebrows. “Well, that was a nice mess.”
“Yeah.” King was sporting a black eye Dain would ask him about later. Right now it only slightly obscured his glare at Elliot. “Did you have to discharge your weapon? Do you know how much paperwork that involves?”
Elliot squared off with King, hands on her hips—as if that made her appear any bigger. “Considering the compensation, I don’t think an hour’s paperwork will kill you, big guy. Besides”—she snarled up at him—“you couldn’t have done any better.”
Considering Elliot had injured all of the assailants but Kelly? No, Dain doubted even he could’ve done better.
King laid his hand on Elliot’s head. “Of course I could, little Otter.”
While the rest of them cringed at King’s bravery, Elliot punched the man underneath his arm, knocking his hand off her head and rearranging his unguarded ribs if Dain was any judge of force. When Dain joined in the laughter, his body protested with a multitude of aches and pains.
Guess I’m too fucking old for this.
Except he wasn’t, was he? He and Livie had twenty years of raising children ahead of them. Dain’s team had just been practice.
The thought that his kid would be anything like his team sent a shudder of fear through him. His arms tightened involuntarily on Livie.
Tucking his head down against her neck, he breathed in her scent, absorbed her presence, safe and sound against him. And just like it did every time he was near her, his cock began to firm against her ass, the adrenaline of the fight morphing into something far more satisfying as it pumped through his veins. “Think we could sneak out of here while the children are preoccupied?”
Livie’s chuckle rubbed her body along his, pulling a groan from his chest. “Please.”
“Your wish, wife…” He nipped the tender skin of her neck as he assessed his options. Unfortunately he couldn’t go far—they would be forced to stick around and give statements sometime in the next couple of hours, no doubt. But he could go far enough to give him some privacy with his wife. Settling her gently on the floor next to the gurney, he took her hand in his and led her over to her office.
“Dain?”
He raised a hand to ward off Jack’s inquiry. A faint chuckle said his boss got the point.
“I don’t have the key on me,” Livie pointed out as they stopped in front of her door.
Dain grinned over his shoulder, already digging into his pocket. “That’s okay; I do.” Probing along the seam, he forced the hidden compartment open and retrieved a lock pick Kelly’s goons and the local PD hadn’t found. When he pulled it out, Livie grinned.
“Always prepared.” She shook her head. “You’re better than a Boy Scout.”
“That’s because I’m no boy,” he told her with a quirk of an eyebrow. And then he went to work. Seconds later they were stepping inside.
The closed door cut off the noise of the outer room, cocooning them in quiet and, for now, peace. Livie slumped against it, her eyelids drifting shut. Concern shafted his heart. “Hey.”
