Page 103 of The Honorable Texan
“Why aren’t the sirens going?”Rey wanted to know.“He’s not out of danger yet, surely?”
“They don’t like to run the sirens unless they have to,” Meredith told him.“Some people actually run off the road and wreck their cars because the sirens rattle them.They use the lights, but they only turn on the sirens if they hit heavy traffic and have to force their way through it.Those EMTs,” she added with a smile,“they’re the real heroes and heroines.They do the hardest job of all.”
“You saved Billy Joe’s life,” Jack said huskily, shaking her hand hard.“He’s the best friend I got.Thank you.”
She smiled gently and returned the handshake.“It goes with the job description.Don’t try to keep up with the ambulance,” she cautioned when he went toward Billy Joe’s truck, which still had the key in the ignition.The two men had come together.
“I’ll be careful,” the older man promised.
“Whew!”Leo let out the breath he’d almost been holding, and put up his cell phone.“You’re one cool lady under fire, Meredith.”
She smiled sadly.“I’ve had to be,” she replied.She glanced at Rey, who looked cold and angry as it occurred to him, belatedly, that she’d played him for a fool.“I can see what you’re thinking, but I didn’t actually lie to you.You never asked me exactly what I did for a living.Of course, you thought you already knew,” she added with faint sarcasm.
He didn’t reply.He gave her a long, contemptuous look and turned away.“I’ve lost my taste for practice,” he said quietly.“I want to go on to the hospital and see about Billy Joe.”
“Me, too,” Leo added.“Meredith…?”
“I’ll go along,” she said.“I’d like to meet that resident I spoke with.He’s very good.”
Rey glanced toward her.“You’ll get along.He keeps secrets, too,” he said bitterly, and got behind the wheel.
Leo made a face at Meredith, opening the third door of the big double-cabbed truck so that she could sit inback.He put the gun cases in the boot, in a locked area, and climbed in beside Rey.
* * *
The residentturnedout to be a former mercenary named Micah Steele.He was married to a local girl, and he’d gone back to school to finish his course of study for his medical license.
“I couldn’t very well carry a wife and child around the jungles with me,” Micah told her with a grin.He was tall and big, and not at all bad-looking.She could picture him with a rifle in one arm.But now, in a white lab coat with a stethoscope thrown carelessly around his neck, he seemed equally at home.
“When’s Callie due?”Leo asked.
“Any minute,” he said, tongue-in-cheek.“Can’t you see me shaking?I’m the soul of self-confidence around here, but one little pregnant woman makes me a basket case!”
“Callie’s quite a girl,” Rey agreed, smiling at the big man.
Micah gave him a look.“Yes, and isn’t it lucky for me that you hardly ever went into her boss Kemp’s office for legal advice, while she was still single?”
Rey pursed his lips.“Kemp eats scorpions for breakfast, I hear.I like my lawyers less caustic.”
“Last I heard, the local bar association had you down as a contagious plague and was warning its members to avoid you at all costs,” Micah replied wickedly.
“I never hit any local lawyers.”Rey looked uncomfortable.“It was that Victoria lawyer, Matherson,” he muttered.“And I didn’t even hit him that hard.Hell, he’s lucky I wasn’t sober at the time!Otherwise, he’d have had twice the number of stitches!”
Meredith listened to the repartee with wide, fascinated eyes, but Rey wouldn’t meet her eyes and Micah, too, cleared his throat and didn’t pursue the subject.
“Matherson took a client who accused us of assault,” Leo volunteered.“Cag had hit him, several times, after he got drunk and assaulted Tess, who’s now Cag’s wife.But the bounder swore that he was the injured party, that we falsely accused him and all took turns pounding him.He convinced a jury to award him damages.Not a lot of money,” Leo added solemnly, “but the principle was what set Rey off.He was in a bad mood already and he had a few too many drinks at Shea’s Bar, out on the Victoria road.To make a long story short,” he added with a chuckle, “Matherson was having a quiet beer when Rey accused him of handling the ex-employee’s case for spite because he lost an argument with us over Tess when he was handling her inheritance.Matherson took exception to Rey’s remarks, and the two of them set about wrecking the pretty stained-glass window that used to overlook the parking lot.”
“Used to?”Meredith fished, sensing something ominous.
“Yes, well, Matherson made a rather large hole in it when Rey helped him into the parking lot the hard way,” Leo concluded.
Micah Steele looked as if it was killing him not to burst out laughing.
“He,” Leo jerked his thumb toward Steele, “had to remove quite a number of glass particles from Matherson’s rear end.Andwe got sued again, for that!”
“But the jury, after hearing Kemp’s masterful summation of our grievances,” Rey interrupted, “decided that Matherson was only entitled to the cost of therepair job on his butt.Shea had insurance that replaced the stained-glass window with one of comparable age and exclusivity.”Rey smiled smugly.“And the judge said that if she’d been sitting on the first case, the rat Matherson was representing would have gotten a jail sentence.”
Leo chuckled.“Only because Kemp put Tess on the stand and had her testify about what really happened the night Matherson’s client took her on a date.The jury felt that Rey was justifiably incensed by the former verdict.”He glanced at Meredith wryly.
