“Okay, fine. Let’s do this.”
And just like that, instinct took over. I whirled, rushing to the sink and soaping my hands off before I started yanking things out of drawers—gauze, bandages, antiseptic wash, a scalpel. I turned at the sound of Landon tearing Caleb’s t-shirt away, moving towards them both with the syringe of morphine in my hands.
“Okay, I’m going to give him something for the pain—”
“No.”
I gasped, glancing down to see Caleb’s eyes half-open with unconsciousness fighting to take a hold.
“No meds,” he croaked, his eyes flashing brilliant blue.
I stared down at him on the table.
“Okay, yeah, I get it, you’re tough. But trust me, you’re going to need—”
“No,” Caleb hissed again, groaning in pain, his eyes burning fiercely as he held my gaze and shook his head. “No fucking drugs. No painkillers.”
I stared at him before glancing at Landon.
“He’s joking, right?”
“Sober,” Caleb croaked out again, grunting as a fresh gush of blood leaked from his bullet wound. “I’m sober.” His eyes held mine though, unblinking and looking into me in this way that stole my breath away.
“Do it, doc, please. No painkillers though.”
I glanced at Landon again, who nodded grimly. “He’s good.”
I swore, swallowing again as I put the syringe down and reached for the scalpel.
“Look, this is…” I bit my lip, looking Caleb in the eye.
“This is really, really going to hurt.”
“Hang on, doc,” he groaned, beckoning me closer.
“What is it?”
“Closer.”
I bent down, leaning over him, when suddenly, his hand was on my cheek. And before I knew it, his perfect, soft, demanding lips were pressed to mine as he kissed me deeply, taking my breath away.
My pulse skipped, my entire body trembling in shock and pleasure and confusion before suddenly, he pulled back, dropping back down to the metal table, a sleepy grin on his chiseled, handsome face.
“Shit, that’s all the painkiller I need.”
I stared at him, my pulse racing and my eyes wildly darting over his face as he sank back into the table with a groan.
I glanced at Landon. “Hold him?”
He nodded, his thick arms flexing as he grabbed Caleb’s shoulders and pinned him to the operating table.
I moved back into position, my pulse still racing from everything as I picked up the scalpel and took a deep breath.
“Okay, let’s do this.”
2
Landon
The adrenaline was still roaring through my veins like a drug. My hands were still clenching and my eyes still flicking around wildly, but when they finally rested on the sleeping form of my best friend, I took a breath.
He’s going to be okay.
Kennedy was good at what she did, I’ll say that. Granted, I knew she was used to a little more fur, and things that fly, slither, or run around on four legs, but that hadn’t seemed to hold her back one bit when she’d been hunched over my buddy pulling a bullet out of his side. He was patched up now, wiped out from the shooting and then from holding it in as best he could, muscling through the pain while I held him down and Kennedy pried the slug from him.
I shoved my fingers through my dark hair, glancing once more through the doors back into the operating room at my friend before turning. My eyes slid to Kennedy then, her back to me as she finished sanitizing her equipment. She reached for a shelf, her lithe body stretching as she moved onto her toes. Her thin t-shirt pulled up from the waist of her shorts, giving me teasing, jaw-clenching glimpse of her bare midriff. I swallowed, growling to myself as I let my eyes drop down to her ass.
…Fuck me, that ass.
Kennedy’s ass may well have been the first thing I ever noticed about her. It’d been almost year ago now when Caleb and I had first laid eyes on her. We’d been helping our buddy Stone escort Jackie’s little girl Brooke back to Blackthorn for safety when Jackie’s crooked cop of an ex was trying to hunt them down. Kennedy was Jackie’s sister, who’d been watching Brooke.
And fuck. One look, and I was done.
I glanced through the doors at my buddy lying there on the table and shook my head.
…I wasn’t the only who’d been done with one look at Kennedy.
Big blue eyes that screamed both innocence and mischief. A smile that slayed me. Long auburn hair that lit some kinda fire inside of me. A body to fucking kill for. Legs for days, hips that begged to be held.
And of course, that ass that could make the dead hard. I watched her there in the clinic, bending at the waist to put some supplies away. And even with all the shit I’d gone through that night, with my best friend almost dying in that shootout we’d been in, I could still feel my cock throb at the sight of that sweet little ass in those tight jean shorts.