Fracture (Unbreakable Bonds 6)

After nearly an hour with his brother, he wandered over to Snow’s office and waited outside for him to finish his work.

The sound of a door opening had Jude’s head popping up. Snow stood in the open doorway, his coat in his hand and a confused expression on his face.

“How long have you been waiting out here?” Snow asked.

Jude shrugged. “Not long. Maybe five minutes.”

“You know you could have come in.”

Shaking his head, Jude pushed off the wall and gave his general a weary smile. “You were finishing up your charts for the day. I know you. If I’d stopped in, you’d have procrastinated and bitched, taking twice as long.”

“I hate the fucking paperwork,” Snow grumbled. He stepped closer and brushed a quick kiss across Jude’s lips. When they were out in the open at work, they kept the PDA to an absolute minimum, but Jude was not going to turn away a “Hello, I missed you” kiss from Snow.

As they turned toward the elevator, Jude bumped his shoulder against Snow’s. “You make voice recordings of all your notes, and your assistant puts everything into the charts. You’re not actually filling out any paperwork,” he teased.

“Close enough. When I was going through medical school, I was worried about memorizing the names and functions of everything. I was learning life-saving techniques. I didn’t know I was going to spend so much damn time behind a computer keeping insurance companies happy.”

“You saved lives today, General. That’s the important thing.” Jude stopped at the elevator and smiled at his companion. “Besides, you didn’t spend the day in an ambulance with a broken heater.”

“Fuck! I thought they were getting that fixed.”

Jude shrugged. “Apparently it didn’t take. Rebecca kept stealing blankets from the back of the rig to keep warm.” He started to hit the button and stopped. “Do you want to go up and see Jordan before we leave?”

Snow shook his head. “I saw him at the end of my shift before I started my paperwork. His stats are looking a little better. Let’s go home. I need food, sleep, and you…not necessarily in that order.”

They remained silent the rest of the long walk out of the hospital and to the parking lot where Jude had left his Jeep early that morning. The sun hadn’t yet peeked over the horizon when they arrived and was now sinking low as they cut across the cold lot. He doubted Snow had even seen the sun that day as he rushed from one patient to the next. Jude might have been able to soak in a little sunlight, but he’d spent the majority of the day fighting the bitter cold. He was done with winter.

“Did you hear from Rowe today?” Jude asked while they were sitting at a red light.

“He texted me this afternoon. The bastard hasn’t coughed up a name yet,” Snow replied.

It had been two long days since that night at the sex party where Jude had beaten the shit out of Donald Banks and they’d run from the cops. The man was originally charged with three counts of rape and assault.

It was after a long discussion with Carrick that they handed over the copy of the video they had of Jordan’s attack. It had meant another round of questions and a long, painful talk with their mana. They didn’t allow her to see the video, but the details were enough that Snow had felt compelled to give her a mild sedative.

Jude felt like he was betraying Jordan’s privacy by telling both their mother and the cops, but he was more concerned with getting justice for his brother. Donald Banks needed to go to jail for what he did. Fuck, Jude was ready to send the man straight to the chair. For now, he had to be content with the fact that Banks wasn’t running around hurting anyone else.

But it wasn’t enough. Not by a long shot.

The fucker was already claiming that the scene with Jordan was consensual. That Jordan had fucking asked for it, begged for it. He said that all Jordan’s denials and pleading were an act for the camera, but Jude knew better. He knew his brother. Jordan had been terrified and in pain. But until Jordan woke up, they couldn’t get the full story. And there was a good chance that he wouldn’t remember most of what happened to him. While a small blessing for his own recovery, it could mean that Banks would get away with the attack.

They also had zero evidence that Banks had been the one to shoot Jordan. Not that Jude really thought that Donald shot Jordan. No, he was just there to beat and rape his brother. He had a feeling that the person who shot Jordan was the one behind the poker games and the porn site. He wanted to take down that fucker, and he honestly wasn’t sure if simply handing this man over to the cops was going to be enough.