Always Crew

But Channing didn’t speak. He was waiting for Brock’s answer.

A slight growl in frustration came from him. “We kept your sister out of the loop for her sake. We didn’t want to put her in a potentially harmful position. After a brief exchange when we first hired her, we’ve not asked her about the Red Demons again, but since you’re here and since we got a tip that the Red Demons are more focused on our team than normal, I need to know everything you know.”

“Then you know more than I do.”

“Is your father coming here to watch us, or is he coming here for his daughter?”

Channing didn’t respond.

Moose finished placing his cheese on his sandwich and looked over his shoulder to his own boss.

I was waiting myself.

Finally, Channing said, “I can’t answer that.” His gaze found mine, and he almost looked apologetic. “He’s been on an apology tour lately. He’s going to come and apologize to you. That’s all I can say about his intentions.”

“So he’s already here.” That came from my boss.

Channing said to me, “He wants to have dinner with us. You and me.”

Moose finished putting his sandwich together and turned around, holding it on a plate. He beamed. “Good old Derrick Monroe doesn’t know that I’m coming along.”

I hid a grin, but my head was swimming. Some of the adrenaline was wearing off from my tackle. The aches and the cuts on my hand from where I fell into the shrubbery were starting to throb. A wave of exhaustion rolled over me.

“Yeah. That sounds good.”

My tone came out meek, and I cursed because everyone’s attention went high at that.

Channing stepped forward. “You okay?”

My head was pounding, and I remembered that the jump had barreled into me, slamming me to the ground first. That side where he got me was throbbing. I raised a hand up to my face, cupping my cheek and hissed. “Bren?”

Shetland remarked, “She took a hit before she took the guy down.”

Hawk cursed, putting her coffee down. She moved to me, throwing Shetland a nasty look. “And you’re saying this now?”

He shrugged. “She said she was fine. She tackled him, for God’s sake.”

The room started moving around me. I blinked, trying to slow it down, but it went faster and faster.

“She might have a concussion.” That sounded like Channing. “Where’d she get hit?”

Another voice, this one sounding like Brock said, “I’d guess where she’s holding herself. Bren, you need to go to the hospital?”

Moose snickered. Or I thought it was Moose. “Dude, you so don’t know the Monroes.”

Someone moved toward me. Two people moved toward me.

A hand on my shoulder, that one felt soft, feminine.

Another took my arm, and they were bending in front of me. “Bren.” It was my brother. I kept blinking, trying to slow the room down, but it wasn’t working. He lowered his voice even more, concern edging in. “Do you have to go in?”

I grasped onto his arm and held firm. Maybe he could stop the room.

I was starting to feel nauseous.

Whatever I had in my stomach was coming up. Fast.

“She’s pale.”

My mouth clamped tight. I wasn’t going to throw up. Everything would be fine. This was not a big deal, not a deal at all. Definitely not big.

Channing’s hand grew tighter on me. “I gotta take her, just to be safe.”

Hawk said, “I’ll come with you. She’ll want another girl with her.”

She didn’t know me, but that thought was brief and fleeting, and why was my head hurting so bad?

I heard someone else snort. “She doesn’t know that Monroe either.”

I was being walked across the room, then led outside.

There was conversation happening behind me, but I couldn’t make out the individual voices or what they were saying. I was only aware of being led out into the sun, blinking and hissing, and feeling nauseous all over again. Then I was in a truck, my brother’s. I recognized the smell of bullets and coffee, and behind me I felt a dip in the truck.

The door opened.

Hawk scooted in, taking the side by the window. I was in the middle.

Channing came around, getting behind the wheel, and then Hawk gave us directions to the hospital.

After that, everything else just sucked.

CROSS

Jordan and Zellman were right on my heels when we hit the hospital.

I didn’t stop at the front desk. Moose was in the waiting room, and seeing us, he stood and pointed down a hallway. Turning the corner, Channing was at the end. He was standing by a desk, looking around him. Spotting us, he straightened, and a second later, a girl looked down our hallway.

I was guessing that was Hawk, based on Bren’s descriptions of ‘serious badass braids.’ The girl had a side braid going down both sides of her skull and falling close to her waist.

Jordan saw her and slowed down. “Whoa.”