Tattoo (Take It Off #7)(23)
Author: Cambria Hebert

High maintenance. That’s what she was.

“Fine,” I sighed and followed behind them all toward the ambulance. Behind me, the sounds of gunfire erupted, along with some shouting and sounds of a scuffle.

I spun, catching sight of someone sprinting off around the side of the building. It was Snake. He was attempting to flee the scene. Three officers took off after him. I considered running him down myself. I wanted to see him behind bars more than anyone here.

Just as I took a step in his direction, a small, cool hand wrapped around mine. “Please don’t,” she whispered.

I looked down at where she grasped my hand and then back up at her fear-filled face. There was blood smeared on her cheek.

“C’mon,” I said, pulling my hand away to swing my arm over her shoulder. As we walked toward the back of the lit ambulance, I couldn’t help but look back at where Snake disappeared.

“West,” a familiar voice said from behind. It was Mac, my superior and the man who burst in here tonight.

“Timing couldn’t have been better,” I said.

“Well, we wouldn’t have been able to make this bust at all if it wasn’t for you.”

Behind us, one of the EMTs sighed loudly. “Ma’am, we need to get you started on fluid immediately.”

“You are not sticking me with that needle.” Taylor refused.

“Quit being a pain in the ass, Tay,” I called.

She glared at me.

I turned back to the chief. He raised his brow at me. I shrugged. “She’s high maintenance.”

“Are you speaking about my daughter?” someone with a deep voice said from behind.

I spun and glanced at a tall man with salt-and-pepper hair, lines at the corners of his eyes, and dressed in a navy-blue suit complete with a tie.

“Mr. Shaw,” Mac said, stepping forward. “Your daughter is safe. She’s being treated right now.” Mac pointed to where Taylor was sitting in the back of the ambulance.

Mr. Shaw’s eyes glanced over to his daughter but then came quickly back to mine. “Are you the man who kidnapped my daughter?”

“I’m the man that kept her alive.”

His haughty, all-assuming tone did not work on me. Please. I used to live in the ghetto; his suit and money hardly intimidated me.

“Ow!” Taylor howled from behind and I tensed, spinning around, afraid Snake had managed to work his way around the perimeter of the land and come for her.

Snake was nowhere to be seen, but she was sitting in the back of the ambulance sort of hunched over on herself and the EMT was standing over her, scowling.

Like a rubber band stretched way too far, something in me snapped. I stepped around a few people that were milling about and approached where Taylor was sitting inside along a narrow bench that ran the length of the vehicle.

“What’s the matter?” I asked, putting a hand on her shoulder and drawing her upward so I could see what she was hunched around.

The back of her hand was bleeding, a thin rivulet of blood trailing over the thin, pale skin and disappearing around to her palm.

“He stabbed me with a needle!” she accused, glancing at me with wet eyes and then glaring at the man.

Seeing her bleeding yet again really, really pissed me off. Before I could think twice, I plowed into the man, charging him backward and ramming him into the side of the car. I pinned him with my forearm up against the side and looked into his face.

“She’s been shot, kidnapped, and traumatized, and you stab her with a goddamn needle?” I growled.

The man’s eyes widened and I knew I looked rather scary, with my bloody hands and clothes and the wild look I knew was swimming in my eyes. “I didn’t mean to!” he protested. “She wouldn’t hold still.”

“West,” Mac said from right beside me. “What the hell are you doing?”

I blew out a breath and felt some of the initial panic and anger I felt at seeing her blood ebb away. I dropped the man and he collapsed onto his ass on the bench beneath him. “No, fucking bedside manner,” I muttered and strode the short distance toward Taylor.

She was still cradling her hand in her lap, her hair was tangled, her clothes were dirty, bloody, too big and her lips were dry and cracked.

I dropped down on my haunches in front of her and picked through the small kit off to the side. I reached for her hand and she gave it willingly, not even uttering a word of protest. I cleaned off the blood, wiping it away and watching as a bead of fresh new blood welled to the surface. I covered it with a small piece of gauze and then picked up the IV, which the asshole was trying to put in the back of her hand.

“Want me to kiss it and make it better?” I asked softly, speaking only to her. Those jewel-like eyes glanced up away from her hand and fastened onto me.

Without waiting for her reply (like she’d say no), I lifted her hand and pressed my lips near the area I was applying pressure to. Before pulling back, I let my tongue glide over her in a single caress and was rewarded with a spattering of goose bumps racing up her arm.

As I lowered her hand I felt her eyes on me once more and I took advantage of the moment to gently slide the new IV into place.

She winced and I squeezed her fingers. “All done.”

After I tossed aside the bloody gauze, I applied fresh padding and some medical tape to the back of her hand to hold the IV in place. “Don’t move around too much,” I told her. “The more you do, the more it will tug on your skin.”

“Thanks,” she said, giving me a little smile as I returned her hand to her lap. I stood up and, without thinking, leaned down and pressed a kiss to the center of her forehead.

The silence around us seemed rather penetrating so I glanced around. Mac, Mr. Shaw, a couple EMTs, and a few cops were all standing there watching us with their mouths slackened.

“What?” I bellowed. Throats cleared and people started moving around again.

They acted like me being nice was some sort of miracle, like I was usually akin to a caveman with a bad case of monkey butt.

Okay, yeah… that might be accurate.

“Taylor,” Mr. Shaw said, brushing past me like I was some piece of garbage on the street.

“Dad!” she said, and I heard the relief in her tone. I guess if she loved him I would try not to deck him.

“You get them all?” I asked Mac, stepping down from the back of the ambulance.

“All of them but one.”

“Snake is still gone?” I should have gone after him. He was the mind behind this whole thing; he was the one that would do something like this again.