Mica. The fist of terror crushing Flynn’s chest eased. Mica sounded royally pissed off. She’d never heard anything sweeter. “Mica? Mica!”

“Flynn!”

Flynn ran toward the sound and Mica broke free, stumbling toward her. Flynn braced herself and Mica crashed into her arms. Pain raged through her chest, but she wrapped her arms around Mica and held her close. “Are you hurt?”

“No.” Mica’s hands flew over Flynn, tracing her shoulders, her chest, her sides. “Did that motherfucker stick you?”

“I’m okay.” Flynn winced when Mica squeezed her right side.

“Like hell you are.” Mica searched the faces of the officers milling about, her arm around Flynn’s waist. “Yo, you guys! Over here. She’s the one who needs a medic. I think her ribs are broken.”

Bri stepped out of the crowd. “You’re both going to the clinic. Once you’ve been seen to, I’ll get your statements.”

Another cruiser screeched to a halt in the street, a door slammed, and Reese Conlon strode down the alley. She took one look at Flynn and Mica, then turned to Bri. “Do we have the assailant?”

“Negative,” Bri said. “We were here maybe a minute or two tops after this all went down. A civilian walking by heard someone yell for police and hit nine-one-one. We were ten-seven at the Wired Puppy. Two seconds sooner and we would’ve had him.”

Reese’s cool gaze slid over Mica and Flynn. “Looks like you got here in time.”

More sirens, the crackle of radios, and the alley quickly filled with paramedics and more officers. EMTs from the night crew pushed a gurney toward Flynn and Mica.

“Who’s first?” a short muscular blonde asked, staring at Flynn in concern. “God, Flynn, are you all right?”

“Yeah. I’ll walk, Chris,” Flynn said.

“Like hell you will.” Mica pointed at the EMT. “Her ribs are broken. She needs to ride.”

“You heard the lady, Flynn,” Chris said, taking Flynn’s arm and leading her to the stretcher. “No use fighting us all.”

Flynn gave in. Her legs were about to give out. When she tried to lie back, pain shot through her chest and she felt something pop. She groaned.

“What is it?” Mica said sharply. “Where are you hurting?”

“I think the cartilage is separated,” Flynn said, gritting her teeth. “It hurts like hell but the ribs aren’t broken.” She raised her hand and Mica took it. Mica’s knuckles were scraped and bloody. “You sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah,” Mica said her expression closing down. “I’m just great.”

“You’ve got blood on your shirt,” Flynn said gently, her stomach twisting.

“Yeah.” Mica glanced down as she walked along beside the stretcher. “It’s not mine, though. Asshole had a switch. Now he doesn’t.”

Chapter Sixteen

Allie awoke disoriented, unsure if it was morning or night. The buzz of her cell phone vibrating on the bedside table reminded her of a swarm of angry wasps, and she resisted the urge to slap at the air. She searched in the dark for a touchstone and found it in Ash’s warm body pressed against her back. In an instant she remembered climaxing with Ash inside her, falling asleep with Ash in her arms. She knew where she was, who she was, and she groped for her phone. “Tremont.”

“Hey,” Bri said. “Sorry to get you up, but I thought you’d want to know someone jumped Flynn and another girl tonight.”

“Is Flynn all right?” Allie pushed up in bed and Ash, waking instantly, wrapped an arm around her waist. “What happened?”

“Not sure yet. We’re on the way to the clinic right now.”

“The girl…Hispanic, early twenties, about five-seven, black hair, brown eyes?”

“Sounds right. That the one?”

“Yeah. I’ll be there in ten.”

“Roger that.”

Allie disconnected and shoved the covers aside. “I have to go in. Sorry.”

Ash clicked on the lamp on her side of the bed. “What’s going on?”

“That was Bri. Flynn and Mica—the woman I told you about—were assaulted. That’s all I know.” Allie grabbed a pair of jeans off the shelf in the closet. Her hands were shaking.

“How bad?”

“I don’t know. Damn it. I knew something was going on. Tell me this is a coincidence.” Allie yanked a shirt off a hanger. “If I’d questioned her the way I wanted to instead of waiting for the damn computer checks, I might have—”

“Hey.” Ash’s hands came down on Allie’s shoulders, and she drew Allie back against her chest. Ash kissed her temple. “Facts first, right?”

Allie took a breath and gave herself a second to let Ash’s calm strength settle her. She didn’t usually get emotional where work was concerned. If Ash was hurt, yeah, her world tilted. Flynn was a friend—okay, a little more than a friend; the exact definition escaped her—but that still didn’t explain why she felt so guilty. “I feel like this is my fault, somehow. Like I should know what’s going on and I don’t.”

“Babe,” Ash murmured, turning Allie to face her. “You’re doing all you can do. Go find out what’s going on and take it from there. You’re a good cop. Better than you should be for someone your age.”

Allie laughed and slugged Ash softly in the shoulder with her fist. “Don’t go pulling that older and wiser crap on me.”

Ash grinned. “Well, as soon as you get your temper up, you start thinking more clearly.”

Allie kissed Ash hard on the mouth. First she’d make sure Flynn was all right, then she’d find out who Mica really was, and she wouldn’t stop digging until she had the answers she wanted. “I love you.”

“Same here. Take it easy out there, okay?”

“I always do.”

*

The back doors of the medic unit opened, and Mica looked out on the same parking lot she’d seen before. The same clinic, only lit tonight by floods at the corners of the roof and over the door. She was strapped to the same stretcher, but this time she was awake and Flynn was on a stretcher across from her. A lot more police cars pulled in around them than the first time too.

Her chest seized. This was bad. She’d gotten away the last time before she’d been asked questions she couldn’t answer, but she wasn’t so sure she could do that again. Too many cops and a lot more questions. Then there was Flynn. She turned her head, peering around the blond EMT who was bent over Flynn in the tight space, organizing the lines and tubes and monitors attached to her. Flynn had a plastic collar Velcroed around her neck, an IV in her arm, and a bunch of wires attached to her chest. Her eyes were open, but in the flat yellow light of the ceiling dome, she looked dead. Dead people got this look about them—their eyes stopped shining the second their soul, or whatever it was inside them, disappeared.

Mica’s heart hammered hard against the inside of her ribs.

“Flynn?” Mica wet her dry lips. “Flynn, are you okay?”

Flynn’s eyelids flickered and she turned her head a tiny bit until the collar stopped her. “Yeah. You?”

“Good. I’m good.” Mica got her breath back and the pain around her heart lessened. “I’m sorry.”

“Why? Did you kick me?” Flynn’s voice was hoarse, lower than it usually was.

“You know what I mean.”

“I do, and there’s no reason for you to be sorry.” Flynn raised the hand that wasn’t strapped down and tugged at the collar on her neck. “Come on, Chris, I don’t need this. It’s driving me crazy.”

“Sorry, Flynn,” Chris said. “You know the drill. It looks like somebody played soccer with your head. The immobilizer stays on until Tory says it can come off.”

The male paramedic who’d been driving climbed into the back, and Mica gripped the stretcher for the trip into the clinic. The medics took Flynn out first.

“I want to go with her,” Mica called. “Let me out. I don’t need to be—”

Chris knelt by her side. “You’ll be inside in just a second. She’s in good hands. Nobody’s going to let anything happen to Flynn.”

“Yeah, sure.” Mica knew better. No one was ever safe. Anything could happen to Flynn, and no one would tell her.

*

Tory heard familiar footsteps coming down the hall outside her office. She didn’t have to see Reese’s face to know that was her. Reese might be a cop now, but she walked like a marine. Sharp, steady, perfectly even steps, as if she always knew her destination and never wavered. Warm heat flooded through Tory’s chest. The thing she loved best about Reese was how steady she always was. How sure and strong. Even when she was hurt and frightened, Reese never wavered.

“Incoming,” Reese said from the doorway.

“I heard the sirens. How bad?”

“Both walking wounded. I’ll leave the rest up to you.” Reese leaned against the doorway, her brow faintly furrowed. “You didn’t get much sleep. How are you feeling?”

Tory smiled. “Is this the first of the million times you plan to ask me that in the next nine months?”

Reese’s brows drew down further. “Try two million.”

Tory laughed. “I’m fine. If you’ll remember the last time, I—”

“I remember, Tor,” Reese said darkly.

Tory came around her desk and motioned Reese in. “Close the door.”

Reese pulled the door closed, and when she met Tory in the middle of the room, Tory pressed her palms to Reese’s chest and kissed her. “I’ve only got a second. I know you remember the last time. You remember how it ended. Try to remember how exciting it was, how miraculous, to feel the baby kick the first time, and think about Reggie and all she’s given us. I’m going to be fine. Promise me you’ll try not to worry.”

Reese slid her hand around the back of Tory’s neck and tugged her closer. “I can’t promise that. But I can promise I’ll enjoy every second of this pregnancy.”

“Well, maybe not the morning sickness part. I won’t ask that of you.” Tory kissed her again and stepped away. “I’ve got to go.”

“I’ll wait. I’ll need statements from them.”

“I’ll let you know as soon as you can see them.” Tory went into the hall and met Chris Connelly, one of the local EMTs, outside treatment room one. Another EMT was assisting a patient in treatment room two. “Which one first?”

“This one,” Chris said, indicating the room behind her. “The patient in two is stable—a few lacerations and abrasions, some blunt force trauma to her neck, but none of it looks too serious. Her vital signs are stable, no loss of consciousness.” She grimaced. “Flynn, on the other hand, took a beating. She was disoriented at the scene, but no documented loss of consciousness. She’s got a significant contusion on her right temple and localized right rib tenderness. Possibly fractures.”

“All right, I’ll start with her. Can one of you stay with the other patient just to be sure she remains stable?”

“Yeah, I’ll radio base we’re not available for calls until you give us the go-ahead.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it. I can wake Nita up, but by the time she gets here, I’ll probably have a chance to look at both of them.”

“No problem,” Chris said.

Tory walked over to Flynn and picked up the clipboard on the bottom of the bed. She scanned it quickly. Vital signs were all normal, although her pulse was rapid and her blood pressure high. An area over her right temple and cheekbone was swollen and discolored. She leaned down and squinted at the area. Not a fist. A shoe, most likely. Anger simmered but she pushed the distracting fury aside and rested her hand on Flynn’s wrist. Her pulse was bounding. Stress, fear, pain. “How are you feeling?”

“Not bad.” Flynn’s voice was reedy and thin.

“Show me where your chest hurts,” Tory said as she fit her stethoscope to her ears. Flynn covered an area on her lower right side, and Tory avoided the spot as she moved her stethoscope over Flynn’s lung fields. Breath sounds were present, but depressed. Flynn obviously wasn’t taking a deep breath. She set her stethoscope aside and pushed Flynn’s shirt up. A five- by eight-inch area over her right lower rib cage was mottled purple. She gently palpated the area, and Flynn stiffened, trying unsuccessfully to hide a wince. Tory didn’t feel any crepitus from air in the tissue or grating from shattered bone ends grinding together, but the degree of Flynn’s pain suggested a fracture. “We’ll need to X-ray you.”

“Have you seen Mica yet?”

“The other patient?”

“Yes.”

“Not yet. Mica. Wait a minute. The girl who was hit while riding her bicycle?”

“Yes, that’s the one.”

Tory made a few notes on the clipboard. Red flags were waving from every corner. “That’s a pretty unlucky coincidence.”

“The driver of the van was from up-Cape,” Flynn said slowly. “This guy wasn’t from around here. Not related, I don’t think.”

“Well, you don’t need to figure it out for me. Reese will be talking to you in a little while. What we need to do now is get you X-rayed.”