Chapter Seven

Link

The hospital was quiet and so was Eagle, which wasn’t unusual.

Other than one grumbling complaint when movement returned to his limbs, Eagle hadn’t said another word about the ride to get checked out.

Maybe the hospital was a bit much, but Link wasn’t taking any chances. He leaned against the wall inside of the hospital room while the ER doc checked out Eagle’s heart, lungs, and the burns on his chest from the taser.

He should have been right there with Eagle when the man had been jumped. It was his job to have Eagle’s back.

Only he’d been too pissed off to wait.

Maybe pissed off wasn’t the right word, maybe it was his need to get away from the raging desire that consumed him when Eagle was around. Maybe, maybe not. It didn’t matter why…

His fucking temper had almost cost Eagle his life.

This hadn’t been the first time one of them had been injured during a mission or job, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. Only, this time was different; this time, he’d fucked up by leaving his partner.

He rubbed at his chest and bounced one leg, and as the doctor was talking to Eagle, Link pulled out his cell phone and made the call. When the doctor tossed him an irritated look, Link glared. Fuck stepping out of the room to make a phone call, he wasn’t going anywhere.

Detective Wall answered on the second ring and Link filled the guy in about the incident. The detective promised to have a patrol car at the site within half an hour.

Next, Link called Ace, and when the man answered, Link sighed.

“What’s wrong?” Ace said, concern clear in his tone.

“Eagle got tased.”

Ace went quiet and Link could only imagine what he was thinking.

“What happened?” Ace’s voice turned even, kind of flat-like.

“We had perps revisit the crime scene. I left Eagle and went inside. I didn’t have his back, so this is my fault,” he admitted, running a hand through his hair in frustration.

“Do I need to relieve you from your post?” Ace growled.

“No. It won’t happen again.” He’d fucked up. Not having Eagle’s back would never happen again.

“All right. Keep me informed.”

“I will.”

“And Link?”

“Yeah?”

“I trust you. You know that, right?”

Link swallowed past the lump in his throat. “I know. Thanks, boss.” When Ace ended the call, Link shoved his phone back into his pocket and resumed listening to the conversation between Eagle and the ER doc.

“Everything is fine. You may get a headache and it’ll take a bit to clear up any brain fog. Expect shakiness for the next hour,” the doctor said, placing the stethoscope around his neck.

Eagle nodded and slowly buttoned his shirt, covering the hair on his muscled chest. The doc nodded to Link on his way out the door, but Link didn’t look away from Eagle. Fingers that looked as calm as you please buttoned his shirt and he slid slowly from the bed. Lifting his wallet and keys from the table, Eagle shoved those into his pockets.

Eagle didn’t say a word of how he felt, he just acted like they could pick up and go back to work. It was fucking infuriating, and Link took a deep breath to calm his nerves.

“You ready?”

Only when Eagle spoke did Link move his eyes from the man’s frame to hold his gray eyes.

“Are you?” Link countered.

“Always.” Eagle gave him a crooked smile that flipped his stomach.

Link snorted to cover his fluster and the lump growing in his throat…he spun toward the door to hide what he was sure was a tortured gaze.

Eagle was there before he could pull the door open, crowding up behind him. Link felt the power coming from Eagle even though an inch of space still separated them. Eagle’s hands pressed flat to the closed door on either side of his head. Link focused on the veins running beneath the skin on those big, strong hands and forearms.

“Link.”

“What?” he said to the white metal door; they couldn’t cross this line again, not until—

“This isn’t your fault.”

On that point, Eagle knew him too well, but that was actually bullshit. Eagle could have been killed while he had been stewing inside that fucking building. If he hadn’t come back outside…he cut himself off from finishing the thought.

“From now on, you stick to me like glue,” Link growled to the door.

Eagle sank against his back and Link pressed against the door, panting, and his cock jerked. The mouth nosing through the hair at his nape almost had him coming in his jeans.

“I’m okay,” Eagle breathed.

“I don’t care,” he lied. “You stay with m—”

The door gave way when someone tugged from the other side, and Link almost fell through; he righted himself and Eagle put distance between them.

Jordan’s eyebrows shot up and then he gazed past Link to Eagle. “You good?”

“Yup,” Eagle drawled gruffly.

Link stepped out into the hall and sucked in several much-needed breaths. He squared his shoulders when Creed, Owen, and Ice snapped up from chairs down the hall.

“Where the fuck were you!” Link snarled, walking right up to Ice. The man’s gaze remained unreadable. Link didn’t give a shit. Ice had come with Eagle, so why hadn’t the guy had his back? He knew he was being unreasonable, but he didn’t fucking care.

“Link,” Owen cut in, placing a hand on his shoulder so he couldn’t lunge forward. “He was with me going through evidence. Like you ordered.”

“Fuck.” Link hissed and jerked away from Owen.

This was his own fault and Link was going to have to own it.

“Sorry,” he told Ice gruffly.

“No problem.” The man’s eyes studied him as if he could see behind the reason for his intense anger and Link turned away.

“Let’s move it,” he ordered, not looking back as he strode toward the discharge desk.

It was a quiet group who walked across the hospital parking lot and Link was glad for it.

He needed the quiet in order to get a fucking grip. He and Eagle had always bounced sparks off each other, but over the past several months, it had moved off the Richter scale.

It all had to do with a kiss.

As much as they had flirted and cared for each other through the years, they’d never crossed the line until that fucking kiss.

Not too long ago, they’d talked about moving from friendship to lovers and had sealed the deal with a kiss.

That was the exact moment everything had gone to hell. Now? Link thought enough time had passed that they should probably hash it out.

But right then…he wasn’t ready to disrupt the tentative truce they’d called.

Ice borrowed one of the SUVs, which had Owen, Creed, and Jordan crowding in with him and Eagle.

“It was a teenager,” Eagle said when the doors shut.

Link turned the ignition but didn’t put the vehicle in Drive. “Who?”

“The attacker.”

“No.” Link frowned. “The guy who shot you with the stun gun was an adult male.”

“Not that one, the other one,” Eagle said, rubbing at his forehead.

“What other one? I only saw the one with the stun gun. Fucker got away before I could kill him,” Link muttered, his voice dark.

“A bit drastic, don’t you think?” Jordan snarked. “A bullet for a zap?”

Link stared at Jordan through the rearview mirror until the younger man looked away. Link pulled out of the parking lot and merged into the late-night traffic.

“Trust me, there were two,” Eagle said.

How the fuck had Link missed that? Shit. All he could remember was catching Eagle and wanting to murder someone.

“You think it’s gang related?” Owen said from the back seat.

“Could be,” Link murmured, because he trusted Eagle, and if his partner said there were two men, then there were two. He shot another look at Jordan. “Did you see anyone board that bus at the same time as Scabb? Or buy a ticket at the same time?”

“I wasn’t looking for an accomplice. Easy enough to check.” Jorden gestured to his laptop case.

“I’m fucking starving,” Creed grumbled.

“I could eat,” Eagle said.

Link smirked and made a U-turn, backtracking to an all-night diner he’d seen leaving the hospital. His team grabbed onto doors and whatever they could when the SUV lurched and tires squealed—Link cackled.

“Ass,” Owen gasped, and Eagle’s laughter filled the vehicle.

“Where did Ice take off to?” Link asked, and he met Owen’s eyes in the rearview mirror.

“He said he had an errand to run,” Owen said, looking away.

Link didn’t believe Owen, but he left it there and made a mental note to follow up with another apology.

The all-night diner’s cracked and cratered parking lot held three cars and a big rig parked off to the side, and Link took a spot near the front door.

“Oh man, I want pancakes,” Jordan said as they entered the faded mauve-colored building with glass front windows that stretched the length of the structure.

“Sugar will cloud your brain,” Owen muttered.

“Maybe your brains, not mine.” Jordan shot the man an annoyed look.

“Waffles sound good to me.” Creed snickered and Owen squinted at the pair.

“Suit yourselves.”

Settled in a large booth, they had coffees, waters, and food in no time.

Jordan had eventually opted for an omelet, and the younger man ignored the look of pride from Owen. Instead, Jordan opened up the laptop that was never far from him. Within a few clicks, he had the video up and the ticket sales list from the bus station on that day.

“Nope. No tickets were bought at the same time, and nobody boarded that bus with him,” Jordan said around a bite of bacon.

“Maybe he came back for that guy,” Link mused out loud.

“So, check the video of the bomb site and see if you can see anyone else on there. Maybe the crowd afterward.”

That was one good thing about the Bakersfield police, they were fucking thorough. They’d filmed the Lookie-loos after the bombing and all that day.

“Wall does have his shit together,” Jordan agreed. “But I have no way to know if the other guy was there. What did he look like?”

Eagle stared blankly at Jordan for a moment and then took a swallow of coffee. “He rushed out and hit me in the chest with the taser. He wore a mask, but I’d say six feet three, a bit bigger than a medium build, but not muscular.”

“Okay, I’ll look for that body type.” Jordan smiled.

Hopefully, they’d get a break and find this son of a bitch because Link had a fucking bone to pick.

Nobody, but nobody fucked with Eagle and got away with it.

Well, minus himself, of course.