Chapter 5

5

F isher woke later in the morning, realized he was in a room at the clinic and was annoyed—again—that he'd been shot. He knew Devlyn was having some of their men help Kira with her investigation, but Fisher wished he would be able to go with her.

Bethany came in to see him and took his vital signs. "Everything looks good."

"Then I can be released?" Fisher asked, hopeful, but suspecting his brother would say no.

Which, as soon as Heath walked into the room, he said, "Nope. If I released you and you remained on bedrest, you would be fine. But you would try to track down the kidnappers with Kira if she gets a lead and takes off and that's not going to happen."

Fisher released his breath in annoyance. He knew his brothers would be going with her, all but Heath who had to stay here for his patients.

"Maybe you can join her later, when you are in good enough shape to return to work," Heath said.

Not only did Fisher want to be one of the ones helping her to catch the kidnappers, he wanted to do it for personal reasons. He wanted to see the kidnappers dealt with after they had tried to kill both Kira and him.

Then Devlyn, Bella, and Kira walked into his room. Kira looked like a ray of sunshine, her red hair shimmering in the morning light, her blue eyes sparkling. "Hey, how are you doing?"

He smiled brightly, feeling so much better to see her. What was up with that? It wasn't like they were dating or anything, but man, every time he saw her, he wanted to see more of her.

"I'm great, but the doctor won't let me out of here."

"If you developed critical issues from being shot because I released you and you were running around searching for criminals, how do you think I would feel?" Heath asked. "It would be on me."

"How about we keep you informed of what we discover? If you can join us, we'll welcome your help," Kira said to Fisher, her voice bright and cheery. She squeezed his hand. "I'll keep in touch. I promise."

"Thanks," he said. But it wouldn't be like being there.

"Do what you need to do to get well. I hope to see you soon."

"Don't catch them before I can help you." He was serious.

She smiled.

Devlyn folded his arms. "Listen to Heath." To Heath, he said, "If he gives you any trouble at all, just call me."

Heath smiled. "I will."

Bella gave Fisher a light hug. "Listen to your brother. You'll see Kira again, I'm sure." Then she, Devlyn, and Kira left the room.

Not long after they left, Tanner and his mate, Serena, came to see Fisher.

Tanner said, "The FBI agents want to talk to you. We've put them off for as long as we could."

"What do I say?" Fisher wasn't sure how to deal with this since he knew the shifters had to capture the men, not the human law enforcement officials.

"Describe them just like you saw them. Kira and Billy did already so there's no sense in saying anything differently," Tanner said. "Though if you did describe them differently, I'm sure they would understand because of all the pain and suffering you had gone through."

"Okay."

"About Kira," Tanner said.

"What about Kira?" Fisher hadn't meant to sound so annoyed. He so wanted to be with her on her mission.

"I spoke with Vaughn about her."

"Vaughn?" Fisher's brother totally lost him with the comment.

"Yeah, you know, because he works with her. So he told me that as a young girl, she was kidnapped, so a case like this has to be hard for her. It probably brings back bad memories."

"Oh." Fisher couldn't believe she had been kidnapped herself when she was young. That had to have been traumatic for her.

"Yeah. She's new to the USF and they do a thorough background check to make sure that the person hasn't had issues that would cause them to have trouble on the job. She shared her story with the rest of her USF agents so they knew where she was coming from if she ended up having any problems with it."

"Hell." Fisher was surprised her boss had even given her this assignment then.

"I just thought if you ended up working with her on this case you should know about her past even though she might tell you about it herself. Just keep an eye out if you're working with her and she's battling PTSD over it."

"Sure, thanks, Tanner."

"Yeah, no problem." Then Tanner smiled. "Serena and I went over to Devlyn and Bella's home to have breakfast, and Kira wanted to come here to see you right away."

"Probably because she had to get on the road to find these guys. I guess you're going too." Fisher hated sounding so down about the whole business.

"Nope. Some of the guys are staying here to watch your back."

Fisher was surprised to hear that. "Why? You don't think the kidnappers would try and locate me to eliminate me as a witness, do you? The boy already knows what they look like also."

"Yeah, we do. The boy is being guarded around the clock also. So Devlyn has already set up a schedule for those of us who want to guard you to do so."

"Even when I go home?"

"Especially when you go home."

"What about Kira?"

"Devlyn is making sure she's going to be watched too, just in case the kidnappers learn the two of you survived and go after you to get rid of loose ends. I think they figure the kids they take for ransom are so traumatized, they don't remember what the men look like. Maybe also that adults don't believe their recollections as well either."

Fisher appreciated that his family and the wolf pack were looking out for him.

Then two FBI agents walked into the room to speak with him. Fisher was ready for them, telling them his human version of the events—hiking, hearing the boy in distress wanting to go home to his parents, and then Fisher being seen, running to avoid getting shot, but reaching the edge of the cliff. Since he'd had no time to run anywhere else, he was shot and fell off the cliff. "Purposefully," Fisher added.

Tanner and Serena frowned at him. The agents exchanged glances.

"I couldn't have outrun a bullet at that point and once I was hit, I fell, figuring I might survive. If I'd dropped to the ground at the edge of the cliff, the shooter would have shot me until he was sure I was dead." Fisher knew that for certain.

"But he shot at you when you were down on the ledge also," one of the agents said.

"Yeah, when they realized Kira had arrived to take care of me. It was the black-haired guy that time and he shot at both of us, but she had moved me under a kind of shelf before that and stayed with me there until she felt they had left the area."

Then he gave a description of the three men.

"Did they call each other by name?"

"Not in the short time that I was listening in on their conversation as I was heading to their location."

"Alright. Did they give any indication where they were going?" the one agent asked.

"Just that they were going to the pickup for sure. They didn't say it was for a ransom. I didn't know that they had kidnapped the boy, though I had assumed it might be the case. I didn't realize they planned to leave the boy in the woods by himself while they got the ransom. Oh, they mentioned they were going to abandon the younger kidnapper when he balked about leaving the kid behind in the woods. They said they were going to Florida. But I suspect they said that in front of the kid to throw the FBI off their trail if he mentioned it to the agents."

"They didn't say where they were going to pick up the money?" one of the agents asked Fisher.

"No. If I had known, I would have mentioned it right away."

"If you think of anything else that can help that you haven't recalled because of your own trauma, just contact us." The agent gave him his business card. "Thanks for your help."

"Sure."

Then the agents left, and Tanner said, "Okay, Heath said you can eat whatever you want, so if you have a preference, we'll make it for you."

Fisher smiled, feeling a little better about that. "Steak, eggs, and hash browns."

"Fruit? Greens?" Serena asked.

"Not unless Heath says I have to have them." Not that Fisher didn't like fruits and vegetables, but he figured after surgery, eating steak, eggs, and hash browns was going to fill him up.

Serena said, "Okay, I'll make it for you. Tanner's pulling first guard duty. Do you want the same thing for breakfast, honey?"

Tanner smiled. "I sure do."

"Three orders coming right up." Serena left the clinic and Tanner pulled up a seat next to the bed.

"I have a solution on how you can see more of Kira if you want to," Tanner said.

Fisher raised a brow. He admitted he wanted to see more of her. To thank her for saving his life for one thing. He realized he hadn't said that once to her when they were on the ledge, though he'd been in a lot of pain, and he'd been worried about the boy being alone on top of the cliff. And he hadn't thought of saying it to her when she was visiting him in his room here either.

"You can join the USF. You're a former Army Ranger and our cousin works as one, so why not? I'm sure his boss would hire you in a minute."

"You would miss me too much."

Tanner laughed. "Vaughn would be thrilled. Not only will he recommend you, so will his mate. Jillian would love to have you on the team also."

Fisher smiled. "As long as Vaughn stays in Martin's good graces, that could be a good thing."

"For sure."

Fisher became so drowsy while he waited for Serena to return, he must have drifted off. Then he heard her voice and smelled their steak and eggs breakfast. He was amused to see that she also brought a fruit platter. He was glad they all were having breakfast together. He didn't feel as isolated from the others then, and he really appreciated his brother and sister-in-law for being there for him.

Once they had eaten breakfast, including all the fruit, Tanner said, "I'm letting you get some rest. It's the only way you're going to heal up more quickly."

Fisher didn't want to admit that the fall off the cliff and the bullet had taken a lot out of him. He thanked Serena for making breakfast for them and he thanked both Tanner and Serena for eating with him. Then they left and closed his door. He heard them walk down the hall together, though he knew Tanner would return after he walked his mate to the car, and he would pull guard duty until he was relieved.

Every time Fisher was half awake, he was thinking of joining the USF. He loved the idea of catching shifter criminals. After meeting Kira, he really wanted to join her and the organization. He lifted his phone off the bedside table and called his cousin Vaughn. "Hey, Cuz, can you give me Martin's number?"

"Hey, Fisher. I'm so glad to hear from you. You sound good. We've been getting updates about your condition. I've called you a few times to check on you, but you've always been asleep. How are you doing?" Vaughn hadn't answered Fisher's question.

"I'm stuck"—Fisher almost said stuck at the clinic, but he didn't want his cousin to know he was kind of incapacitated for now if he didn't already know it—"uhm, I'm doing great. I'm going with Kira soon to help her catch these bastards."

Vaughn didn't say anything for a moment. Fisher knew he was surprised to hear the news.

"Devlyn said you would be at the clinic for a while longer," Vaughn finally said.

"Yeah, just maybe through tomorrow morning. No big deal. So can you give me Martin's number?" At least Fisher hoped that he would be released from the clinic tomorrow morning.

"Martin Sutherland? My boss? Why do you…" Vaughn paused, and then he chuckled. "Yeah, sure."

Because the organization was kept under wraps as much as possible, Martin's phone number wasn't available publicly.

"Okay, here it is." Vaughn paused. "Are you thinking of joining us? I mean, the USF?"

"I'm all for good causes and taking down rogue shifters is a good cause," Fisher said.

"I agree. I have to warn you that one of the interview questions for new recruits is—why do you want to join the organization? You can't say that it's because you want to work with Kira."

"Who said that would be the reason for me applying for the job?"

Vaughn laughed. "I know you, Cuz. The part about going after rogues is acceptable. Going after a she-wolf you want to date is not. Martin will also ask you why you would suddenly decide that you want to do this."

"As a USF special agent, I would not only be protecting the kidnapped victim and trying to capture the kidnappers, but also I would be taking care of innocent bystanders if it came to it. It just makes me want to do something more heroic than working at the tannery."

"Sometimes we just do a lot of paperwork, interviewing witnesses, reinterviewing them, going through any evidence against the rogue shifters, and not a whole lot of running from bullets or jumping off cliffs."

Fisher smiled. "I could do without a lot less of that in my life, truly."

"Kira is new to the USF so she has had a more experienced partner to work with in the organization for her last few missions. Though Jillian worked with her on one and both of us worked with her on her first mission."

"Where was the guy who was supposed to be partnered up with her when all this went down?" That really irritated Fisher when he realized she had been there trying to save his and the boy's life on her own. He hadn't even gathered that she had been new to the job right away. She was a natural at problem solving and taking care of multiple, critical tasks at a time.

"He was injured in a car accident and so he's on bedrest. I'm just saying that you can't pick and choose your partners. Now the boss will like that you're a former Army Ranger so you've had a lot of military training, combat, weapon's experience, and you're fit. But Martin makes up the assignments."

"If you're mated, he doesn't make them then, does he?" Fisher thought that Vaughn and Jillian went on all their missions together.

"Whoa, what's this talk about mating?" Vaughn asked, his voice teasing.

"I'm not talking about Kira. I'm talking about you and Jillian." Fisher couldn't hide his exasperation with his cousin. He figured it all had to do with being stuck in a bed at the clinic, and that he was feeling some discomfort from the bullet wound in his shoulder, more than he liked to admit.

"Sometimes we're on different missions. She was looking into a crime involving a beauty salon recently. Even though men can go in there to get a haircut, it's mostly women. So she suited the situation better. It wasn't dangerous, so she could handle it on her own. One of the beauticians had stolen another shifter's child and had moved out of state. Jillian found her and took her into custody and returned the child to her parents." Then Vaughn took a breath. "You're really thinking of applying to work with the USF? If you make it through the approval process, and the rigorous mental and physical training, you'll be required to serve a year in the organization. After that, it's up to you. But you have to make a firm commitment. Unless you're dropped for not being a team player or some other unforeseen circumstance. Even a wounded agent will work office duty if he can to keep up on cases. Most of us would rather do anything but. However, we still prefer that to sitting at home, licking our wounds until we can go back to work."

Which gave Fisher an idea. Maybe he would go to work for them while he was still in recovery. He didn't mind doing paperwork. Of the four brothers, he was the most organized.

"Okay, thanks."

"What is family for? I'll let you get some rest and check in on you later."

"Thanks, Vaughn."

"Yeah, just get well soon."

Then they ended the call and Fisher fell asleep for a while. He had planned to call Martin right away, but he had suddenly felt so tired, he just closed his eyes and was out. When he woke a couple of hours later, he called Martin. He wasn't sure how this was going to be received, but he was trying to be as positive as he could be.

As soon as he got a hold of Martin, the director said, "Fisher Greystoke? Cousin to Vaughn Greystoke? I just got off the phone with Vaughn. So you want to work with us?"

"Yes, sir."

"I understand you're a victim of the same kidnappers who stole Billy."

"Uh, yes, sir." Fisher figured Vaughn had told his boss he was lying in a clinic bed while his brother, Heath, was keeping him confined until he was well enough to leave. He wanted to groan. But he was also afraid that Martin would think that he wanted vengeance for the kidnappers shooting him and shooting at him and Kira later.

"You want to go after the kidnappers."

"Yes, sir."

"Okay, well, you can fill out an online application that is only available through a link I will send you. Get it back to me whenever you're feeling better."

"Thanks, sir. I sure will." Fisher was going to give Martin his email address, but his cousin had already done so. He smiled. He guessed Vaughn really did want him to work with them. He felt he had a new mission in life. Maybe he couldn't help with the kidnappers' case if he didn't get over his injuries quickly enough and they caught the men first, but he really looked forward to working as a special agent with the USF when he could. If he was approved, of course. He knew it wasn't a done deal until Martin actually hired him.

Then he wondered if Kira would even want to work with him, given the mess he had gotten himself into already!