“Husband?” I manage the same time Jinx asks, “Is he in the hospital?”
His question doesn’t make sense, but my mind doesn’t have time to catch up before she answers him.
“He’s dead,” she whispers unemotionally.
“Dead?” Grinch clarifies.
She nods, her eyes still glued to mine.
My stomach feels like it’s turning inside out. I’m immediately grateful that I don’t have to kill someone tonight for what he’s done to her, because she’s telling us that she handled that herself. Then it hits me.
Married?
We’ve hooked up several times in the past, and although we didn’t talk much past telling the other what we needed sexually, she never mentioned a husband. Messing around with married women is something that has always been a hard no for me. I like to have fun, not get in the middle of someone else’s domestic bullshit.
“He found out about the baby,” she whispers as she gazes into my eyes.
“Baby?” I must not be hearing things right, but before she can explain, her eyes roll back into her head and she drops like a stone.
Frozen in place, my feet planted to the floor, it’s Grinch who is aware enough to catch her before she can crash to the ground. I’m still unable to move as my teammate swipes blood-soaked hair from her face and presses his fingers to her throat to check for a pulse.
We deal with trauma nearly every day on the job, and that’s evident in the way the guys jump into action. Grinch lifts Simone in his arms, then heads right out the front door as Jinx grabs a set of keys off the hook to the left of the frame.
We all know that it will take longer for an ambulance to arrive than it would be to drive her to the hospital, but for some reason, my feet refuse to move.
“Go.” My legs take a few steps forward but it takes several more breaths before I’m able to look over my shoulder to see Hound standing at my back. “If you don’t want to ride with them, I can drive you, but make up your mind.”
On autopilot, I walk toward the SUV just as Grinch is closing himself in the back with Simone’s head on his lap. Jinx is behind the wheel as I climb in the passenger seat, and I’m grateful he’s only had a beer or two tonight.
“Her pulse is steady,” Grinch hisses as Jinx gasses it right out of the driveway. Gravel flies up behind us as we fishtail. “Slow down and get us there in one piece.”
My best friend’s eyes dart from the road to the rearview mirror more times than I can count, but I can’t gather enough courage to look behind me.
“Man.” Jinx sighs, and I feel his eyes on me for a brief second.
I can’t even look at him.
“A baby?” he whispers. “How fucked up is that?”
I can’t answer. I mean, how could I?
“Married?” he adds after a brief pause. “Did you know?”
I hear the accusation in his tone, and I know he’s also thinking back to several weeks ago when we thought, with the help of whiskey, that it would be a great idea to all party together. Jinx doesn’t hook up with married women either. For all of our differences, and even if it wasn’t written into our contracts, this is one point the men of Cerberus wholly agree on.
My mouth is unable to make a sound but my head immediately begins to shake.
Once we arrive at the emergency room, Grinch carries Simone inside, and I follow them while Jinx parks the SUV. As always, the staff at the hospital is very efficient, taking care to help Grinch place Simone on a gurney before whisking her away through doors marked STAFF ONLY.
Our reputation precedes us, and I’m thankful not one medical person looks at us, wondering which of us could have done this to her. That doesn’t stop a couple of looks from people in the waiting room who are sitting around. We don’t acknowledge them, but I catch the smirk on one woman’s face seconds before Colton Matthews appears in front of us. It’s evident she’s waiting to see us get arrested.
“That didn’t take long,” I say as I hold out my hand.
“Mr. Fletcher.” Colton shakes my hand, nodding in my direction before moving on to Grinch and Jinx.
“Callum,” I correct.
We all know Detective Matthews from the time we spend in the community with charity work, but we’ve never interacted with him outside of