Savage Vandal (82 Street Vandals #1) - Heather Long Page 0,49
the chair, and Vaughn scowled. The pants were sticky. Yeah, I was a mess.
Whatever.
I didn’t ask to be here.
Snagging a bag from the floor, Doc looped the strap over his shoulder and headed out of the kitchen. I was right behind him, violently aware of four sets of eyes drilling into my back. The weird thing in all of that, I’d offered to pay the ransom and they hadn’t even mentioned it.
They were so confusing.
A step next to me had me jerking slightly, and I glanced up to find Jasper moving next to me. Doc didn’t slow until he got to the door I’d snuck out of earlier. The room had lights on, the bed was disheveled, and the comforter on the floor.
With a sigh, I walked into my room behind Doc while Jasper crowded up next to me.
Yay, it was just the three of us.
Chapter 12
Jasper
Doc cut a look in my direction as I closed the door to her room. A quick scan of it showed nothing out of place. After putting her clothes away, we’d removed the bags. She didn’t need to be tripping over them, particularly when her ankle still gave her issues. I’d pulled all the books I’d saved over the years, the ones I would reread in here. We needed to get a television, but we didn’t have anything wired to run something to it.
We would be correcting that this weekend. She needed something more to do in here. Her boredom wasn’t lost on any of us, even if she hadn’t displayed the slightest interest in talking. Vaughn had tried, but then, Vaughn was just thrilled to have her here. Freddie wanted in here, but I’d have to cut his balls off, so better he wasn’t trapped in a room with a bed and her.
Arms folded, I leaned against the door as Doc set his bag on her bed after snapping the comforter up. Too much military was still in that man. I trusted Doc with her health. I didn’t trust him with much else. Not after I’d found him giving her a bath. She’d been naked, vulnerable, and alone with him. Doc might be the closest thing we had to a friend outside of the Vandals, but no way in hell would I trust him with her after pulling shit like that.
He pulled out a couple of Ziploc bags filled with pads. Fuck me, he did actually keep them on him. Scrubbing a hand over my face, I waited for Emersyn to take them and get a change of clothes out before she disappeared into the bathroom. Once we were alone, I opened the door. “You can go now.”
“I haven’t checked her ankle or her wrist.” Doc met my gaze without flinching. The blankness in his stare was a warning. I’d pulled a gun on him, and it broke one of his few rules. The fact he even showed up here had nothing to do with us and everything to do with the woman in that bathroom.
“Doc, she’s not your concern.”
“That’s the problem with you, Hawk. You think you get to dictate what your people think and what they do.” The barest hint of a smirk touched his lips. “You also think I give a shit about what you decide.”
“Doc, you and Raptor go back…”
“We all go back,” Doc reminded me.
“Yeah, we do. Don’t put me in this position.” Because if he kept up this campaign of disrespect, I was going to have to put him in his place. We had enough people who didn’t know Raptor or the history. They would just see Doc, the guy who wasn’t one of us, getting away with not following the rules.
That shit didn’t fly.
It couldn’t.
“You’re the only one putting yourself in that position,” Doc said. Fuck his cool under pressure. “You brought her to me. That makes her my patient and my concern. You’ve been playing this bullshit game of keep away, but Kestrel kept me in the loop.”
The fuck?
“Yeah, he takes her health a little more seriously than your jealousy.”
The door to the bathroom opened, and Doc turned, his expression gentling almost immediately. “Better?”
“Yeah,” she said, folding her arms. The pants she’d had on earlier were in the sink. I frowned, but she rubbed her good hand against her upper arm. “Thank you. I don’t suppose you have extras of the heavier pads?”
“I do,” Doc said. “But I can also get you your own supplies.” He turned back to his bag and pulled out two