Night Hack: A forced proximity alpha hero hacker romantic suspense (Nightshade Book 4)

Chapter 31

Brycen

“Matthews, we’ve got them,”Tate said through the comms as I was just arriving to the fifth floor.

“Thank fuck,” I breathed, then asked the burning question. “Is she okay?”

“She sounds hurt, but we haven’t gotten to them yet. Thought we’d wait on you to streamline our approach, but I suspect we ought to hurry because I think he’s about to try and get away with her,” my coworker announced.

“Like hell,” I growled. Over my dead body. Rushing from the exit to the stairwell, I spotted Tate and Cade, heads bent close at the nurses’ station. “Where are the others?”

“Minimizing the chance for casualty and injury,” Cade said, gripping his weapon in his right hand. “Should be good to go any minute now since everyone is mobile.”

On a singular nod, I spotted a JPD officer approaching. “Brycen Matthews, good to see you, despite the circumstances,” James, a JPD officer I’d worked with in the past, offered up his hand which I shook.

“Thanks for the assist,” my voice rumbled out.

“Should be thanking you,” he smirked. “We doing this?”

“Fuck yeah,” Cade and I said over one another.

In minutes, things unfolded rather rapidly.

First, Tate grabbed the keycard while the lone FBI agent, who had accompanied James and his partner, stood in a semicircle along with Cade and me, weapons at the ready, on point for any advantageous angle. As soon as my coworker made it to the door, he grabbed the handle with one hand, using the barrier as a shield as he swiped the card.

The moment the door flew open, Jana flew back, the momentum propelling her to the floor, leaving a stunned Carson Platt sprawled overtop of her, his hand brandishing a large military pocket blade still at her neck.

Panic hit me when I saw the blood, unsure if Jana had been cut, or if what I saw was from the broken nose I unmistakably detected.

“Drop the knife and put your hands up, Platt.” James approached slowly, his gun aimed to do more than maim if he had to.

Instead of listening, Platt sat up, straddling Jana’s torso, holding her down by the throat with his free hand as his gaze met mine. The sickening grin on the man’s face made me want to wretch, while the gurgling coming from Jana’s throat as she struggled for breath, scrambling and clawing at the man’s arms, gave me the urge to kill.

In seconds, Platt reared the arm that held his blade and as his arm arced downward, gunpowder and lead was released multiple times, the final percussions of the shots followed by the metallic clanging of the now unmanned weapon.

Jana

“Jana.” The voice sounded muffled. “Jana, can you hear me?”

As my faculties returned, everything hurt. But I could breathe again. I must have blacked out because when my eyes opened, I was swimming in chocolate pools.

“Let me check her out,” a familiar voice said. “Back up,” she demanded in that habitual no-nonsense tone of hers. “I swear, you men will be the death of me one of these days. Fucking soldier boys,” Dr. Reina Boudreaux grumbled.

“N-no,” my voice cracked, my vocal cords feeling like they hadn’t been used for months, probably due to all the choking I’d endured.

“Don’t speak, Jana,” Dr. Boudreaux ordered with that Louisiana twang of hers.

Meeting her eyes, I did the exact opposite to her instruction. “Brycen stays…please.” Tears escaped the sides of my eyes as soon as I felt his hand clutching mine.

“Right here, baby,” he rasped, and the emotion in those words only made me cry more.

“Jana, I’m going to check those wounds out and determine if you need a C-collar so we can move you to a gurney, all right?” Reina clutched my other hand and shook her head, gracing me with that crooked smirk of hers. “Christ, Jana, I didn’t think the next time I saw you was going to be like this.”

Mouthing “Sorry,” my lips pressed into a hard line as she began to palpate around my neck, the back of my head, then checked for signs of a concussion.

“Your tracking is good, and your faculties seem to be all there,” she murmured, then met my eyes. “Any dizziness, nausea, or headache? There’s a slight lump at the back of your head and, honey, your nose is going to have to be set.”

“Head…ache,” I broke up the words.

“Okay,” Reina whispered, squeezing my hand. “We’re going to move you to a chair and wheel you to a bed. It’s pointless to send you down to Emergency at this point since I’m keeping you overnight. I’ll get Vanessa to come clean you up in a bit, and when she’s done, I’ll be back to set your nose.”

“Urgh,” I mumbled, causing the woman to laugh. “You’re going to enjoy that, aren’t you?”

Reina grinned, then winked. “It’ll be payback for the time you had to set my broken finger after I slammed that fucking car door on it.”

“Right.” I shook my head, then looked to Brycen, my gaze captured by his. “He stays.”

His eyes darkened, and his hand squeezed mine again. “Not going anywhere without you, sweetheart. Never again,” he promised.

After retching from the pain of having my nose set—sans Brycen for that less-than-delightful experience—whatever painkiller I’d been given had knocked me out cold. I’m sure the lack of sleep I’d had since running away had also been a contributing factor.

“There she is,” Brycen whispered into my ear as I groggily awoke.

“Hey,” I drawled, smiling as our eyes connected and I squeezed the hand he still held clasped around mine.

“Hey, baby.” He got up from his bedside chair, leaned forward and pressed his lips gently to mine before pulling away to study me, sitting on the edge of my hospital bed. “How are you feeling?”

“My face feels like I went twelve rounds with Mike Tyson, but I’ll live.” I shrugged my shoulders, his eyes darkening in a menacing way.

“Please don’t crack jokes about what we’ve just gone through.” He rested his forehead against my shoulder, and I clasped the back of his neck with my free hand.

The scruff of his cheek rubbed against mine, and I couldn’t help myself, allowing my fingertips to play with it as he pulled away, an amused gleam in his eyes, despite the seriousness of the moment. “I missed this scruff.” Leaning up, I kissed his cheek. “I missed you, Brycen.” Then my lips met his other cheek before I pulled away once more to gaze into his eyes. “I missed us,” I whispered against his lips, then finished with what I’d been aching to tell him face-to-face since the day I ran. “I love you.”

“I love you too, Jana,” he rasped against my lips, his heart in his eyes, and then he sealed our joint declaration with a soul-searing kiss—one that felt as though it had gone on for an eternity, yet still wasn’t long enough.

None of that mattered, however, because if I had any say in things, I planned to ensure Brycen Matthews was my forever.