Chapter 22 #3
“I told you before, this isn’t a fling,” Buck told her.
“I’m in this for the long haul. You are sexy as sin, Mandy, but it’s more than sex.
Yes, that part of our relationship is awesome, and I think about how compatible we are on a daily basis.
But it’s more than that. It’s how happy I feel when I’m around you.
How content. How it feels as if you complete me.
And that’s cheesy as shit, and I’ll deny I said it if you tell anyone,” he teased. “But I wanted you to know.”
“Okay, that was the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me. And I’m too drunk to appreciate it fully, or respond with something equally as awesome. So I’ll just say…I don’t know what I’d do without you. You’ve gotten under my skin and I like you there. So don’t ever leave, okay?”
Buck smiled. “Not planning on it.”
“Good. But you are planning on giving me an orgasm or two when we get home, right?”
His grin widened. “Oh yeah.”
“And carrying me around. And moving me where you want me? I love when you do that.” She sighed dreamily. “I never thought I’d like being so short, but with you? It makes me feel feminine, and it’s so sexy.”
This woman was killing him. The truth was that at five-eight, he’d never been the kind of man who could physically move a woman in bed before. But none of the partners he’d had were Mandy. None were five foot nothing. She was made for him. Together, they were perfection.
“You like me bossing you around in bed?”
She nodded with a shy smile.
“You like me putting you where I want you and doing whatever I want with you?”
“Yes. Because it’s not about you doing what you want. Not entirely. It’s about you making sure I’m satisfied. That I enjoy what you’re doing. If you were cruel about it, or didn’t take my pleasure into consideration, it would suck. But you do, so it doesn’t.”
She was one hundred percent right. Buck would never do anything that would hurt her. He bossed her around because she loved it. Because it turned her on. And in turn, it made their sex life even hotter.
“You ready to go home?” he asked.
She smiled up at him. “Am I ready for you to take me home and give me multiple orgasms and fall asleep, or pass out, whatever, in your arms as you hold me? Yes, sir. I am more than ready.”
He was hard and ready for her. He’d take her in the front seat of his car if he could, but that wouldn’t be safe.
And the last thing he’d ever do was put her in danger, or expose their lovemaking to anyone who might be walking by.
He wasn’t a voyeur. Wanted to keep his woman to himself.
But the ride home would be one of the longest of his life.
He couldn’t wait to experience drunk sex with Mandy.
She was going to blow his mind, of that, he was positive.
It took them twenty minutes to actually get out the door because Mandy insisted on saying bye to all her “new friends.” The bartender, the waitresses, the men playing pool…everyone got her unique brand of Mandy-ness.
Buck was smiling huge, arm around his woman, when he was finally able to lead her out the door.
Other men in the bar were looking at him with envy, not because he was a Night Stalker—that, he was used to—but because he was with Mandy.
And the feeling that gave him was ten times better than any pride he had in his job.
The parking lot had emptied out a bit since they’d arrived.
It was dark as hell, and Buck had once again been forced to park near the back of the lot, in the only space left when they’d arrived during the dinner rush.
Anchor Point was popular, for good reason, and while the parking situation always annoyed him…
now, it had him second-guessing walking to the car, in the dark, with Mandy.
He turned his head, glancing at the door to the bar, wondering if he should escort her back inside to wait for him. When he decided they were halfway to his car already, and it would just be a waste of time, he turned his attention back to where they were walking.
He had a split second of warning, in the form of Mandy’s quick inhalation, before all hell broke loose.
Someone ran out from behind a parked car and swung something at Mandy before he could even blink.
The feel of something hitting her head reverberated straight through her and into Buck, since she was plastered against his body when she was struck.
She immediately collapsed, and as Buck struggled to keep her from falling on her face, the attacker struck again. This time the metal pipe, or whatever they were wielding, missed Mandy, hitting Buck in the shoulder.
Pain made him see stars, and his grip on Mandy loosened.
She crumbled to the ground, moaning.
The shock of being attacked and the pain coursing through his body was enough distraction to allow their attacker one more chance to strike.
The weapon swung—and Mandy’s groans ceased altogether.
Buck moved before he thought about what he was doing. The karate lessons he’d had as a teen came back to him instinctually. He hadn’t used them since he was eighteen, but that didn’t matter. Muscle memory helped him kick the metal object out of the hands of the attacker.
Ignoring the pain in his shoulder, he swung, catching their assailant in the neck with the side of his hand. Attacks to the throat were off limits in karate competitions, but this was no game. This was life or death.
The karate chop changed to a closed fist, and Buck punched the attacker in the face once they were on the ground. But the person wasn’t moving. They were now lying as still as Mandy.
The attack had taken seconds. But to Buck it felt like hours.
Ignoring the blood on his hand, he yelled for help even as he moved toward the woman he loved, sprawled on the asphalt. He could see blood already pooling around her head, and his heart literally stopped beating in his chest. He’d promised to keep her safe—and he’d failed.
She was attacked even while in his arms.
Buck would never forgive himself. Ever.
“Mandy!” he rasped, as he bent over her and put his hand on the wound on the side of her head, where it looked like most of the blood was coming from.
Thankfully someone else exited the bar and heard Buck’s cry for help. He came running over and called 9-1-1 while Buck pleaded with Mandy to wake up, to not leave him.
Within minutes, the ambulance and police arrived. Buck hadn’t taken his eyes off Mandy since disabling their attacker. The person was still lying motionless not too far away, right where he’d left them.
The paramedics insisted he back up, and letting go of Mandy was one of the hardest things he’d ever done in his life. She still lay motionless on the ground, that damn pool of blood around her head the most terrifying thing he’d ever seen.
His attention was drawn to a second set of EMTs working on their attacker. Buck was shocked to realize it was a woman. What looked like a homeless woman, at that.
But when he looked closer—he saw that it was Blair.
The woman Tex had so desperately been looking for, the woman Buck had vowed to keep Mandy safe from…They hadn’t found her; she’d found them.
The crowbar she’d used to attack them was lying a foot from her hand.
Anger hit Buck hard. Mandy had taken a blow to the head from a fucking crowbar. He’d let down his guard, and Blair had taken advantage of his inattentiveness, and struck.
As he stood there in shock, watching the paramedics work on getting Mandy ready for transportation to the hospital, Blair regained consciousness.
She immediately began to shout about taking what was hers, and injustice, and revenge.
Just as they’d suspected, and Desmond had reported, she was completely out of her mind.
The woman Mandy had once known was nowhere to be seen.
Buck watched dispassionately as the police put Blair in handcuffs and led her away after she was cleared by the EMTs. He needed to tell the cops that Blair was wanted for suspicion of child abuse and the murder of Bibi—as well as crimes in Guyana—but right now, all he could think about was Mandy.
He followed behind the gurney she’d been put on as the paramedics wheeled her toward the ambulance. They prevented him from getting in behind her.
“I’m sorry, sir, but no one is allowed in the ambulance.”
Buck panicked. He had to go with her! He couldn’t lose her!
A hand closed on his arm, and Buck fought to get free, to get to Mandy.
“Easy, Buck. I’ll take you to the hospital.”
Turning, Buck saw Obi-Wan standing there. He blinked, confused. When had he gotten there? How had he even known what happened? How long had the paramedics been working on Mandy in the parking lot? Buck felt as if he was in a fog. He couldn’t think straight.
“Come on, I’ve got you. Did you let them look at you? Are you hurt?”
Buck could only stare at his friend and copilot.
“Right, we’ll do that at the hospital then.” Obi-Wan steered Buck toward his Jeep Wrangler, which was parked on the street a little ways down from the bar.
Buck stared straight ahead as Obi-Wan drove like a bat out of hell toward the hospital.
“I got a call from one of the bartenders. No clue how he got my number, but I’m damn glad he did. Casper is already contacting the cops about Blair, he’ll tell them about Bibi, and get with the detectives in North Carolina. She’s not getting away, Buck. She’s done for. Mandy is safe.”
But she wasn’t safe. She was beaten in the head with a fucking crowbar! Even if she did survive, she might not be the same person she was before.
Buck couldn’t stop thinking about how happy and carefree she was not even an hour earlier. How she’d made everyone around her smile. Her laughter still rang in his ears.
He made a keening sound deep in his throat at the thought of losing the most important person in his life.
Obi-Wan reached over and grabbed Buck’s hand, holding on to it with an iron grip.
“She’s strong,” his friend said firmly. “She’s going to pull through. I know it.”
Buck didn’t feel embarrassed about holding Obi-Wan’s hand.
He felt as if his friend was the only thing keeping him from splintering into a million pieces right now.
His anchor. Just as the man had been at his side through some of the most harrowing missions of their lives, he was there now, in his absolute darkest moment. It felt right.
Obi-Wan gave him the strength to keep breathing.
When they got to the hospital, Obi-Wan didn’t park, he pulled right up to the entrance and said, “Go. I’ll be in there in a few moments to join you.”
As soon as he let go of his copilot’s hand, Buck felt adrift again. Lost.
He walked into the emergency room in a daze. Then stopped and blinked at what he saw once the automatic doors to the waiting room opened.
Pyro, Chaos, and Edge were all there. But it was Laryn who was the first to reach him, grabbing him by the hand and pulling him over to the corner the others had apparently claimed as their own in the waiting area. Soon, Buck was surrounded by the people he wanted around him most right now.
“Casper will be here soon. He’s on the phone with Tex.”
Buck nodded. But it didn’t matter anymore. Blair was found. Tex could move on to other cases. Help find other missing people. Track down info for others.
He didn’t feel as if Tex had failed him, exactly, because it was more than obvious Blair had been living on the streets. But he couldn’t help his feelings of…hurt? Frustration? Anger?…that Tex hadn’t come through when he’d needed him most.
Buck had no idea how Blair had gotten to the Norfolk area, or how she’d found him and Mandy, or followed them to the bar…but it really didn’t matter anymore.
All that mattered was that she’d done what she’d set out to do—hurt the woman he loved.
“You don’t look so good. Have you been seen? Are you hurt?” Pyro asked.
Buck could only stare at him blankly.
“Come on, let’s get you taken care of so you can be at your best when you see Mandy.”
See Mandy. Yes, that’s what he needed to do. He docilely followed Pyro toward the intake desk.
Buck had no concept of time passing. But he was aware that he was brought into a room behind the emergency doors, and a doctor looked him over.
Then his arm was put into a sling so his bruised shoulder could heal, and he’d been given some painkillers, which he refused to take.
He wanted to be coherent and awake when he was allowed to see Mandy.
But instead of being led to a room to see her, he was brought back out to the waiting area.
“Where’s Mandy?” he asked, noticing that Casper had arrived in his absence.
“They took her back to surgery,” Chaos said quietly. “She had bleeding on the brain and they need to reduce the pressure in her head.”
Buck closed his eyes and swayed hard on his feet.
“He’s going down!”
“Get him in a chair!”
“Push his head down!”
Buck felt himself being forced to sit, but everything felt like a blur. Surgery? A brain bleed? This was a nightmare he wanted to wake up from.
Then something else occurred to him.
“Rain!” he said urgently, lifting his head and trying to stand.
But Edge and Pyro, one on either side of him, pushed him back into the seat. “We’ll get him. We’ll take care of everything. All you have to do is be here for Mandy.”
Looking up, Buck stared into Casper’s eyes. His team leader was crouched in front of him, meeting his gaze head on. If anyone knew what he was feeling right now, it was Casper. He’d almost lost Laryn. He knew how desperate Buck felt.
“Is she going to be okay?” he whispered.
“Yes,” Casper said without hesitation. “Your woman is tough. She wouldn’t have gone down to Guyana in the first place if she wasn’t. She wouldn’t have survived that rebel camp if she wasn’t. She wouldn’t have made it through the jungle if she wasn’t. She’s going to pull through. I know it.”
Buck was well aware Casper wasn’t a doctor. That he had no idea if Mandy would survive or not. But his words were still a balm to Buck’s shattered psyche. Exactly what he needed to hear right now.
“Have faith, Buck. In the doctors, in your woman. And when you’re able to go in and see her, talk to her, just let her know that you’re here. That you aren’t going anywhere. How much you care about her. Give her a reason to fight. To come back to you.”
Buck nodded, taking his team leader’s words to heart. He’d do whatever it took to get Mandy back on her feet. He’d stay by her side no matter what condition she was in when she woke up.
With the vision of her smiling, laughing face in his head, Buck clenched his fists in determination. Mandy would be okay. She simply had to be.