Page 56 of Shadow Strike
She smiled at him.
“The Outlaws are going to need help sorting out who’s guilty of what,” Claire said to CB as she handed Ryder off to Garrett.“You could be their liaison.Work with us to separate the ones who were following orders from the ones who were giving them.”
CB nodded slowly.“I can do that.”
“Good.”Claire’s expression softened slightly.“Now get to the hospital before you bleed out in this parking lot.”
Regan was already pulling him toward the passenger side of his truck.“I’m driving.Give me the keys.”
He handed them over without further argument, which told her more about his condition than anything else.
The gathered Outlaws watched as she helped CB into the passenger seat.Wade raised his good hand in something like a salute.The others followed, a ragged chorus of gestures that felt more like a promise than a goodbye.
Regan climbed behind the wheel and adjusted the seat.Her hands were shaking, her heart still pounding from everything that had happened.But CB was beside her, alive, and Ryder was in handcuffs, and somehow—impossibly—they’d won.
She pulled out of the parking lot, leaving Hill’s Tavern behind.
“Regan.”
She glanced at CB.His face was pale, his jaw tight with pain, but his eyes were clear.“Thank you.”
She didn’t know if he meant for smashing the recorder into Denny’s face, or for telling him to take the interim position, or for something else entirely.It didn’t matter.
“Partners, remember?”she said simply.
He smiled weakly and closed his eyes.
CHAPTERFIFTEEN
Two weeks later
CB shiftedin the leather chair and tried not to look at the clock on Dr.Montgomery’s wall.
“You’ve been avoiding this session for a month,” Vivi said, her tone mild but pointed.She sat across from him, legs crossed, a notepad balanced on her knee.Her hair was down today, and she wore no classic white lab coat.Just a soft cotton blouse and jeans.“Want to tell me why?”
“I’ve been busy.”
“You’ve been busy for four weeks straight?No thirty-minute window in your entire schedule?”
He sighed.Vivi wasn’t just the head of Shadow Point Security—she was also a former NSA psychologist who had a way of cutting through excuses that made her impossible to dodge.
He tried anyway.“I didn’t know what to say,” he admitted.“A lot’s happened.”
Vivi set down her pen.“How’s the injury?”
He shifted in the chair that was ever so slightly too small for him.“Healing fine.”
“Don’t forget Garrett and Mack still have you on light duty for the next two weeks.”
He held in his exasperation, even though it bubbled in his chest.“I’ve survived much worse than this, you know.”
“I know.I’ve seen your files.You, and every other man here, give new meaning to the termstoughandbrave.All I’m asking is that you don’t tell me you’re fine when you’re not.”
He grinned.He’d never tell her he’d used that line on Regan, and planned to keep on doing it.“Would I do that?”
She rolled her eyes and picked up her pen.“Why don’t we start with Ryder?”
The name landed like a punch to his gut.CB looked out the window at the Montana sky, blue and endless, the kind of view that usually settled him.It fell short today.“He’s in federal custody awaiting trial.Claire says the case is airtight—attempted murder, extortion, assault, money laundering.He’ll be in prison for a long time.”
