Page 52 of Rescuing Erin
“Thank you.”
“No need to thank me.”
“One day, when you’re a father, you’ll understand. There is a need. I want you to know I appreciate everything, and I mean, everything you’ve done for my daughter.”
“You’re welcome.”
The six of us made our way into the hall in silence.
“Ma’am, do you mind if we leave these here with you?” Zane held out his cell phone to the nurse behind a large, curved desk.
“Sure.”
All of us set our phones in a pile and followed Zane to the end of the corridor. Not too far from Erin’s room.
“What the fuck?” he barked. “Run me through what the hell happened.”
I gave Zane and the others a minute by minute rundown on what had taken place at Abe’s cabin through when the Gold Team had come in for the rescue.
“She did what?” Declan asked.
“Brother, it was like watching a movie in slow motion. I caught her out of the corner of my eye as Warren and one of his men were wailing on me. I told her to stay out of sight and, no matter what, not to do or say anything to draw attention to herself. She fucking promised.” It would be a long time before the visions of her putting her life in danger left the forefront of my mind. “He could’ve killed her. And he would’ve if you and your team hadn’t come in when you did.” While I’d been taking care of Warren, the man next to Erin had grabbed the gun she’d knocked out of his hand and was pointing it at her head. The barrel of the pistol was a mere foot from her. He wouldn’t have missed, and she wouldn’t have survived. “I don’t know which one of them took the shot, but I’m indebted to them for the rest of my life.”
As I’d expected, Declan didn’t say a word. I knew he’d never tell me which man on his team was responsible for taking the shot that saved Erin’s life. I also knew, whoever it was didn’t want the credit or my thanks.
“Did Warren say anything?” Leo asked.
“Not about how he was involved, just that the plan was his to take Erin to force Tom to sign the reinstatement of Angel. He was too caught up in his normal ‘I hate Zane Lewis’ bullshit to make any sense.”
“Jesus Christ!” Zane muttered and scrubbed his hand over his face.
“All of this comes back to this Angel program.”
“We’re dead in the water without Garrett or Tex. As soon as Garrett heard what happened to Tex, he literally starting unplugging every machine in the building. Jasmin said she’d gone into the office with the twins to catch up on paperwork and Garrett was yelling at everyone to disconnect the landlines. It’s absolute chaos over there,” Linc informed us.
“We’re not dead, just beat up. Kinda like Colin’s face. It might not look pretty but it still didn’t stop him from asking the girl to marry him.” Zane chuckled even though what he said barely made any sense. “I take it she said yes.”
“She did.”
“That’s love right there, friend. Cause I gotta tell you, you look like someone used your face for CQC practice,” Leo threw in.
“Not so much of a pain in the ass anymore, eh?” Zane loved to use your prior words against you whenever he could.
“Oh, she’s still a pain in the ass.”
“Right. But none of us could ever fall in love with a delicate flower. We need spice and vinegar to go with our sweet,” Jaxon commented.
He wasn’t wrong. Not with our overbearing personalities.
“Speak for yourselves,” Declan, the only single one in the group, told us. “I think you’re all crazy. One day I’ll find a sweet wallflower.”
“And you’ll be bored out of your skull,” I informed him. “Men like us, we don’t do boring. We need a soft place to fall after a tough mission but a woman who can still put us on our ass when we go too far. Take Leo for example, Olivia entertains his over the top craziness only so far. Then she has no problem telling him to back off.”
“That she does.” Jaxon chuckled.
“Yeah, laugh it up, Jax. I’ve seen Violet tell you where to shove it. And let’s not forget she pulled the same shit Erin just pulled by not following directions.” Leo crossed his arms across his large frame and smirked good-naturedly.
“He’s kinda right. Miss Loose Lips willingly gave herself up,” Zane added.
