Black is My Heart (Humorous Thriller, Completed)

Chapter 8

Nate was an asshole. No serious damage, he said, but my husband was lying in a hospital cubicle with a row of stitches in his thigh. Half an inch to the left, and the bullet would have nicked his femoral artery. I sat beside the bed, plotting murder until the doctor left and I found out the culprit was already in the morgue.

"Diamond, it's a hazardous job. We both know that."

I bit my tongue, literally, because what I really wanted to suggest was quitting and running off to a tropical island somewhere, far away from death and danger and morons who preyed on the innocent. An ex-boyfriend of mine had disappeared four years ago—just vanished—and although the circumstances had been somewhat awkward, in a strange way, I envied him his freedom. No ties, no responsibilities—he'd just left me a note and taken off in the middle of the night. Poof. Gone. I couldn't find him, and believe me I'd tried. I'd even roped Mack and Dan into helping me. On the quiet, of course, because although I secretly missed him, there was a teensy bit of animosity between him and my husband.

But now blood pooled in my mouth as I hung onto the words I didn't dare to say. "Yes, I know it's hazardous."

"It was only a ricochet."

"That doesn't make it better."

"The girl went home to her parents tonight. That makes it better."

"But—"

"What we do helps to make the world a safer place. We fight for what's right, and if that means the occasional injury, it's a price worth paying. Nobody lives forever, anyway."

"Even so—"

"And what else would we do? Sit on a beach somewhere? We'd be bored out of our fucking minds."

I tried for a smile, but it came out as more of a scowl. "I suppose."

"Let's go home. Dan wanted Chinese, right?"

There was a slight logistical problem with that idea. "What happened to your trousers?"

"The nurse cut them off."

I'd been trying not to stare, but I finally gave in and studied his legs. The blood-encrusted wound marred his left thigh, but I seized the opportunity to look past the damage to what lay underneath. Golden skin, solid muscles, the thick bulge of...

My reverie was interrupted by the doctor tugging the curtain back and clearing his throat.

"Uh, I brought these." He held up a pair of green drawstring trousers, the kind hospital staff wore. Looked from them to the man on the bed and back again. "On second thought, they might be a bit small."

"Forget it. Diamond, just pull the car up to the fire escape, and I'll go like this."

"Sir, you can't leave through the fire escape unless there's a fire."

"You'd rather I walked through the waiting area in my underwear?"

The doctor gulped and backed away. "I guess we could call it a drill or something." A nurse appeared and whispered something in the doctor's ear, and he nodded. "Excuse me—we have an emergency."

A cop tried to stop us as we left, but we stared him down, and he tripped over his own feet.

"Mr. Black, you can't leave. I have questions I need to ask."

"Not now. Call me tomorrow."

"But the captain—"

"Get him to call me tomorrow."

We left the officer behind, and I punched the bar on the fire exit and breathed in the cool night air. Fuck, I hated hospitals. Nothing good ever happened in those giant boxes of death and despair. And don't try to talk to me about the joy of childbirth, because kids scared the shit out of me.

Just like the rest of us, Snow preferred to keep out of the public eye, so she'd gone to ditch her stolen Toyota while I came inside to find my husband. When I phoned, she appeared in one of the Ford Explorers we used as pool cars, and we climbed into the back seat.

"Nice outfit." She turned to peer at his leg. If anyone else had done that, I'd have been tempted to poke their eyes out, but Snow was different. "Ouch."

"It's nothing."

"How many stitches?"

"Seventeen. Just drive."

As we turned onto the main road, an ambulance sped past, lights flashing and siren wailing, followed by two police cars and a guy on a motorbike with a camera slung over his shoulder.

"Reckon they've found Clements already?" I asked.

Snow smiled in the rear-view mirror. "Sure looks that way."