Page 203 of Cross Checked
“I won’t distress her.”
Ryker looks at me then, something raw and shattered moving across his face.
“Same team,” he says quietly.
It hits me in a place I don’t have armor for because I know exactly what he is saying, and I nod once because fuck yes, same team.
“Same team.”
Ryker nods, then looks past me to Ryan. “Same team?”
Ryan doesn’t need a map drawn to understand what Ryker is really asking. His gaze flicks to me once before he answers.
“His team.”
Ryker nods slowly.
“Same team then.”
31
Cade
Daniel Bennett looked like a man held together by rage and sheer force of will.
The hospital hallway glowed beneath harsh fluorescent lights that washed everything pale and colorless. Nurses moved quietly between rooms. Rubber soles whispered across polished floors. Somewhere farther down the hall, a machine beeped in a steady rhythm. The entire place smelled like disinfectant, stale coffee, and fear.
I hated every second of it because Bliss was in one of these rooms, and Luke Dempsey had put her there. Every instinct in my body kept reminding me that somewhere out there, he was still breathing.
Daniel stood outside her door with his arms folded across his chest and his shoulders locked tight beneath a faded department hoodie. He looked older than he had before walking the hall to her room. Harder. Like somebody had ripped away every comforting lie and left nothing behind except a father’s fury.
His eyes landed on me, but neither of us spoke immediately. We didn’t need to because the violence sitting behind my ribs recognized the violence sitting behind his.
“She’s awake,” he finally said.
My pulse kicked once. “How is she?”
The muscle in his jaw flexed.
“She’s my baby girl lying in a hospital bed with his handprint on her throat.”
I stared at him, every muscle in my body going rigid.
His handprint.
The image flashed through my head immediately. Luke’s fingers wrapped around her neck, touching her, hurting her. I cut the thought off before it finished because if I let myself fully picture it, I was going to put my fist through his fucking skull.
Daniel watched me carefully.
“Yeah,” he said quietly. “That’s about where my head goes too.”
“Where do you think he is?”
“Running.”
The word came out flat and cold, very dangerous for Luke Dempsey.
Daniel laughed once, but there wasn’t a damn thing funny in it. “Or hiding. Or whatever cowards do when they realize the people protecting them finally figured out who they really are.” His gaze shifted toward the room. “Doesn’t matter now.”
