Black and Shadow (6 page)

“What will you have?” the bartender
asked.

“Two beers and information.” Jessica
smiled sweetly at the man.

“Well, the beers are coming right up.
If it’s my number you want, I get off at 1:30.”

Joe growled. Jessica put her hand on
his arm when he would have spoken. She pulled out a picture of her
brother and a hundred dollar bill and handed both to the bartender.
“You see this guy in here before?”

“He a friend of yours?” the bartender
asked.

“He’s my brother.”

The man looked at Joe and then across
the room. He ran his hand over his bald head. “Yeah. He came in
here. He watched a woman with business here. Look, I don’t want any
trouble. Why don’t you go home before it finds you, pretty
lady?”

“I want to know what happened to my
brother. Please.”

“I told you.” The bartender turned and
grabbed two bottles of beer. He popped the tops and handed them
over.

“Did he talk to anyone, or did anyone
seem interested in him?”

The bartender looked around worriedly.
Then he leaned forward. “He got real friendly with a woman. She
seemed to know him from somewhere. He called her by name. They
acted real friendly.”

“What name?” Joe asked.

“He called her Kelly. That’s all I can
tell you.”

“Thank you,” Jessica said. “Keep the
change,” she added, even though he had already slipped the bill
into his pocket. Jessica picked up her beer and turned around to
survey the room. The woman and her two friends had left. While she
watched, three men slipped into their booth. Jessica sighed. She
was almost positive she’d seen the woman before. She took a swig of
the beer and grimaced. It was warm. She hated warm beer.

Jessica thought about what the
bartender said. Fred didn’t have a girlfriend. Jessica teased him
about it all the time. So who was Kelly?

“Your accountant. Her name wasn’t
Kelly, was it?” she asked Joe.

“No.” He shook his head.

“Okay. You ready?” Jessica wanted to
get out of this place. She put the mostly full bottle on the
bar.

Joe slipped his arm around her and led
her outside. Once in the cool night air, Jessica breathed deeply.
She’d have to shower before she could go to bed.

The brick next to her head exploded
with a bang. A piece cut her face. She flinched. Joe grabbed her
and pulled her down behind a car.

A man came at them from the side, his
gun firing. Jessica threw herself flat, but not before a piercing
pain filled her upper arm. Damn, she got hit. Several more bullets
hit the car above her head. She heard a strange whirling sound and
the man fell to the ground.

She tried to roll over. Pain caused
the world to grow dim. She clenched her jaw. Why hadn’t she brought
a gun? Oh, yeah, she didn’t want to get in trouble with the law. So
much for good intentions.

Joe fired a mini-crossbow. He grabbed
her hand and pulled her toward him. She hissed, her world
rolling.

“Dammit, you’re hurt.” Joe wrapped an
arm around her waist and lifted her into his lap.

“You think?” spilled out as the pain
ratcheted. If he moved her around like a rag doll she would pass
out. He made strange hand motions and then rolled them sideways.
Everything went dark and a blast of cold poured over her. That was
the last straw. The world slid away.

§

Jessica went limp. Joe closed the
opening into Shadow and watched as one man ran to the shooter he
hit with the dart.

“Did you get her?” the man asked. Joe
recognized him as the man who’d stopped Jessica as they came into
the bar. Greasy hair didn’t know it, but Joe would be coming for
him.

“I know I hit her. I can’t feel my
leg. Damn bastard hit me with a dart. Where are they?” Joe tried to
memorize the second man’s features. He had a scar across his cheek,
and dark hair and eyes.

“Beats the hell out of me. The boss
will be mad she got away,” Greasy Hair said. “We better find
her.”

“Screw it, there’s blood on the
sidewalk. I must have gotten her. Help me. I’m not sure I can
walk.”

“Come on, let’s go before someone
calls the cops.” Greasy Hair helped Scar Face to his feet and
started down the road. If they didn’t get Scar Face to the
hospital, he’d die as his body became paralyzed, his organs the
last to succumb to the poison on the dart tip he took in the hip.
They would have to seek help on their own. They’d tried to kill
Jessica.

He looked down at the woman in his
arms. She had closed her eyes and her skin looked too pale. Blood
dripped from a wound on her head and he could feel the sticky
wetness coming from her arm. She needed a doctor and she needed one
now. Joe envisioned the hallway inside Isanti’s clinic. He sent a
mental call to his friend Dr. Frederick “Rick” White Fox, resident
doctor of Isanti, Inc.

“Incoming with wounded.
Gunshot to arm, abrasion on head. Loss of
consciousness.”

Joe felt the world shift as they
traveled through Shadow. When he could see the clinic hallway, he
opened a door in the dimension and rolled them out, making sure to
keep Jessica on top of him. He didn’t want to crush her any more
than he had. Hands reached for her. Joe didn’t want to let her
go.

“Here I thought with Raven on his
honeymoon and Derek out of the country I might be able to catch up
on my reading. I should have known better. You were never far
behind them, even as a boy. Come on. You want to stay with her and
hold her hand, don’t you?” Dr. Rick grumbled.

Joe paced outside surgery. He’d last
seen Jessica with tubes in her nose so they could give her oxygen.
He slammed his hand into a vending machine. A crack appeared in the
glass.

“Hey, don’t do that. You’ll break your
hand, or the machine,” Hugh Thunder Hoof said, coming down the
hall. “Rick said you might need company. What happened?”

“Jessica got shot tonight. Someone is
gunning for her. I don’t know why. Unless she’s right and it wasn’t
terrorists who killed her brother.” Joe clenched his
jaw.

“Wait? The new computer genius that
hacked our system? Shit. We need to keep her in lock down. That
girl is seriously talented. Our computers have better security than
the Pentagon.”

“Did you find anything on the DEA
agent, Kramer, I told you about?” Joe rubbed his hand over his
eyes.

“No money trail, but lots of people
think he’s dirty. I don’t know, maybe he’s one of those guys who
everyone loves to hate. I’ll keep looking.” Hugh
shrugged.

“You do that. I have a feeling
something is very wrong here and Jessica is smack dab in the middle
of it. I’m not losing my mate now that I’ve found her.”

“Yeah, I hear you. Can I do anything
else?”

“Send someone over to the Rattler and
pick up the company car. Jessica’s purse is on the floor of the
passenger seat. She’ll want it when she wakes. Lock down the fort
and handle things without me for a while. I’ll be right here with
Jessica if you need me.”

“Sure thing, Joe. Don’t be too hard on
yourself, and don’t break the vending machines. I happen to like my
daily Cheetos fix.” With a wave, Hugh walked toward the
elevator.

“Smart ass,” Joe mumbled. He shouldn’t
have taken Jessica to the Rattler. Dammit! Who recognized Jessica
at the bar and why did they want her dead?

§

Jessica came awake slowly. She hated
to leave the dream floating through her mind. A dream in which Joe
slowly undressed her and then made love to her. The dream hadn’t
finished and neither had she.

The sun glinted across her face and
she blinked several times before squinting at the ceiling. A warm
hand held hers. Her arm hurt like hell and her tongue felt stuck to
the roof of her mouth.

She glanced at the green patterned
hospital gown she now wore. Joe held tightly to her hand. His head
rested on the bed beside her. He was asleep. Jessica felt a curious
pain in her chest. Joe cared enough to stay with her. All night it
seemed. Only Fred had done the same.

A tear escaped, then another. Jessica
tried to hold the sorrow in, but it came. She didn’t want to cry.
She didn’t have time for sorrow to get in the way of her
investigation. A sob tore loose.

Joe’s head popped up, concern on his
face plain to see. It didn’t help. More tears poured
out.

“It’s all right, Jessica. You’re safe.
I’ve got you. Nurse!” Joe stood and leaned over her.

“It’s not that…” she managed to get
out, before the sobs took over.

“What is it? Are you in pain? Nurse!”
Joe shouted.

Jessica shook her head and turned her
face into the pillow. She didn’t want to feel this way and she
didn’t want Joe to see her so weak. A sudden flickering in her mind
warned her Joe tried to connect telepathically.

“What hurts,
baby?”

“Fred.”
She sent to him. Her body shuddered with grief.

She could have kept him out, but she
didn’t want to. This was Joe. His kindness made her want to lean on
him for a little while.

“Well, hell.” Joe lowered the side
rail on the hospital bed. He scooted onto the mattress while
picking her up and draping her across his chest. His strong arms
held her close, even as he tried not to put pressure on her wound.
She buried her face in his chest, liking the feeling of safety he
gave her. “Cry it out, sweetheart.”

She did. It drenched Joe’s shirt and
her arm hurt, but she needed to let part of the sorrow go, if for a
little while. A nurse ran into the room.

“Mr. Running Bear,” she said,
aghast.

“Get Miss Black pain meds. Her wound
is bothering her.”

“Oh, of course.” The nurse hurried out
of the room.

Joe kissed her hair. She felt him in
her mind, buffering the sorrow. Ever so slowly, she felt better.
She hiccupped, and then sniffled. Joe handed her a wad of tissues.
She reached for them and took a shuddering breath. Pain lanced her
upper arm. She gasped.

“Easy, baby. It’ll hurt for a while.”
Joe kissed her hair again.

Jessica looked up at him. “You’re a
good guy, Joseph Running Bear.” She wiped the tears from her face
and steadied her breathing.

“Your guy, Jessica. I know this is
fast, but you need to know I want you.”

“You didn’t dreaming about making love
to me earlier, did you?” Did she reach for his mind while
asleep?

A look of embarrassment crossed his
face, and then he smiled. “I guess I was.”

Jessica’s breath caught. Joe had a
killer smile. He caressed her cheek. “Feeling better?”

She nodded, not trusting herself to
speak. Her emotions ran too high right now.

“I should probably get out
of your bed. But I have to admit, I like having you in my
arms,
tehila.
”

It felt nice to be held. Jessica held
onto him as well. She didn’t want to face reality yet.

“Joe, get out of that bed and unhand
my patient! It’s no wonder her wound aches with you holding her
like that,” Dr. Rick said from the door. “I’d hoped Raven would be
the one Shadow Walker with this tendency. Will this happen every
time one of you finds a woman?”

“I expect so, Dr. Rick. Here, baby.
Let me up.” Joe patted her hand which gripped his shirt.

Jessica forced her fingers open. Joe
lifted her enough to slip out. Once he stood beside her, he fixed
the pillow under her head and then reached for her hand. She
gripped it hard, needing the reassurance.

“You’re okay, Jessica. I’m not going
anywhere.”

§

Jessica nodded. The doctor fussed over
her. “You were very lucky last night, Miss Black. The bullet went
through the fleshy part of the upper arm. I did have to clean it
and sew up the entry and exit wounds. I used silk sutures, so
you’ll have to remove them in a week.” The man presented a strange
juxtaposition, with his brisk clinical manner, long silver braids,
and moccasins. He changed the bandage on her wound. “You should be
up in a few days as long as there’s no infection.” She’d have a
scar, but at least she lived. Dr. Rick handed her pain meds when
someone knocked politely on the door.

“Excuse me,” a handsome man said from
the hall. “Joe, there’s a Daniel Ferguson at the gate. He’s
insisting on seeing you. Says he wants to know where Miss Black
is.” Jessica choked on the swallow of water. She got the pills
down, but barely. She really didn’t need Dan’s drama right
now.

Joe groaned. “Let him in, Hugh. Bring
him down here. He’s Miss Black’s traveling companion.” Joe looked
at her and squeezed her hand. She felt branded by his
gaze.

“Sure thing, Joe. Nice to meet you,
Miss Black.” The man hurried away.

“Looks like we’re having company,
sweetheart, and here I’d hoped to keep you all to myself. I guess
that’ll have to come later.” Joe smiled.