Page 105 of The Past in the Present

“How much blood did he lose?” I asked, alarmed again.

“Not enough to kill him,” he replied mildly, as though Hart getting a blood transfusion weren’t anything terribly unusual. “The phrase they used was ‘observation out of an abundance of caution.’”

“Is Taavi here?”

Raj nodded. “Of course.” His lips curved up in half a smile. “He wasn’t terribly happy.”

“Gee, can’t imagine why,” I remarked.

The half smile broke into a grin, Raj’s slightly too-sharp teeth vivid white against the warm brown of his skin. “Let’s just say that I’ve learned a lot of very rude words in Spanish over the last couple years.”

I smiled back. “But he’ll be okay?”

“Oh, he’s fine,” the big tiger shifter replied casually. I wasn’t fooled. I could tell from the creases around his mouth and a tightness in his jaw that he was taking Hart’s injuries seriously.

“Seriously?” I pressed.

“He’s fine,” Raj repeated. “He’s a goddamn beacon for attempted homicide, but he’s fine.”

I sighed. “Elliot did warn me that he had a tendency to get stabbed,” I remarked.

Raj snorted. “Well, he mixed it up this time and went for ‘chewed’ instead.”

“I don’t recommend it,” I told him, echoing his earlier line.

Raj laughed. “You’ll be just fine, too,” he replied. “If you’re throwing my own words back at me.”

I smiled at him. It wasn’t a good smile, but it was something.

He sighed. “I suppose we should get down to business. I know how the afternoon ended—” Raj had been the giant tiger in the doorway, of course. “—but I’m going to need you to go through your recollection of how it started.”

The nurse had just taken awaythe horrifying gloop that passed for some kind of chicken-and-ricethingwith greyish peas and I’d downed a full glass of powdered lemonade, which was still disgusting, but at least in a palatable sort of way. The door to myroom opened, and Noah all but launched himself through it and into my arms.

Holy shit, did it hurt, but I didn’t care.

Noah cried. I cried. Lulu—who was following behind him—cried.

Humbolt and Walsh, who had also been following, did not cry, although Humbolt was grinning and Walsh looked slightly less sour than usual.

“Nono, they let you go?”

“Y-yes,” he sobbed into my shoulder. “Charges dropped. It’s over.”

Walsh’s face soured again.

“Hun, there’s still the civil case,” Lulu reminded Noah. The case Walsh was building for wrongful imprisonment.

“I don’t care about that,” Noah retorted, nuzzling into my shoulder. I ignored the pain of the bandaged bite he was pushing against.

“You will,” I told him gently. “Besides, it will help keep them from doing it to anyone else.”

“I just want to go home,” he whispered. “Forget all of it.”

“Youcango home,” I replied. “As soon as you want. But don’tforget.” I hugged him tighter. “Don’t let them make you forget what they did.” There was more venom in that than even I was expecting, and that’s saying a lot.

He let out a sigh, leaning his weight into me. I ignored the pain.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” I said into his blond hair—the same shade as mine. “And out.”

---