Page 46 of Max

“No.” The denial came from both Jasper and Max, and she reared back like she’d been shot.

“We don’t have time.” Jasper hurried her to the elevator. “If that’s your stalker out there, and I’m guessing it is because the majority of the shotts were leveled at us, we have minutes to find him. Max needs to get out there and start tracking.”

“He’s shot!” she all but screamed as they hustled her into an elevator.

“Flesh wound,” Max said absently.

“You’re bleeding worse than a flesh wound.”

Neither man said a word as they rode the elevator back to the cardiac unit. Instead of going straight to the waiting room, they went back to the empty hospital room from before. Jasper left and came back with the bookbag he’d brought along.

Max ripped off his shirt, and Shay let out a small cry of distress at the clearly distinctive bullet hole that was seeping blood. Jasper found a large first aid kit and started efficiently pulling out supplies.

“Is it a through and through?”

Max nodded.

“Nick any bones?”

“I don’t think so.”

Jasper’s turn to nod, and Shay watched, horrified, as Jasper threaded a needle, used alcohol swabs to clean the area, and then set to closing up the wound on Max’s shoulder.

“That is not sanitary! You need a doctor to look at that, a nurse to stitch it up…”

“Darlin’, we’ve got this.” Max hadn’t smiled at her once, and he didn’t now, either, but he was trying to reassure her.

Desi burst in, closely followed by Cole. When she saw her brother, she ran, and Cole caught her before she could stop Jasper from finishing his work.

“Max…”

He shook his head. “Don’t let her out of your sight, Cole.”

“Yes, sir.” The quiet respect in Cole’s voice reminded Shay that the man in front of her was not the nice man who had a gentle side. This man was a soldier, a soldier who had survived the front lines in a war zone day in and day out for years.

And it didn’t matter.

He was hurt, and all she wanted was to give him the same kind of comfort he’d given her since she’d met him.

But she didn’t know how when she couldn’t touch him, couldn’t kiss him, couldn’t even hold him. She had to stand there and watch Jasper stitch him up without even numbing the area. It had to hurt like a bitch, as Des would say.

“There, done.” Jasper applied some kind of clear liquid then wrapped it in bandages. He tossed Max a clean shirt. “Everything you need is in here, including your laptop.”

“Keep my girls safe, Jasper. I’m fucking trusting you with them.”

“Yes, sir, Sarge. I got this.”

Max nodded and stood, leaning in close to Shay. “Do not move from this floor, and if Jasper tells you to jump, you jump. Got that?”

She opened her mouth to say something, but he put his finger against his lips. “Got that?”

She nodded, her eyes filling with tears. God, was he really going to go out there and find this guy? Wasn’t that what the police did?

“Des, if you so much as step foot outside this hospital, I will put you over my knee and make sure you can’t sit for a month straight.”

Desi didn’t make any smart comebacks. Her face was so pale, Shay feared she was going to pass out.

“Come home, Max.”

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