Page 116 of Protecting What's Mine

---

“When did you decide that you wanted to be a doctor?” the girl asked.

Mack cleared her throat as the image popped into her head, crystal clear as if it had happened yesterday. “I was six.”

“See,” Samantha said in indignation. “I’m already five years behind!”

“Six is too early for anyone to decide what they want to do. You have plenty of time to decide and figure out school.”

“How did you know at six?” Samantha asked, twirling the end of one braid. “Were you one of those genius kids? Did you finish med school at eighteen?”

“What? No! I broke my ankle and had to go to the hospital. The doctor was nice to me, and he made my leg stop hurting.”

Samantha looked down. “He obviously wasn’t very good if you’re still in a cast.”

“It’s a walking boot, and this is a different injury,” Mack said, suddenly feeling defensive.

“Same ankle?”

Smartass.

“Yes. Same ankle.”

“It probably didn’t heal correctly.”

“I doubt it was the doctor’s fault.”

“How did you break it?”

“I jumped out of a second-story window.” Mack regretted it as soon as the words were out of her mouth, but Samantha was unfazed.

“Is that how you got that cool scar too?”

Mack gritted her teeth. “No.”

Hell, the kid could teach her mom and aunts a few things about interrogations.

“Are you torturing my lady friend, Mantha?”

Linc, merciful rescuer, poked his head into the helicopter bay.

“Did you know that Dr. Mack jumped out of a second-story window and broke her leg when she was six and that’s how she decided to be a doctor?”

Mack pretended to be too busy refastening a harness buckle to make eye contact.

“Is that so?” he said lightly.

“But it’s not how she got her scar. She wouldn’t tell me that,” Samantha continued.

“Mantha!”

Mack had to laugh at the dad-like admonition in Linc’s tone.

“What?” the girl asked in exasperation.

“People don’t have to tell you every damn thing, kid,” he told her.

“Don’t you think this world would be a better place if people were honest about stuff?”

“No.” Linc and Mack answered together and then shared a grin.

---