Flat Line

by J. M. Madden

  She frowned. "I know. Just not sure where to get that stuff. The owner of the cabin is a former nurse. Maybe she'll have something there we can use."

  Mac didn't say anything for a few minutes, preferring to watch the miles slide by. Then curiosity got the better of him. "Seems like you know Mr. Quinn personally."

  Andromeda clasped both hands onto the steering wheel and leaned forward, obviously changing the position of her back to stretch muscles. "I used to," she said finally. "I haven't seen him for years but back when I was in law school we had a supernova affair."

  She smiled as she remembered, the tense lines of her face easing. Even her pursed lips tipped up into a thoughtful smile.

  "Parker hit on me in a bar and he was one of the most beautiful men I'd ever seen before. And believe me, I've seen some pretty boys. But he had this rugged manliness that just appealed to me. He had more scars on his hands than I'd ever seen on any man and that ... usefulness was something I'd never seen before."

  She laughed and glanced at him again. "You ever just get this feeling like things are happening for a reason? And even though the entire world shouts that you're wrong for each other, you just have to be together?"

  Mac looked out the window, losing his breath. Many years ago maybe, but not for a long time. "How long were you together?"

  She shook her head and ran a hand through her ultra-feminine hair. "Almost two weeks. Then we let some crazy argument get out of hand and we parted ways. I think we both knew that our relationship wasn't going anywhere. I mean, he was in the SEALs in Virginia and I was going to school in Boston."

  "Which aren't especially far apart," he commented.

  "I know," she whispered. "But I think we were both scared that it was so perfect. It was one of those 'rip the Band Aid off quick and get it over with’ things."

  Mac left her in her own mind for a few minutes. "And how did you come together again?"

  Andromeda swallowed. "As I was getting off the elevator in the parking garage this morning a woman attacked me. I fought her off but there was a man, too. I got in my car and drove through a gate to break out of my building’s parking garage." She glanced at him from the corners of her eyes. "They're probably going to up my rates."

  Mac could see past the humor to the lingering fear in her. Andromeda was not the type of woman to engage in fighting of any kind. But she'd impressed him today with her spunk. And she needed to know that, he decided. "Well, it doesn't sound like you had any choice in the matter. You did exactly what needed done, so don't agonize over it."

  She gave him a grateful smile. "Thank you, Mac. I know this thing has turned your world upside down, but I appreciate everything you're doing to secure my case."

  He nodded his head and they settled into silence.

  Parker knew he was dreaming, but he didn’t know how to get out of it. Seeing Andy had stirred things inside him that he’d thought he’d gotten over.

  Parker knew what she wanted. He could see it in her eyes. She wanted him to stay with her, but there was no way he could. Yeah, he might have a couple more days to fuck around but his leave would be over soon, and he'd be heading right back into the jungle.

  If there was a woman worth giving up his career for, though, Andromeda Pierce was right there at the top of his short list. The woman was incredible. Self-assured and competent, she didn't come with ninety-eight percent of the baggage that other women did. And that was more refreshing than he could have ever expected.

  The sex was fucking amazing, though. The guys rode him hard about disappearing every night, but he had to have as much of her as he could. There was a huge countdown clock in his head, ticking down to zero faster and faster.

  Parker rocked his head and saw Andy sitting at a chair in the kitchen in her apartment. There were tears streaking down her cheeks, and she seemed pissed that she'd let them be seen. He leaned back into the room to yell something and she tipped her chin up, arms crossed beneath her lovely breasts, long hair behind her shoulders.

  Parker had never yelled at a woman before. Ever. And he felt like shit for doing it now. He was just soooo frustrated.

  Andy wiped the tears from her cheeks, but she didn't say anything as he turned to leave. Parker hesitated at the door, praying she would say something. But she didn't. So, he walked out the door and out of her life.

  He'd been hell on wheels for months afterward, but he'd been too stubborn to do anything about it. For months his guys cajoled, distracted, basically did everything they could to get his mind off of her. The only relief he had was when they were in country. Then he was completely focused on the mission ahead of him.

  Rolling his head, he looked at the guy beside him. Chico had one of the better dispositions, but something that day irritated him. As soon as Parker had settled into the dirt beside him Chico's mood had gone downhill.

  "What crawled up your ass and died?" he asked, aggravated.

  "You did, man. You bring bad juju with you. I don' wanna be near it."

  Being a Navy Seal was a brotherhood like no other. To have a fellow SEAL say he didn't want to be around him hurt, almost as bad as breaking up with Andy.

  He supposed if he was telling the truth he wouldn't want to be with him either.

  Then that fucker Sarfraz was there, grinning his rotten-toothed smile as he walked toward Parker with a fucking sledgehammer in his hand this time. His heart began to race, and he struggled against the cable ties holding his wrists to the floor. He knew he couldn't break them, but he also couldn't just accept what the interrogator was about to do. He had to fight. The man laughed at his struggles, smoothly brought the sledge up over his head, then brought it down with all his strength. Parker screamed.

  He smelled gun oil.

  Glancing around, he looked for the source of the smell. Oh, his M4 was on his bed in about five hundred pieces. It actually wasn't that many, but when you were bone-tired and needed to lay down, but you had to put the rifle back together before you could do anything, it was a load of shit.

  With a few quick twists of his hands, the M4 was together again and he was sighting down its length. Then he was falling into his rack.

  But he didn't, actually. He landed on his stomach on the desert floor, biting ants crawling all around him. Parker tried to brush them away, but they kept finding new ways to bite him.

  "Well," Andy tilted her head. "If you'd stayed with me it wouldn't have happened."

  Parker blinked his eyes open, wondering what was real and what wasn't. Gravity shifted and he felt like he was in a decelerating boat. He scanned the roof. Oh, maybe just a car. There were trees out the window, but that's all he could see.

  Looking down, he realized his hand was resting on where he was aching. There was a mound of something over the pain. Craning his neck, he looked down the length of his body. He was laying diagonally in the back of a vehicle and his gut had been patched with something. What the hell was that?

  They were decelerating again. He reached out for something to hold onto, but he couldn't find anything to grip. He ended up bracing himself on the driver's seat with his arms over his head.

  A man with reddish beard hair looked back at him, and details started to filter in. This was Mac and they were supposed to be protecting Mac for a court case. Parker looked up into the driver's seat and his heart stopped.

  There she was. Even upside down she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. He loved her haircut. It was edgy and spunky and made her appear soft, though she'd probably meant for it to do the exact opposite.

  The vehicle they were riding in turned and he had to brace again. Mac reached back a hand and pressed down on his shoulder, which helped a bit. Kept him from rocking and hurting. And he needed it because this road was going to kill him. Against his will he gasped aloud in pain.

  "I'm so sorry, Parker. I'll slow down."

  She did, and the jostling wasn't so bad. He lost time as they continued, and he eventually realized they were going uphill. Then it got even
steeper and the tires began to spin, even though he could tell she'd switched into four-wheel drive. One rise they went up was steep enough that he could see out of the rear window, but all he saw were trees. Miles upon miles of trees. Then the road leveled out and she picked up some speed.

  "That's strange," she murmured. "I thought Rosalind was in Georgia."

  Adrenaline spiked through him and he levered himself up in spite of the pain in his side. They were on a mountaintop, with only trees and mountains as far as the eyes could see. Directly ahead of them was a long, low cabin, rustic and homey. Another SUV sat parked out front.

  "Are you sure it's her car?" he demanded.

  "Yes, I'm sure."

  They parked the vehicle behind the other one. Andromeda circled to the back to open the hatch and Parker pushed himself out. His head was woozy but he forced himself to stand. He looked up into the business end of a shotgun.

  Chapter 7

  "I'm not sure why you have a hold on my girl like that, but you need to let her go."

  Andromeda looked down. She hadn't even noticed Parker's grip on her upper arm. "Oh, he's okay, Roz. This is Parker Quinn. Remember, Parker?"

  The woman on the porch lowered the shotgun, but she was still frowning. "Okay..."

  Andromeda pulled away from Parker to climb the steps to hug her friend. Roz lowered the shotgun to her side and gave her a one-armed hug, but still kept her gaze on the two men. "What's going on, Andromeda?"

  She blinked down into her friend's kind eyes and struggled with her emotions. It would be so easy to cry on Roz's shoulder, but they had stuff to do. "Do you have any medical equipment here with you?"

  Roz blinked, her dark brows lowering over cornflower blue eyes. "You know I do. Why?"

  "Because Parker's been shot."

  All eyes focused on Parker and he gave a snort, even as he reached out to lean upon the car.

  Sighing, Roz leaned her shotgun against the porch railing and went down the steps. "And who are you?"

  Mac seemed startled when she looked at him. "Mac."

  "He's my witness and I'm trying to keep him safe," Andromeda explained. "Parker was at my condo protecting me and he got shot when we went to find Mac."

  Roz spared her a glance. "Sounds like a very truncated version of what's happened."

  Andromeda barked out a laugh as she took one of Parker's arms around her shoulders. "Very."

  Roz stepped under Parker's other arm and they walked him to the steps. He seemed to stagger at one point, almost pulling them down and Mac took over from Roz. He carried him up the steps and into the darkness of the cabin like it wasn't anything.

  "I want him on the table."

  Roz rushed across to the wide-planked table, snatching a blanket from the couch as she passed to cover the surface. Parker groaned as he lay down on the table and she wanted to cry out with him, but it wouldn't do anyone any good. Andromeda stood back as Roz went to work.

  Before they’d met, Roz had been a nurse at Riverglade Hospital in Columbus, in the emergency department. Andromeda remembered the details like the case was yesterday. They'd had a crazy drunk come in and he'd been placed under a psychiatric hold, but they'd had problems finding him a bed. It had been flu season that year and the hospital was woefully overcrowded. So, they'd kept him in the emergency department longer than they should have. Roz had gone in to check on him at one point and he'd hit her as soon as she'd walked into the room, knocking her out cold. She didn't come to until he'd penetrated her on the bathroom floor. She'd fought and bit, but she hadn't been able to fight him off. But she had been able to reach the nurse call cord hanging near the toilet. Within minutes she had people there. The orderlies fought with the homeless man, but the damage had already been already done. Roz had cooperated fully in the prosecution, but she hadn't been able to go back to the hospital where she'd been attacked. Andromeda didn't think she'd have had been able to go back either.

  But she could see how good of a nurse Roz had been. Parker had passed out again, which made everything easier as she unwrapped the 'bandage'. "Pads? Really?"

  "It's a military thing," Mac rumbled.

  She stared at him for a moment before turning back to Parker. She pulled a stethoscope from her bag and took a quick blood pressure. "It looks clean through. Most of the bleeding has stopped but he's low on volume."

  She rummaged in her pack, pulling out an IV setup. She handed the fluid bag to Mac. "Hold this up until I can think of a way to rig it."

  He took it from her without a word and did as he was told. Then she hooked the IV into Parker's hand. "He'll probably need a couple bags. Antibiotics. Pain management. I assume there's a reason why you can't go to a hospital."

  "If they're tracking us we can't go to a hospital. That would be on the news."

  "Hm. Probably right."

  She worked for several long minutes and Andromeda just stood back and watched. Roz looked up at her at one point with a questioning look. Andromeda leaned forward to look down at his body.

  Roz had stripped most of his clothing off and his body was gorgeous and muscular, until you realized it was covered in scars. Not just a few here and there but hundreds of measured cuts covered his body, ranging in lengths from a few centimeters to several inches. Andromeda nodded to her, indicating that she'd seen these, then her gaze drifted lower. Roz had left his athletic boxers on, but there were faint silver lines going beneath the fabric. Then she got to his legs. Here there were larger surgical scars where they had apparently gone in to fix his legs.

  "My God," Roz breathed. "Who could have done all this to him?"

  "I don't know."

  Roz flung a sheet out over top of him, then gave her a direct look. "He'll be fine, Andromeda. He'll be hurting for the next few days, but he'll be all right."

  Andromeda moved close enough to grasp his free hand. He hadn't roused since they'd entered the house. She wanted, needed, to see his eyes. It had been a crazy day with even more crazy ups and downs. Parker reappearing in her life was definitely an 'up', but he would leave her with a devastating 'down'. Been there and done that, but it didn't keep her from reaching out to run her fingers through his short dirty blond hair and down his bruised cheek.

  What the hell was she supposed to do with him?

  As she looked at his big body stretched out on the table, she was very thankful that Roz had been here.

  "I thought you were in Georgia."

  Roz looked up at her as she readied suture material. "I was, but things fell in line and something told me I needed to leave early. I understand why now. It's good to see you in one piece, Andromeda."

  "It's good to be in one piece."

  "Why don't you tell me what happened while I stitch this guy up?"

  It was a reasonable request, so Andromeda told her about their day. Several times Roz stopped to stare at her in disbelief.

  Andromeda stopped talking just as Roz tied the last stitch. She gathered up stray bits of trash, then dropped her gloves into the trash can. She took the IV bag from Mac and hung it up over the swaying light fixture.

  "I need wine," she said finally, turning away.

  Andromeda knew where the glasses were. Retrieving three from the cupboard she set them on the counter. "Do you mind if I hop in the shower real quick? I was rolling on the garage floor and I've got Parker's blood all over me."

  "Of course," Roz agreed softly. "If you need something to wear you know where everything is."

  Andromeda flipped her hand in a quick wave as she walked away. Since they hadn't stopped anywhere after the truck stop, she would definitely need to borrow something until she could wash up what she was wearing. The black slacks would be fine after a good wash, but the maroon sweater was wrecked. She let both puddle in the corner of the bathroom as she started the water to let it warm.

  As she stepped beneath the shower head, every tight, strained muscle began to relax. A streak of fire went down her arm and she craned her head to look around. Oh, damn, she'd been
cut. Probably not enough to get stitched but definitely enough it should probably be cleaned out.

  Ducking her head beneath the water, she thought about everything that had happened. It would be smart to sit down and write everything out while it was fresh in her mind. As soon as she had a moment to herself she would dig her laptop out and typed a few things up.

  Right now, the water felt too good to leave.

  Chapter 8

  Roz looked at her trashed house. How had to gone from nice and neat and calm to dangerous and trashed in less than an hour?

  She looked at the big man standing in her kitchen and a shiver of anxiety went through her. "Uh, there's a wine fridge there by your legs. Why don't you pick out a bottle while I stoke the fire?"

  He moved to do as she asked and as she broke up kindling she could hear him rummaging in the drawers looking for an opener. "It's hanging on the wall by the sink," she called.

  "Found it. Thank you."

  Roz got a steady flame going, then stood by the mantle wondering what she should do. There was no way she was walking back in there to talk to the man. What had Andromeda been thinking leaving him here for her to entertain?

  No, Andromeda wouldn't have brought someone into her home that wasn't okay. If she left him here he had to be a trustworthy guy, right? She could go in and get the wine then come right back out here. There was an exit on each end of the room, as well as plenty of things she could use as a weapon.

  "You can do this," she whispered to herself.

  Marching into the kitchen she grabbed the wine glass from the counter and then the bottle he'd chosen. The man had moved to the window to look outside, giving her several feet of space. Pouring the deep red into the glass she moved to leave, but he turned to her.

  "I'm sorry we've put you out."

  Roz shook her head. "I'm not put out. A little freaked by all the people invading my space, but I can deal with it."

  The big man ran his hand over his reddish beard. "I understand completely, and I will try to keep my footprint small."