Brie glanced at the door. “I'll get in trouble.”
“No. Come on. I'll protect you from the mean nurses.”
She chuckled and shook her head. “You couldn't protect me from a two-day-old kitten right now.”
“Okay, then you come protect me from the mean nurses. Please, babe, I need to hold you.” Ryker reached up and touched the bruise on her face. “I need to know you're okay.”
Brie glanced at the door again before she hit the button to lower the rail. He brought up his good arm, and she snuggled in beside him. Her leg over his, her head on his good shoulder, and her arm folded across his abdomen. Her warmth immediately wrapped around him. He kissed the top of her head. “Tell me what you're afraid of.”
She puffed a small exhale of air. “I don't know. I guess my sense of safety is shaky. I mean, when those guys were harassing me, I still had a bit of control, you know? Then those other guys showed up and... I can still see Blondie hitting the wall and then... that man put a bullet in his head.”
Ryker closed his eyes for a moment, trying hard to find a calm place that he could talk from, but... “Someone was harassing you? Who is Blondie?”
Her body tensed for a moment. “Blondie is what I called the guy. He was the one that sliced my tire. He and his friend kept turning up to hassle me. I don't really know why. I thought the harassment was tied to the pressure Councilman Davis has been putting on me to pay him to get my agenda item about donating food to the homeless shelter in front of the city council.”
His hand stilled on her hair. “I don't believe we talked about any of those issues.”
She shook her head and looked up at him. “No, I was trying to take care of it by myself.”
He kissed her forehead. “Why were you hesitant to tell me?”
She sighed and snuggled closer under his chin. “I don't know. I was afraid of bothering you, of depending on someone else, and yeah, maybe I didn't want you to march in and tell me what I should do.”
He closed his eyes and started stroking her long brown hair again. “We need to work on our communication, or our marriage is going to be rocky.”
She tipped her head back again. “Did you just ask me to marry you?”
He opened his eyes and smiled at her. “No. I'm not giving you a chance to say no.”
She smiled and kissed his chin. “Then I say yes.” She yawned and snuggled nearer to him again. He held her against him and let himself drift to sleep.
The light from the hall woke him. Brody stood in the doorway, glowering at the bed. Ryker shifted and then realized Brie was still sleeping with him. He wrapped his good arm around her and motioned with his fingers for Brody to come in.
His sergeant pulled up a chair near the head of the bed on the opposite side of his sister.
"Sit rep?" Ryker whispered the words.
Brody leaned forward and spoke quietly. "The guy you took down in the alley is Gary Cava. He's a big man on the West Coast. The feds are all over him. Seems he's been expanding by taking out regional kingpins. He's a conduit for the feds to reach the cartel leadership. He admitted to killing Peña and Rubio. The fucker knows he's going to get a deal from the feds to testify. He's a straight-up killer, Cap. He could have put a bullet in Brie at any time, but according to the feds I talked to, he has a strange moral code. He skinned one of his top lieutenants alive for killing a kid's dog and then he bought the kid a new puppy. She's fucking lucky to be here." Brody's voice cracked.
Ryker could feel his eyes filling. He closed them and tightened his arm around her. She squirmed a bit and he loosened his hold. "Go on." He blinked his eyes open.
"We let Mouse know she was safe. The doctor wasn't happy about the drive-by, but the lieutenant felt it would help her get better, and she risked it all to talk to us, so he drove to New York after we knew you would be okay."
"Bet Fenton had a field day with that." Ryker rolled his eyes. Fenton, what a douche.
"Well, I have some intel on that issue, but no one knows this yet." Ryker lifted an eyebrow. "Seems Colonel Fenton is retiring. He hasn't been given an option. The videos that were taken in the squad room when he was ranting and raving made it to the internet. They went viral and the mayor's office acted."
"Well, I'll be damned." He moved slightly and winced. His body had been used up. He wasn't being a baby by admitting he was damn sore.
"Probably, but that's not my doing." Brody chuckled a bit and so did Ryker. Brody sighed. "We found the vehicle Rubio and Peña used for the drive-by on your house at the warehouse. We got one of the hit squad to roll for a promise of WitSec. The feds agreed. The guy confirmed they did the drive-by because you had access to Mouse. The woman had seen too much, they wanted her dead, and they were sending a message."
"Hell of a message. Idiots. Did they actually think we'd give them Mouse?"
Brody shrugged. "Delusions of grandeur and all that shit. Untouchable. They thought they were untouchable." Ryker nodded in agreement. "There are a couple loose ends. Brie said the car she was transported in had a police cage in the back and was burgundy in color."
Ryker turned his head and stared at his officer. "An unmarked car?"
"We had that thought, too." Brody pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. "Six
