Natalie had saved McBride’s ass, and he’d paid her back by taking advantage of her in the desert and then leaving her to face these Zeta bastards alone.
McBride accepted Darcangelo’s hand, gave it a few wooden shakes. “How is she? The online news reports said she was alive but—”
“You think you can just walk in and out of her life?” Hunter wasn’t letting it go.
Good for him.
McBride stepped up, looked Hunter right in the face, a muscle clenching in his jaw. “Not now, Hunter, for Christ’s sake!” Then he looked around at the rest of them. “Can someone please answer my goddamned question?”
Joaquin tossed the empty coffee cup into the trash. “I was the first to reach her. She’s in one piece but unconscious. The blast knocked her backward, and it looks like she hit her head on the pavement. She’s got some cuts from flying glass.”
McBride took two steps and sank into a chair, resting his face in his hands.
Joaquin looked at Hunter, who glanced over at Gabe, the three of them sharing a guilty look. The guy was obviously shredded over this.
Kat, who’d been quiet until now, stood and went to sit down beside him, slipping an arm around him. “All we’ve been told so far is that she’s stable but unconscious and that they’re doing another MRI to make sure she doesn’t have trauma to her brain.”
“Thank you.” McBride drew a breath. “I was on the phone with her when it happened. I told her to go back inside and call Hunter because I’d gotten a tip that the Zetas had come to Denver after her. But it was too windy—”
“Thank God for that wind.” Joaquin tried to keep the anger out of his voice. Kat was a better judge of people than he was, and if she trusted McBride . . . “It scattered some papers she was carrying, so she was on the other side of the car next to hers when the bomb went off.”
“My team was investigating the scene until the feds showed up.” Hunter sat down next to Sophie. “It looked to us like the blast was directed upward into the driver’s seat. The roof of her car was blown about a hundred feet into the air and landed on the other side of the parking lot. If she’d been sitting inside the car . . .”
McBride stood. “I need to see her.”
Sophie shook her head. “Sorry, but they won’t let any of us back yet. I’ve tried.”
McBride drew out what looked like a wallet. On the front was a silver five-point star with an eagle in the center. “They’ll let me back.”
He stood and walked across the waiting room to the main ER entrance and the check-in desk. Then he showed the woman at the desk his badge and ID. “Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal Zach McBride here to see Natalie Benoit.”
She looked at his badge, then picked up the phone and called someone. Joaquin watched as a nurse in green scrubs appeared and ushered McBride back through the electronic double door. “Well, I’ll be damned. Gotta get me one of those shiny badges. Think they sell them on the Net?”
“You three could try to be kinder to him.” Kat glared at them. “He risked his life to get Natalie safely home, remember? He obviously cares about her. Sometimes men are just bullheaded.”
The tone of her voice left no doubt that she was referring to them, not McBride.
Darcangelo grinned. “Guys, I think you’ve just been told.”
“NATALIE, CAN YOU hear me?”
Warm lips pressed against her forehead.
At the familiar sound of that voice, her pulse gave a kick. It was . . . “Zach?”
She must be dreaming.
“Yeah, angel, I’m right here.” Fingers gave her hand a squeeze.
He’d come back. He’d come back to her.
Relief, warm and sweet, flowed through her but got lost in forgetfulness. Time seemed to drift. A confusion of words and feelings. She heard a woman whimpering in pain and realized that she was the one making that sound. “My head . . . hurts.”
“You’ve got a bad concussion.” Zach’s voice again. “They’re going to keep you in the hospital until they’re sure you’re okay.”
A concussion? In the hospital?
They’d been in the desert. There’d been a thunderstorm, and then the waterfall. But hadn’t they made it back to Sells? Yes, they had. Marc, Gabe, and Joaquin had been there with the Shadow Wolves—Agent Chiago and the others. So why was she in the hospital?