Protecting What's Mine(80)

That night, she’d lost a patient and become one in the span of minutes.

Under their own power, her fingers brushed over that scar as if she could still feel her own blood. Her hand was shaking.

Linc made a grab for the microphone the principal held. “To answer your question, Tony Stark, we all do everything we can to save every life. Sometimes we can’t. But most of the time we do. That’s why it’s important for all of you—” he pointed to the students. “—to know what do to in an emergency.”

“What do we do?” a tiny first-grader piped up from the first row. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail made of dozens of tiny braids.

“Seatbelts,” Linc said into the mic. “Say it with me, gang.”

“Seatbelts,” they parroted.

“Fire escape plans,” he continued. “Smoke detectors. Pull over for emergency vehicles when you’re on the road. Learn CPR and first aid.”

The crowd of kids repeated every word as if they were committing them to memory. And Mack hoped they were. Carelessness hurt people.

“Every one of you is a future hero,” Linc told them. “You just need to know what to do when there’s an emergency.”

He handed the microphone back to the principal and returned to his seat next to Mack.

“You’re my hero,” she whispered.

“About time you admit it,” he said, resting his arm on the back of her chair and letting his fingers stroke her neck.





37





Linc walked Mack outside after the assembly. “You don’t have to ride back in the bird,” he told her. “I can drive you to get your car.”

He didn’t like how pale she’d gone at the kid’s question or how her hands had trembled. Secrets. She was keeping them.

“You’re working,” she reminded him.

“I’m the chief. What’s the point of being the boss if I can’t chauffeur my girlfriend around in a million-dollar vehicle?”

“Cute. But no. I’m helping with inventory back at the base for a couple of hours.”

“You okay?” he asked.

She nodded and took a breath. “Yeah. Kids just stir up all kinds of things.”

“That’s not vague or anything,” he said pointedly.

She stopped and faced him. “Speaking of kids. You’re a fraud, Hotshot.”

She was deflecting. But he’d allow it…for now. “What are you talking about?”

“You’re not the flirty party boy whittling his bedposts down to dust that you pretend to be.”

“How many of those shitty Hawaiian punches did you have, doc?”

“Four. And don’t change the subject. I saw you in there. I saw you with all those kids. You’re a dad in training. You’ve got family man written all over you.”

“Do not.” He shoved up the sleeve of his shirt and showed her a tattoo. “I have BFD written all over me.”

She shook her head. “I see you, Lincoln Reed. You might play at being a player. But I see you.”

They stood there, looking at each other for a long moment. He wanted to make a joke, say something flirtatious. But just like the first time he’d laid eyes on her, he was tongue-tied and uncertain.

She didn’t want what he wanted, he reminded himself. He was only opening himself up to a good ass-kicking when she moved on. And it was going to hurt more because she was the only one who saw him, really saw him.

“You’re going to be a great dad someday,” Mack said softly.

He still didn’t have any words when she rose on tiptoe and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Thanks for the rescue in there,” she said. And with that, she turned and hobbled toward the helicopter.





Ty was waiting for him in the parking lot, leaning against the hood of the command vehicle.

“Any more trouble with the Kershes,” his friend asked.

“Huh? Oh. No.” Linc scrubbed a hand over his jaw.

“Other trouble?”

“Are women anything but?” Linc asked.

“She got pretty rattled up there,” Ty agreed.

“She told my niece she decided to be a doctor when she was six and jumped out of a two-story window. Broke her ankle.”

“Jumped,” Ty repeated.

Linc nodded.

“She’s into adrenaline, sure. But…”

“There’s no way Mackenzie O’Neil would jump out of a window for fun,” Ty finished for him.

“Exactly.”

“That how she got the scar?”

Linc felt his mouth quirk. “Not according to Mantha’s interrogation. Mack wouldn’t say how she got it, only that it wasn’t related to the fall.”

“You ever tried asking her?”

Linc shook his head. “Nah. Figured I’d just be patient. She’ll tell me her story when she’s ready.”

“That sounds good and well-intentioned and all,” Ty said. “But you sure you’re not dragging your feet on the whole intimacy thing?”

“Oh, we’re intimate all right,” Linc said.

Ty drilled a finger into his chest. “That right there, Mr. Fun and Flirty Man Boy. You might say you’re ready for the real thing. But if you aren’t having the hard conversations now, when do you think you’ll get around to it?”