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“Then where did the blood come from?” Hailey questioned and Tyler’s eyes slid over his sister’s shoulder where it looked like dried blood was.
“It’s not mine. Justine…she got cut getting us out of there,” Isabelle said, hesitating on her name.
“Is she okay?” Hailey asked pulling a grunt from their dad as he and their mom hugged Isabelle tight.
“She’ll be fine,” a voice from behind their group stated, and Tyler’s gaze slid towards a man likely seven to ten years older than him heading their way. “She’s already arguing about wanting out of here, but they need to run a few more tests first to make sure there’s not any damage to her kidney from the hit she took.”
That news sent a wave of dread through him, and he recognized the look on Hailey’s face at the mention of kidneys. None of the others really thought anything about it, but he knew Justine only had one. That her other was inside Hailey now, which meant damage to it was more severe than for a normal individual.
“She’s really okay?” Isabelle asked, pulling another grumble from their dad and Tyler had to bite back a grin when his sister shot him a dirty look. “Stop it. She risked her life for me. She…she took down both of them with a broken arm, used it to shield me when the guy came at me with a freaking tree branch. I don’t want to hear anything about her being a Crawford.”
“You can blame the sass on the pain of a sprained ankle later,” Hailey tacked on, giving their parents a grin as their mom pressed kisses to both of their heads.
“I know it was scary to see her pass out, but the combination of the pain, the ability to relax, which resulted in the adrenaline lowering took a toll. She was coming back around in the ambulance already,” the man assured Isabelle, but she didn’t look like she bought it.
“She lost a lot of blood though,” Isabelle said pulling a hint of a smile from the guy and Tyler didn’t like it one bit.
“Justine’s tough. The knife barely nicked her artery, and they had fluids in her before she even woke up, stopping the blood loss quickly. She’ll be back to fighting shape in no time.”
“Wait, what happened?” Grace asked coming back to their group after speaking with the doctor looking after Isabelle.
Tyler’s heart was in his throat as Isabelle told them and his eyes went back to the man there, the hint of a smile deeper and his eyes narrowed on the man.
“We’ll need to ask Isabelle some questions about what everything that happened, but that can wait until tomorrow. I believe the doctor was going to release her once you all arrived. I’m going to grab some clothes out of the car for Justine, if you didn’t bring anything for Isabelle, there’s a shop open down the street, or they can give her some scrubs to go home in,” the man simply said when Isabelle finished, heading for the door.
“I’ll go grab the bag from the car. You left it in the backseat of Mom and Dad’s car, didn’t you, Hailey?” Tyler asked his sister who nodded.
“Sorry, I was too anxious to get in here to grab it when we got here.”
Tyler took the keys from his father, moving out the door after the man wanting more from him than what he gave the others. He stopped just outside the doors, trying to see where he went and heard a voice clear from off to the side.
“Do you have a problem with me?” the man questioned, lifting a brow his way, that same ghost of a smile on his lips. “I mean, I know you’re sleeping with Justine, so I’d assume you knew that our relationship is and always has been strictly professional. I care about her immensely. At times I was the only person that had any interaction with her that wasn’t from some scumbag, so I’m protective of her beyond our professional relationship but not because I want her.”
“How…what?” Tyler said, moving further away from the building, and the man followed him, allowing him to grab the bag for Isabelle.
“Granted she didn’t tell me that the two of you were once again ‘on’ more like she told Melissa that the two of you were seeing each other again, although the rest of your family isn’t aware of that fact, are they?”
“No, not yet. Who are you?” Tyler added sending the man’s brow upward a bit more. “I didn’t have a clue what Justine’s job was until she walked into my parents house wearing a fucking FBI jacket, this…yesterday morning,” he corrected as the time was well past two a.m. now.
“Luke Morrison. I was Justine’s handler when she was UC—undercover,” Luke explained as his brows furled a bit in confusion at that. “When she was deep under it was too dangerous for her to contact the rest of the team, so I was the only one that knew where and what she was doing most of the time. We had scheduled meets for her to check-in and get a slight break from her UC duties. Believe me, in our field that’s necessary.”
“And her injuries…is she really going to be okay?” he questioned knowing if he took too long it’d be suspicious.
“She’ll be fine physically. She’ll need to take it easy but since she’s resigning that shouldn’t be too hard to do. If you told me two years ago that she would be, I wouldn’t believe it, but now…well, it’s easy to see why she’s ready to make a big change in her life. Doesn’t mean that we’re not still going to be part of her life though and if you hurt her or letanyof your family hurt her, you’ll answer to me. Understand?” Luke warned and his jaw tightened in fury that anyone would question him when it came to Justine.
“I will never hurt her or let someone else hurt her. The only thing I’ve wanted the last fourteen…nearly fifteen years was her. She’s the only woman for me and nothing anyone says will change my mind on that,” he said, before returning to the ER, desperate for at least a few minutes with Justine.
The opportunity came faster than he expected when the doctor gave them a prescription for some pain medicine for Isabelle to take with the discharge paperwork. It wasn’t a narcotic but a higher dosage ibuprofen that should help her handle the ache from the severe sprain.
“Why don’t I wait for the script while you all head on home?” Tyler suggested to his parents, glancing at Grace who gave him a little brow lift clearly reading his true intentions. “I can drop it off on my way through. Grace can ride back with you to help get Isabelle inside, right?”
“Of course,” his cousin agreed, giving Isabelle a hug. “She’ll likely need it first thing in the morning to keep the pain at bay.”
“Thanks big brother,” Isabelle said, squeezing his neck tightly when he gave her a hug first. “You better be nice to Justine from now on too. No more biting at her because you’re mad that Angela left you and she’s the one that told you.”
“I won’t,” he assured her, holding back a laugh while the group left, letting him slip over to the desk to ask what room or bay Justine was in not seeing any of her team there waiting for news about the other girls they’d brought in from the farm any longer.
“I’m not sure…” the nurse said as the ER doctor moved up behind her.
