Page 2 of Condor’s Vow

“Nurse Pollard, Harriet Pollard.”

Clay watched her disappear through the doors, and for the first time since he’d seen Sammy go down, he took a breath. That woman cared about her patients, and he felt better leaving the kid in her care.

Clay washed up as best he could and then went to sit in the waiting room. He took out his phone and considered calling Reid, his best friend since they were boys. They had been through a lot together. First, grade school, high school, college, and they’d joined the FBI and then gone through selection for the elite HRT section of the FBI together. Reid had then made a decision on a case that meant his career with HRT was over.

When he’d received an offer to join a Black Ops group in the United Kingdom to work directly for the Royal Family, he had taken it. Clay didn’t begrudge him, but he missed him every day. He wondered if that was the reason for the unsettled feeling he’d had, wanting something more and having no clue what it was.

Dialing, he then waited to see if it would connect. It was later there, probably dinner time, but Reid kept odd hours just like Clay did.

“Clay, I was just thinking about you.”

“Yeah, miss me?” Clay joked.

“Miss that ugly mug? Not likely. But we have a job in Cali, and I might be on it. If I get a chance, I’ll try and come home for a few days.”

“That would be good. Your mom misses you.”

Clay heard Reid sigh and regretted his choice of words. Reid already carried way more guilt than he should about his family.

“I know I should get home more.”

“Buddy, I didn’t mean she needs you, but she loves your ugly ass as only a mother can, so she misses you. That don’t mean she can’t cope without you.”

“I’ll have you know my ass is anything but ugly.” Reid joked, and Clay shook his head.

Reid could pull any woman he wanted. His tattoos and slight bad boy vibe seemed to drive women crazy. Not that he did terrible for female company himself, but Reid was a literal chick magnet. He’d even seen his friend’s photo hidden in his younger sister’s bedroom and thanked God that Callie had never met Reid.

Callie lived with his dad and her mother and didn’t come out this way, but even when she was younger, she had loved Reid. Her six-year-old self following the teen who indulged her with sappy eyes. Yeah, he was glad Callie and Reid didn’t mix. He’d hate to have to kill his best friend for touching his baby sister.

“Whatever.”

“Anyway, why are you calling me? Shouldn’t you be on rotation?”

“We are. We just had a tough one.”

Reid understood he couldn’t talk about it but just knowing someone understood him and how he felt as he tried to explain a little about what had happened helped. A few minutes later, he got off the phone feeling better.

An hour later, he was just starting his third cup of coffee from the vending machine when Nurse Harriet walked toward him, her sure step making her tits bounce as she did. God, he was such a dick for thinking that at this moment, but his mind had gone there and now it was hard to drag it back.

He moved to stand, and she held out a hand to stop him as she sat down beside him, her body turned into his. “Sammy has extensive damage to his liver and has lost a lot of blood. He’s going into surgery now, and it will be at least a few hours, probably more.”

Clay blew out a breath and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. He felt a small gentle hand on his back and wanted to lean into it. To accept the comfort she was offering so innocently. “How can people be so fucking evil?”

“I don’t know. We see the worst and the best of humanity come through those doors and sometimes both together. We have to believe the good makes a difference. You staying here for this boy because he has nobody is the best.”

Clay turned and looked at her, noticing the slight green flecks in her blue eyes and the dimple in her left cheek. He had the overwhelming urge to pull her to him, to sink into that beauty as if to absorb it. “You’re beautiful.”

A blush crept over her face at his words, and she laughed, reaching to push a piece of hair that had escaped back into place. “If by beautiful you mean feet aching to the point of pain, bladder so full because I haven’t had a pee in eight hours because I have no time, and enough concealer under my eyes to hide the black hole, then I am indeed beautiful.”

“And funny and caring.”

“And you, mister no name, are a charmer.”

Clay went to respond, but the doors exploded open as paramedics rushed in with multiple patients with gunshots and she was gone. He watched her get stuck in, her hands sure as she helped the doctors attend to their patient before disappearing through the doors to the emergency department. He’d ask her out for coffee. Maybe something good could come from everything that had happened today.

Over the next three days, Clay checked on Sammy, keeping him company until his grandparents arrived from England to be with him.

He never got the chance to see Harriet again, though, and then life got complicated.