Team: Echo (21 page)

She nodded and settled against him. “Thanks for being here
Mik, for coming for me. And yeah I am very worried about what they
will say to me, they are going to be so pissed off when I get home
I just hope that they understand.”

“
Whatever you do, don’t let them get you all cornered,” he
said, dumping the med kit in her lap before digging in it. Pulling
out more gauze he opened a bottle and sniffed before moving to her
shoulder. “This will hurt,” was his only warning before he poured
the peroxide onto her shoulder over the back wound.

“
Oh son of a fucking bitch!” She screamed and felt
lightheaded. “Oh god.” She bit her lower lip. “Mik I am not so sure
that I won’t pass out.” She admitted to him. “Hate to admit it but
damn, this is not good.” She was fucking stronger than this but he
was right, her worry about how James and Dieter would react was
weighing heavily on her.

“
I know, baby girl,” he said quietly, stroking her hair back.
“The wound is clean, looks good so I’m going to stitch you up. But
first,” he dug out a couple ampoules. “Drugs of the good kind. Take
your pick of which you want. And we’ll have to give you a tetanus
shot too.”

Choosing two of the strongest pain killers Penny gave herself
a shot. “I don’t need another tetanus, I had one the last time that
I was hurt on the job. When my arm was broken. Don’t need another.”
Leaning her head back she sighed. “Morgan is as dirty and sick
bastard. He’s trying to breed a whole race of soldiers from you
guys and that’s just sick and fucking twisted.”

Sticking her again he smiled when she gave him her best
glare. “Just a numbing agent,” he said, capping the needle and
dropping it into the side pocket of the bag. Pulling on gloves he
dug out the suture kit. “We kind of figured he’d have something
like that up his sleeve. We have to stop him, Penny, plain and
simple. With the info you pulled we have leverage but that won’t
stop him if he goes into hiding. With his money he can hole up and
start up fresh.” Poking her lightly he began to stitch when she
didn’t move an inch.

“
We need to raze him to the ground. Take everything from him
and ensure he can’t go anywhere. No fly list, freeze his accounts
and basically turn him into number one on the Feds most wanted
sheet,” he murmured. “Lean forward so I can do the hole in the
back.”

“
True. I have some contacts I can start to harass to get him
on the shit lists and then when we release what we have on him to
the powers that be we will be able to seal his coffin. I seriously
doubt that the head honchos had signed on to have him create his
own little race of beings.” Leaning her head on the headrest she
frowned, seeing two of Mikhail. “You asshole. You fucking gave me
something that will knock me out. Not fair, Mik, not fair at all.”
She slurred the last words as she spoke.

“
Only a little something darling, you’ll wake before we get
home. But you need to relax,” he said softly, working on her
shoulder. Soon he was putting everything away and bandaging her up.
“Come on P, lets lay you down and you can sleep the rest of the
drive.” With his help she was soon stretched out in the backseat
and he had her covered. Brushing her hair back he stared down at
her. “After the boys get through ripping you a new one you’ll have
to deal with me Penelope. I figure by then I might be calm enough
to not want to strangle you.”

“
Won’t be enough of me left,” she grumbled, her body already
shutting down and heading head first into sleep. “Damn it was
supposed to be easy in and out. I wasn’t supposed to get
hurt.”

“
Yeah, well the best laid plans and all that other crap. We
all know that even if we plan for every contingency in the world
life will throw us a loop.” Tucking her in Mik quickly cleaned up
and then got into the front seat again. “Sorry to tell you this
baby girl but that’s how we all end up getting shot or
hurt.”

“
Well I don’t like it. I have enough scars as it is.” Her
words became slurred, speaking became harder and harder for her to
do until she muttered. “Sleeping now. Damn you Mikhail.” She forced
out before she was sound asleep.

“
Penny, wake your ass up woman,” Mikhail’s voice called out.
“Penelope Morgan, wake the fuck up before James tears through
Marius. And yes, they are out, apparently there is someone that I
need to beat later for letting the fuckers out early.”

Lifting her head Penny groaned. “Oh god.” She put her hand to
her forehead and licked her lips. “Damn I feel like I’ve been run
over. Sucks ass. All right, okay, let Marius know he can let James
go. He won’t hurt me, just grumble and maybe later spank me,” she
muttered, shifting so that she could sit up in the seat.

“
If you’re lucky probably,” Mikhail said, getting out of the
truck. “Pull on the spare shirt Penny or we may have even larger
issues,” he muttered opening her door. “Quick like woman,” he added
lifting a hand to signal Marius. James came storming their way
fast.

Pulling on the shirt slowly Penny looked at James. The
thundering anger on his face was nearly enough to make her whimper.
She slid over to the door and simply looked at him when he stepped
into the open space of the door. “Hey.” She knew that was a
seriously stupid thing to say but she simply couldn’t focus to
think of anything to say to him.

Looking her over he touched her face with light fingers, his
hands shaking. Glancing to Mik he growled. “We’ll be talking
later.” His focus shifted back to Penelope again. “What happened?”
he demanded in a low tone, dropping his hands to hers and holding
them as she slid out of the truck.

“
There was an unknown on scene. It’s totally my fault. I don’t
even know why I didn’t see him,” she confessed. “I should have. I
felt him before I saw him though and that’s just freaky. No one is
that damn good.”

“
Why the fuck didn’t you see him?” James shot at Mikhail. “You
went to cover her ass and you didn’t.”

“
I was covering her ass James and you’d better tone it down,”
Mik said quietly, calmly. He was at his most dangerous when he was
utterly calm. Angry you could work around him, when he was calm
though you cupped your nuts and prayed. “That was no human, he was
in and out too fast for even me to see with all this tech. I’m
guessing it was a Vamp given his movements.”

“
Kinda what my thought was as well. If not for Mik I’m sure
that I would be dinner in his teeth right now.” She hated to admit
it, but there it was. “Question is, how the fucking hell did Morgan
get Vamps to come and patrol his property, watch over his
shit?”

“
Uh,” Anton held up a hand from his position on the porch. “I
might have an answer.”

“
Let’s get inside,” Mik said quietly. “She needs to get to bed
sooner rather than later but we all know she won’t until she hears
this.”

Nodding James shot a dark look his way before softening it to
look at Penny. “Can you walk?” he asked quietly. His eyes had a
number of emotions churning in them but the one in the forefront
was concern.

“
Yeah, as long as you are willing to walk beside me I should
be good.” She smiled and said, “It’s just my shoulder. I’m mostly
out of it because big brother gave me something for the pain and
made me sleep. Likely very smart on his part truth be
told.”

“
We’ll discuss his smarts or lack thereof later,” James
muttered, sliding an arm through hers. “Come on babe, nice and
slow. Whatever he gave you is wearing off so let’s not show
everyone how non-graceful you can be at times. And yeah, I saw you
tripping over thin air the other day, who the hell does
that?”

“
Hey, the floor was out to get me,” she told him with a grin.
“I swear the walls and floors have it out for me sometimes. But I
can climb into five story trees, I can climb mountains and hide in
plain sight without anyone ever being the wiser, how the hell is
that possible?”

“
This is what I’m asking,” he said, helping her up the stairs
to the front door. “I’ve seen you scurry around and vanish in plain
sight. I’ve seen you climb the side of a building and never miss a
mark. But walking across a room tries to kill you, it should be
statistically impossible.”

“
Yeah well just call me impossible because it happens more
often than I care to admit to.” She was totally horrified by her
lack of coordination around this man, hated it but that was all
that there was to life. “Just please let me forget it though? That
I’m such a klutz around the men I love?”

“
It’s cute, you have a flaw woman,” he said softly. “Makes us
look better for all our flaws knowing you have at least one. Plus,
it’s usually well timed, allows us to scoop you up in our arms and
play the hero.”

She snorted at that and shook her head. “Have I mentioned to
you how much I love having you boys scooping me up? Cause I do. I
happen to really, really love having you doing that. But we don’t
need to have me tripping and falling over myself for you to do
that.”

“
And we don’t wait for it either if you haven’t been paying
attention.” At the bottom of the inner flight of stairs James
lifted her into his arms. “We’ll get you cleaned up and then you
are sleeping. Tomorrow though, tomorrow you, me and Dieter are
bloody well talking. And babe, we’re not fucking happy if you
haven’t figured that out,” he muttered, climbing the
steps.

“
Yeah I kinda figured that one out.” She rubbed her cheek to
his chest and sighed. “I love you. I know you are angry and for
that I’m sorry just know that it had to be done. I’m sorry but it
had to be done.”

“
I’m sure it did, but you should have told us and we should
have been there. The giant hole through your shoulder proving that
fact for me. One question for you,” he said as he swung into their
room. “Has Mikhail torn a strip off you yet?”

“
Not yet. He promised to do it when I’m feeling better. He
grumbled a little but not as much as I figured he would,” she told
him with a sigh. “So can you please get in line to take a strip out
of me too? Please?”

“
He didn’t yell at you?” James stopped in the middle of their
room and stared at her. “Are you serious?” he asked. At her nod he
whistled low and set her on her feet. “Babe, you may want to find a
really good place to hide for about two weeks. Preferably with me
and Dieter, we’ll keep you all safe and warm of course.”

“
I love having you keeping me warm. Will you keep me safe and
warm tonight?” she asked softly. “I would really like that a great
deal if you wouldn’t mind please. I am exhausted and really would
love to have another nice lovely shot for pain before I fall asleep
if you wouldn’t mind?”

“
You should probably have a shower first babe. Then we’ll
change out the dressings and then, after all that, you can sleep.
Shower first, you smell and have blood in places we’re not going to
discuss. Plus, you will feel better. I’ll give you the shot once
you’re out and we’ve changed the dressings.”

“
All right,” she closed her eyes and sighed. “Have I mentioned
to you just how happy that I am that you are here with me? But I
totally need help with the shower honey. I don’t think that I will
be able to do this alone.”

“
We kind of figured that out,” Dieter said, coming into the
room. “I also found you a sling for tomorrow when you regret not
having Mik just shoot you dead.” Moving ahead of her he went into
the bathroom and, moments later, the sound of the water running
reached her.

“
Thank you. Both of you, thank you for being so great and for
being mine. Thank you for wanting to be a part of my life even when
I do something as idiotic as what I did.”

“
Oh, we’ll be making your life miserable for the next while,”
Dieter said coming back out. “Have no worries on that. We will make
you pay dearly for not only running off without a word. But also
for leaving without backup, of any kind.”

“
I had Mikhail close by,” she grumbled, “Sorta. Besides if any
of you had moved it might have tipped that son of a bitch off and
that’s something that I simply couldn’t abide by. I wanted to know
just what that asshat was up to and this was the only
way.”

“
No,” James said quietly. stripping her down. “It was the only
way you saw that it would work. It wasn’t the only option. There
are always more options and we could have all discussed it. Had
this truly been the best option we would have supported you going
in with only one person in the wings. But we’d have had others
ready if needed. You chose not to discuss it with any of us and now
have to suffer the consequences.”

Penny nodded and took a breath to ask. “You aren’t leaving me
are you? Promise me that won’t be one of the consequences?” She
asked softly. “I don’t think that I would survive that one, you
leaving me.”

“
We’re not leaving you,” Dieter said, moving closer to touch
her cheek. “But we are not happy with you either. We will discuss
it later, for now we will take care of you and then we will talk.
Come, let’s get you in the shower. You are starting to waver on
your feet.”

Penny trusted them to keep her up and moved with them. Before
the shower was over she was sound asleep against Dieter, curled as
close to him as she could get and drooling against his
chest.