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waiting room. There was a row of chairs and they sat, Jacko’s arm around a pale Lauren.
    Felicity regained consciousness while being infused. After about twenty minutes, Metal gently took Felicity’s hand and pinched the nail of her right index finger, hard. The nail bed turned white then immediately turned pink as blood pressure reinfused the nail. Metal looked at Manuel, who nodded.
    He’d injected a local anesthetic and had started stitching her up. Metal stayed by his side. They’d worked together often, but here Metal wasn’t assisting. He was holding Felicity’s hand. She clutched his, silently asking him not to leave her.
    No, he wasn’t going to leave her. You wouldn’t be able to pull him from her side with bolt cutters and a crane.
    Manuel had a delicate hand with stitches, which Metal didn’t. It was the reason he was happy to have Manuel do the honors. Metal was used to battlefield stitches and nobody gave a shit what kind of scar they’d leave. Manuel’s stitches were small, precise, delicate. They’d leave a scar that in time would fade to a thin white line. It would barely mar that smooth, pale, perfect skin. Metal would have left a big Frankensteinian ladder-back scar.
    When Manuel finished stitching her up, Metal checked her out. Her hand in his was warmer, not cold and clammy like before. His thumb at her wrist revealed a faster, stronger pulse. Manuel would measure her blood pressure but Metal could measure BP without instrumentation. He pegged it at 120 over 70 and he was never wrong.
    Manuel pumped up the cuff and looked at the dial. “120 over 70,” he announced. “Pretty good.”
    Felicity’s face had more color in it, lips no longer with a bluish cast. Her eyes were losing that bruised look.
    She was on her way to recovery.
    Her eyes had never left his as Manuel stitched her up. He started dressing the wound. “So, Miss—”
    “Felicity,” Metal answered at the same time Felicity did.
    Manuel laughed. A patient who didn’t want their last name known was nothing new to him. “So, Felicity, then.” He had a pleasant voice, with the faintest of Hispanic accents. “I’m leaving you in Metal’s care. He’s good, he knows what he’s doing. I’m going to give you a course of antibiotics and Metal knows how to change your dressing. You’re good to go.”
    “Thank you,” she whispered, rolling her head on the gurney to smile faintly at Manuel.
    Manuel laughed. “I don’t want to say ‘anytime’ because I sincerely hope never to see you here again. But in any case—you’re welcome. And now if you’ll excuse me, I have a gunshot wound to see to. Bad guys are busy tonight.”
    With a cheery wave, he disappeared.
    No mention of money had been made but Metal made a note to up his monthly contribution and to donate a few extra hours.
    An hour after carrying Felicity in, Metal wheeled her back out again. Lauren jumped up and ran to Felicity’s side. Lauren blinked and smiled. “Oh my gosh, you look so much better!” Lauren shuddered. “I’ve been—we’ve been so worried!”
    “Nah.” Jacko placed a heavy arm around around Lauren’s shoulders and smiled down at Felicity. “I wasn’t.”
    It was so fucking
weird
to see Jacko smiling. Metal had been Jacko’s teammate for eight years and they’d both worked together at Alpha Security International for the past couple of years and he’d seen Jacko smile more in the past weeks than in the past decade. Smiles looked strange on his face. “I wasn’t worried. I knew you were in good hands.”
    Lauren gave him a sharp look but then smiled back down at Felicity. “So, let’s get you back home and—”
    “No.” Metal and Jacko spoke at the same time. Lauren looked at them, confused.
    “Whoever this guy is who is after her, we can’t know if he is aware that she was coming to you.” Metal gave the logical explanation because he couldn’t give the illogical one. Which was that he wasn’t letting Felicity out of his