Nikkie Jean was working when a tall, dark-haired, dark-eyed, gorgeous man walked into the ER. Next to the chief of the TSP.
It wasn’t her fiancé. Nor was it his clone.
No.
Jake MacNamara was just as pretty in a fully masculine sense.
Well, almost. Her fiancé Caine was always going to be the most beautiful man on the planet. His identical twin Rafe came in a close second. Followed by Allen. Then Jake.
Nikkie Jean may have been responsible for starting the Top Ten at FCGH meme floating around. Her and Jillian.
The blood wasn’t welcome, though. Nikkie Jean was already moving toward them. “Jake? What happened?”
“GSW.” He clutched his hand to his upper shoulder, but he was on his feet. “Chief took one to the left arm. His is worse. May be still in there.”
Another GSW. In a city of fifty-five thousand. That seemed…far too unrealistic to her. What it meant for her adopted city scared her, too. “It almost doesn’t seem realistic.”
“What doesn’t?”
“Why are so many bullets flying in such a small city? Answer me that, Mr. Policeman.”
His eyes darkened, now the same shade as his niece’s. “I don’t know. I’m working to find out. I will too, kid.”
Kid? She shot him a look. She was thirty—and he was no older than her fiancé. Still, Jake had what was known as an old soul. He would have been right at home in 1953, with some of his attitudes. It was no wonder he drove his niece insane sometimes. “I know.”
She guided him into the exam room while Lacy took over caring for Elliot Marshall. Elliot and Lacy were good friends—and cousins by marriage. “Has anyone called Gabby yet?”
Jake shook his head as Jillian went to work on Jake’s ruined shirt. “It just happened when we were on our way to W4HAV to see where Izzie was almost abducted.”
She shivered instinctively.
She’d had nightmares again. Nightmares where she lost her best friend.
“Someone’s serious, aren’t they?” He’d need checked to make certain there weren’t fragments in the wound. “Let’s get to this.”
She took a few moments to take an actual break while Jake was getting the necessary pretty pictures taken. Nikkie Jean needed it. She’d been the first one to offer to take Allen’s shift in the ER. She knew he’d worry about the hospital.
He took his duties as head of trauma very seriously.
Worry was a sharp pain in her heart, and Nikkie Jean knew it probably would be until Izzie and Allen were back in Finley Creek—safe where they both belonged.
At least Izzie wasn’t facing this alone.
After Caine and Rafe, Allen was the one man on the planet Nikkie Jean trusted. He wouldn’t let anything happen to Izzie. Not if he could prevent it.
She half thought a part of Izzie knew that, too.
She had just devoured her second pudding cup—Baby Alien Alvaro loved chocolate pudding, and Rafe had agreed to see to it that the cafeteria stocked it indefinitely—when her cell rang.
With a number she didn’t recognize.
Always cautious, she answered slowly. “Hello?”
When she heard the voice on the other end of the line, relief slammed into her. Talk about timing. This was exactly who she needed to talk to right now. “Are you both ok?”