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At Your Command
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Kansas City Christmas
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Private S W A T Takeover
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Justin was bleeding again. But he ignored the pain and floored the Chevy, using his horn to clear traffic and get to the Cattleman’s Bank in record time.

The car bomb had been so noisy and distracting that Billy and the BDGs hadn't even noticed A. J. Rodriguez and the band of undercover detectives from the Fourth Precinct moving in. While the gang had holed up in a nearby restaurant to watch the fireworks, the police had swarmed the building.

But they hadn’t gone out without a fight. While most of the thugs had wisely surrendered, two had slipped out the back...forcing a chase. Already inside, Justin had been the first to run after them, and along with two other officers, had caught them- but not without a price. The fresh wound on his arm was deep.

He should be in the ER. He wanted to be at Nathan’s Bar, freeing Emilia. But he needed to be downtown with Cutler and his TAC team. Justin’s sense of calm was as impossible to hold on to as the belief that he and Emilia had something real going on, something long-term. But she probably couldn’t wait to get back to her by-the-book life, far away from the danger and unpredictability he’d brought into her world.

As he screeched to a halt, and donned the protective gear from his trunk, he had to trust that A.J. would get Emilia safely away from Nathan’s Bar. His heart might have been there, but Justin’s job was here.

Bingham wouldn’t have made this bomb simple. Justin wasn’t about to trust that this device had been neutralized until he’d seen to it himself- until he felt that calm, and knew that the case was closed.

* * *

“This was too easy.” Justin stood beside Mike Cutler and stared at the frozen clock they’d detached from the explosives packed inside a computer on the second floor of the bank. “Bingham never relies on just one triggering device.”

Justin’s calm just wouldn’t kick in. Billy Blue’s reign of terror over Kansas City wouldn’t end until this final bomb was neutralized.

“Bingham’s in too bad of shape to waltz into a building this size and make a delivery to the second floor undetected,” he continued.

“And Billy doesn’t have the know-how to engage the device without Grandpa.”

“Right.” Justin was scanning, pacing. “Bingham would have had to come in a wheelchair. Where would he have access to set up his bomb?”

“And not get noticed?”

“Hell.” Justin snapped his fingers, already running toward the stairs.

“Handicapped john. Keep an eye on that clock and your radio open.”

Within three minutes Justin had located the secondary triggering device. He found the red wire and digital watch inside the automatic hand-dryer in the handicapped bathroom. The damn thing was ticking. Two minutes, thirteen seconds.

“I’ve got a countdown again!” Cutler yelled over the radio. “Clear the building. Now!”

“No, sir.” Damn if he was gonna let Billy win. Justin had long since tossed his goggles and helmet. He’d paused only long enough to mop his arm to keep the blood from his wound from dripping onto his hands as he worked. Unscrew this. Pull here. Cut there.

Justin blinked his eyes clear of sweat. He positioned his snips around the last red wire. “If this doesn’t work out- tell Emilia I love her.”

“Grant!”

Justin squeezed.

* * *

“I’m a doctor. Let me through.“ Battle-ax voice firmly in place, beautiful brown eyes watching him every step of the way. Emilia. In one piece. There was a God.

Justin pushed himself up from his seat on the back of the ambulance. “Did A.J...? Are you...?”

She pushed him right back onto his bottom and walked straight into his arms. Her arms were around his neck and she was kissing him before he got his I love you out.

He wrapped her up in his embrace- loving her hair, her scent, her mouth- loving her attitude, loving her. When she came up for air, he wasn’t ready to let her go.

But Emilia had a few procedures she needed to take care of first. “Let me see your arm.” He dutifully cooperated while she probed the cut. “You’re going to have matching scars.”

“But if you’re the doc who stitches ‘em up, they’ll be neat and pretty, right?”

And then she was hugging him around the neck again. “Dammit, Justin, I don’t want to see you in my ER every week.”

“What about when I come to take you to dinner?”

She gave him a painless smack on the shoulder. “I’m serious. When I knew you were inside, defusing that bomb, I thought...”

Okay. He was the stronger one here- physically, at any rate. He pushed her away just far enough to find out what could bring tears to her eyes. “Thought what?”

“That I hadn’t told you I love you. That I didn’t want to lose you the way I lost my father. But I can’t imagine you doing any other kind of work when I know you’re so good at it.”

Justin wiped the tears from her cheeks, then kissed each spot. “The work I do is dangerous.” He’d never lie to her about that. “But I love it.”

He’d never lie to her about this, either. “About half as much as I love you.”

A miraculous sense of calm settled over Justin. It was more than knowing the bomb threats were over and no one was going to get hurt. The calm came from holding Emilia in his arms and knowing that loving her was one thing he’d gotten absolutely right.




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