Page 103 of Code Name: Harbor

I stand, lean over the bed, and press a kiss to the unburned side of his forehead, careful, my lips barely touching.

“I’ll check on you later,” I tell him. “And the second Finn’s out of surgery, the very second, I’ll come tell you. You don’t have to wonder. I’ll come tell you myself.”

His eyes flutter open. “Josie.”

“Yeah.”

“He chose you over all of it. He’d already chosen the white-fence thing. He told me. He was getting out.” A breath, eyelids drooping. “Don’t let anybody make him sorry he did.”

“I won’t,” I rasp. “Get some rest. I’ve got him.”

His eyes close and I leave him to it.

I make my way back down through the hospital, two floors and a long corridor, past the smell of antiseptic and the squeak of tennis shoes on polished industrial tile.

The surgical waiting area is a square of mismatched chairs and a wall-mounted TV playing the local news with the sound off. When I come around the corner, I see Cole rising from a chair before I clear the doorway.

“Josie.” He crosses to me fast, and the look on his face when he gets a clear view of me makes me realize for the first time, fully, what I must look like. “God. Okay. Sit down. Sit before you fall down.”

“I’m fine.”

It’s just some superficial cuts and bruises but paramedics patched me up. I waved off having a doctor look at me, wanting to be ready for news on Finn.

“You are absolutely not fine.” Cole’s got a hand under my elbow, steering me into a chair. Over his shoulder I see Malik standing by the window with his phone in his hand and his jaw set, watching me with the flat assessing stillness he gets when he’s reading a scene. “When’s the last time anyone looked at your hands? Your hands are bleeding through, Josie.”

“The paramedic wrapped them. I pulled it loose.”

“Let’s get them rebandaged.”

“I’m fine,” I snap and then rub at my temple. “I’m sorry. I’m just a little out of it.”

Cole nods and crouches in front of me so we’re eye to eye. “Talk to me. What do we know about Finn?”

“He’s still in surgery. Gunshot to the chest. They took him about three hours ago and nobody’s come out.” My voice gives. “That’s all I have.”

Cole’s jaw tightens. He nods and doesn’t attempt to fill the silence with anything stupid, and I love him for it.

But then it occurs to me… they were set to sting Mikhail. “What happened to your operation?”

“No one showed up,” he gusts out as he rises and then lowers himself into the chair across from me.

“The tip was a setup,” I say, now all the pieces coming together. “It must have been Connie.”

“Connie?” he asks, brows knitting.

Shit. How do I explain Connie and The Quartermaster being blow apart, and Finn being a smuggler?

I can’t.

Luckily, Malik walks up. His hand comes to my shoulder. “You okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“I need you to walk me through tonight. As much as you can. I know the timing’s terrible and I’m not going to push you past what you’ve got in you. But I’ve got a man in custody, I’ve got a destroyed vessel in the strait, and I’ve got you sitting here covered in blood. I need to understand what’s going on before the FBI gets in this room and starts understanding it for me.”

My mind races, because while I need to give a statement to Malik and eventually the FBI, I can’t say anything that will put Finn and Marcus in jeopardy.

Think, Josie.