Wild Men of Alaska 02 - Moosed-Up

lay on his side, keeping his arm free with the gun still glued in his hand. She noticed his eyelids dip and stay closed longer than normal.
    Come on drug, do your thing.
    “What are you looking at?” he demanded, when he opened his eyes to find her watching him.
    “Nothing.” Keep working, Eva . Don’t give him a reason to suspect that you shot him up with narcotics. He was feeling the effects. She needed him to think of another reason to explain the tiredness that would hit him any minute. “We really need to get you to a hospital. You’ve lost a lot of blood.”
    Maybe she’d taken it too far or he’d finally wised up. “You bitch. Whatdaya give me?”
    The gun came up, and she knew she was toast. With nothing to lose, she made a grab for the gun. It went off, putting a nice hole in her ceiling, and had plaster raining down on them. They struggled, and she fell on him, making sure her elbow dug into his wounded side. Pete screamed, and she freed the gun from his hand.
    The door to the room slammed open against the opposing wall, and Lynx rushed in, his gun raised with another armed man in a navy and gold trooper uniform right behind him.
    Reflexes had her swinging the g un toward the new interruption.
    “Eva, honey, hand me the gun,” Lynx soothed, reaching out his hand.
    She stood frozen for a moment, the gun still trained on Lynx as Pete threatened and cursed her heritage.
    “Eva, hand me the gun.” Lynx slowly inched toward her, letting the guy standing behind him cover Pete in case he decided to give them any trouble. Lynx’s hand enclosed hers. “That’s it. Let go. I’ve got it.” He talked to her in a calming voice, like he was talking down a jumper.
    She didn’t realize how tight she was strung until Lynx had Pete’s gun and yanked her into the warmth and safety of his arms. Then she started to shake like a dried, golden birch leaf ready to fall.
    “You got this?” Lynx asked the uniform over her head.
    “What’s to get? Your woman took him out.”
    Eva disengaged herself from Lynx’s comforting arms. She wanted to stay and never leave the protective circl e, but she still had a patient.
    “I drugged him up. We need to call an ambulance or air flight him to Fairbanks. I might have overdosed him.”
    “You are quite the woman,” the uniform said with an appreciative look. “No wonder Lynx is ready to call bachelor life quits.”
    “Nate,” Lynx growled the warning through his teeth.
    “What? You haven’t finalized the deal yet?” Nate turned toward Eva and gave her a smile that twinkled. “Hi, I’m Nate Lewis. And if you’d like to have dinner with me, I’d love to feed you.”
    “Back off. She only eats dinner with me.”
    “I’ve yet to eat dinner with you,” Eva said. “You stood me up, remember? Besides, I don’t belong to anyone.”
    Nate choked on his laugh, and Lynx’s expression darkened. Then he grasped Eva’s arm turning it to see better. “Are you bleeding?”
    She shook her head. “It’s not mine.”
    “Nice,” Nate said.
    “Let’s get this dirt bag out of here,” Eva said. “He’s mudding up my clinic.” Eva turned back to Pete. He was out cold but still bleeding. She moved to stanch the blood, but Lynx grabbed her arm.
    “You don’t have to do this. He held you hostage.”
    “I’m okay.”
    “You might think you are.” He held up his hand when she went to interrupt. “I can bandage him until the paramedics get here. I’m a registered veterinarian, and he’s basically an animal.”
    “Let me help. I’ll be fine. Seriously. I can do this.”
    He smiled at her with what she interpreted to be pride, and it made her heart swell with that teenage excitement. She did her best to tamp it back. There was too much going on to let an infatuation with this man stay in the forefront. “After we take care of him, and you get him out of my clinic, I need an explanation on what the hell this was all about.”

Chapter Nineteen

    Lynx returned to Chatanika after delivering the poachers to the jail in Fairbanks. The paperwork had seemed endless, and a new day had begun by the time he was finished. Pete was handcuffed to his bed in the Fairbanks Memorial Hospital with a guard stationed outside his room. Last Lynx had heard, Pete had come to and cussing about the demon nurse in Chatanika. Lynx liked the description, so proud of Eva and the way she’d handled herself, though he never wanted to see her in danger again.
    That was one woman with a