Big White Lie (Storm's Soldiers MC) Read Online Free Page A

what it led to.
    Stop this .
    “I’m good,” I said. “You’re done with your shift?”
    “Yeah. You were the most exciting patient by far.” She winked sharply.
    I felt tense again. I needed her to leave. I should just tell her I was too tired to talk.
    Instead, I said. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
    “Sorry you couldn’t be topped, or sorry for being so interesting?”
    “I did nothing interesting. This was just a man being an idiot.”
    “You’ve just defined all men.”
    My mouth tugged up, but I pulled it tight. She was wreaking havoc on my discipline.
    “It’s ok,” she said. “Idiots still have their uses.”
    Her voice sounded like a carousel, light and swirling. I could almost see it dancing as it came out.
    I could only imagine how it would sound lost in ecstasy. I quenched the thought, but it didn’t die easy.
    Rosa strode the length of the bed. She had changed her scent like her clothes. A tropical fruit breeze washed over me as she checked my monitors. It energized me just as her old one had soothed me.
    Luckily, she had stopped flirting. A hard mask slipped over her face. She was committed to her work. I could see that.
    In its own way, that only strengthened what she had awakened in me.
    She hummed a line, then turned to me, her lips curled up once more. Her eyes probed my bandaged leg, then continued to other parts of me.
    “The cops didn’t rough you up too bad, did they?” she asked.
    “They were annoying,” I said. “But they left quick.”
    “That’s the best they can do for you, am I right?”
    Something overtook her eyes, but she blinked it away.
    “Why’d you come here?” I asked.
    “Just to see how you’re doing.” She chanced another glance at me. “And see if I can’t get the full story.”
    “Story?” I asked.
    “Yeah, specifically yours.”
    “You want my whole story.”
    “Just the gunshot would be a nice start.”
    I looked at her a long while. There was something else at work in her. This dark thing that lay beyond the soft, lush exterior. But there was no trace it on her face now.
    Maybe I was just looking for a reason to commit her to memory.
    “How does knowing help with my care?” I said. “You’re not even working on this floor.”
    “I will be tomorrow,” she said.
    “You switched because of me?”
    She spun out a long, rich laugh.
    “Aw, no, hot stuff, not because of you. This is my job, you see.”
    My heart lost its rhythm at hot stuff . I felt like a teenager. Like I had never been a soldier. Like I had never been in the Storm’s Soldiers.
    “Well,” I managed to say. “In that case, you don’t need my story.”
    I regretted the words immediately. But they had no effect on her cheer.
    “I don’t need your story.” She went over to the foot of my bed and started flipping through the chart. “I can read it all right here and get the rest from the police.”
    I watched her smooth, dark face furrow, watched her full lips as they murmured through the text. That was a medical chart. There was nothing there. And she wasn’t going to get anything from the cops.
    My body chilled around a thought: No, she wouldn’t find anything, but they might find something from her. Like the location of a certain bullet that must still be in this hospital.
    “Come back tomorrow,” I said.
    She glanced up.
    “I’ll tell you what happened tomorrow,” I repeated.
    “Alright. I’ll hold you to it, though.” She hooked the chart back to the bed and left.
    I blew air. Lies were wasted energy. Now, this one was growing bigger.
    I didn’t feel stress thinking about having to come up with a story for her. Just relief at the idea of being in her presence again.
    Of all the stray thoughts that evening, that rattled me the most. I hoped it was still the meds.
    The curtains rustled. Rosa peeked back in.
    “Sweet dreams, army boy.” She flashed a smile and was gone.
    It took me half a minute to bring my brain back down from what that smile did to me.
    It