Love On The Line Read Online Free

difficult.”
    The only people Noah had any sort of relationship with were his brothers, all three of whom lived eight hundred miles away, and his partner, whose work ethic rivaled Noah’s own. And no way was he going to ask any of them to come whip up some meals and count out his pain pills for him, anyway. “I’ll figure it out. Thanks, doc.”
    “You’re welcome.” Dr. Fisher moved toward the door, his tennis shoes squeaking on the scuffed linoleum. “Your partner is down the hall, if you’re up for a visitor. But only for a few minutes. You’re likely to wear out quite easily after all you’ve been through.”
    “Sure. Yeah.” Noah knew better than to think Jason would take no for an answer no matter what the doc said, but only because it would be the exact same way if the situation were reversed.
    As if to illustrate the point in Technicolor 3D, the door to Noah’s room had no sooner swung shut than it rebounded open again, with Jason moving solidly through the industrial metal frame.
    “Hey, man. You look like shit.” The sunken shadows under Jason’s normally bright eyes, coupled with the wrinkled shirt and two days’ worth of light brown stubble peppering his jawline made the comment a two-way street.
    “Back atcha, jackass. You been sleeping in those clothes or what?”
    “Yeah,” Jason admitted, fiddling with the buttons on his shirt just like he always did when he was jittery. “You kind of scared the crap out of everybody, Sleeping Beauty.”
                  “It’s going to take a little more than some lead to the arm and some wonky meds to knock me out of the game.” Okay, so it was wishful thinking, at least for the next eight weeks, but Noah wasn’t ready to go there yet. He pegged Jason with a stare, trying his best to ignore the pain currently nailing itself from his shoulder to his elbow. “So what happened? The last thing I remember is going to follow up that lead, but after that, I’ve got nothing.”
                  Jason’s head snapped up. “You don’t remember any of it?”
                  “Not yet.” Noah dropped his eyes on the guise of checking out the IV in his hand. “Doc says it might take a little while. Anesthesia, trauma, blah, blah, blah. You want to help me out?”
    Jason didn’t answer, but instead took his sweet time dragging the world’s ugliest pink and gray chair over to the bedside. “I don’t know if I can, really. Not with the part you’re forgetting. Sands gave chase about four seconds after we rolled up on him. You got the jump on him going around a corner, but the shooter was on the other side. I never saw the guy, and Sands is in the wind.”
    Noah’s gut dropped like a chunk of old cement. “Which means I’m the only witness.”
    Jason nodded. “The investigation’s still open. As soon as the doc clears you to make a statement, you will. Until then, you know the deal. Martin wants to go completely by the rules to nail this bastard, whoever he is, and frankly, so do I.” The unspoken implication hung between them, heavy enough to cling to the air.
                  “So I’m out of the loop until I remember what happened,” Noah finished with a chill, but Jason didn’t even blink.
                  “’Fraid so. No details, no coming into the station, no work of any kind until your ass is well enough to get out of that bed and you can ID the guy who did this. So do us all a favor and rest up, wouldja?”
                  Silence settled into the spaces around them, and a nurse came in to check Noah’s vitals and put a syringe full of something into his IV. Despite his desire to tumble his thoughts around until something popped out of his memory and stuck, Noah’s eyes drifted closed. His brain still felt like its main ingredient was cotton candy, and okay, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to just take a little siesta to let his gray matter re-boot a