Love On The Line Read Online Free Page B

hair later. Right now, she just wanted to do what she’d come to do and get back to her kitchen.             
    Violet retraced her steps over the well-paced tile, setting her shoulders to rights. Relief whooshed through her lungs when she saw Jason standing outside Noah’s room, talking to Lieutenant Martin and a white-coated man wearing pale blue scrubs and an overly sober look on his face. She shifted her weight from one lipstick-red ballet flat to the other, counting the seconds until the men exchanged handshakes and parted ways.                  
                  “Hey!” Jason’s tired face brightened a degree when he turned and saw her, erasing the deep creases of worry from a few minutes ago. “What’re you doing back here?”
                  Violet leaned in to give him a quick hug before passing him the bag. “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and the sludgy coffee in the waiting room doesn’t count.”
                  “Ah, you’re a lifesaver.” Jason popped open the bag for a quick glance, his features falling into a grin. “Breakfast burritos. Nice.”
                  “Yeah, I know they’re your favorite. Plus, I thought you might need some protein to keep your energy up.”
                  His grin turned teasing, and God, it was infectious. “There’s enough food in here for half the squad.”
                  “What can I say? I’m a chef. We don’t go small when we’re feeding people.” Not that Violet would admit that she’d been in her kitchen since o’dark-thirty, chopping, scrambling and baking everything in her path because the food had been the only thing to calm her. She smoothed her hand over the front of her jeans twice. “So, um. How’s Noah?”
                  Jason’s expression revealed nothing at the question, another cop trick Violet detested. “Awake. Or he was for a little while.”
                  She tasted the I know on her tongue, pressing it to the roof of her mouth until it dissolved like spun sugar. “Good. That’s good.” A nurse rushed in the opposite direction, uttering the words “code red” and calling for a doctor in clipped, precise tones, and yeah, it was definitely time to go. “Okay, so let me know if you need anything else.” She turned toward the exit, the bright green arrow marking the stairwell enticingly within sight.             
                  But Jason stopped her mid-step. “Actually, I might.”
                  “You might? Or you do?” Violet pulled her brow in concern. Whatever it was had to be pretty major, otherwise why would he be looking at her like he’d just swallowed a handful of thumbtacks?
                  “I do,” he said, but didn’t follow it up, as if he wanted to let the words sink in before elaborating. “But it’s a little complicated.”
                  The look on his face didn’t let up, and Violet stepped forward, squeezing his forearm. “Try me.”
                  “Noah had kind of a rocky reaction to the anesthesia when he had surgery this morning, and the pain medication is making him a little…forgetful.”
                  A prickle ghosted up the back of Violet’s neck, followed by confusion. “But he’s awake.”
                  “He was awake for a while, yes. The doctor thinks his foggy memory is temporary, kind of a combination of the medicine and the, ah. Trauma.” Jason dropped his voice over the last word, but it scraped at Violet all the same. “Even though he should pull through just fine, Lieu and I are still worried about it.”
                  “You should be,” Violet said, unable to help the hard edge coloring her words. God, the job was so dangerous. “He got shot, Jason.”
                  Her brother’s eyes