Black and Shadow by Caryn Moya Block Read Free Book Online

of cold poured over her. That was
the last straw. The world slid away.
     
    §
     
    Jessica went limp. Joe closed the
opening into Shadow and watched as one man ran to the shooter he
hit with the dart.
    “Did you get her?” the man asked. Joe
recognized him as the man who’d stopped Jessica as they came into
the bar. Greasy hair didn’t know it, but Joe would be coming for
him.
    “I know I hit her. I can’t feel my
leg. Damn bastard hit me with a dart. Where are they?” Joe tried to
memorize the second man’s features. He had a scar across his cheek,
and dark hair and eyes.
    “Beats the hell out of me. The boss
will be mad she got away,” Greasy Hair said. “We better find
her.”
    “Screw it, there’s blood on the
sidewalk. I must have gotten her. Help me. I’m not sure I can
walk.”
    “Come on, let’s go before someone
calls the cops.” Greasy Hair helped Scar Face to his feet and
started down the road. If they didn’t get Scar Face to the
hospital, he’d die as his body became paralyzed, his organs the
last to succumb to the poison on the dart tip he took in the hip.
They would have to seek help on their own. They’d tried to kill
Jessica.
    He looked down at the woman in his
arms. She had closed her eyes and her skin looked too pale. Blood
dripped from a wound on her head and he could feel the sticky
wetness coming from her arm. She needed a doctor and she needed one
now. Joe envisioned the hallway inside Isanti’s clinic. He sent a
mental call to his friend Dr. Frederick “Rick” White Fox, resident
doctor of Isanti, Inc.
    “Incoming with wounded.
Gunshot to arm, abrasion on head. Loss of
consciousness.”
    Joe felt the world shift as they
traveled through Shadow. When he could see the clinic hallway, he
opened a door in the dimension and rolled them out, making sure to
keep Jessica on top of him. He didn’t want to crush her any more
than he had. Hands reached for her. Joe didn’t want to let her
go.
    “Here I thought with Raven on his
honeymoon and Derek out of the country I might be able to catch up
on my reading. I should have known better. You were never far
behind them, even as a boy. Come on. You want to stay with her and
hold her hand, don’t you?” Dr. Rick grumbled.

Chapter Five
     
    Joe paced outside surgery. He’d last
seen Jessica with tubes in her nose so they could give her oxygen.
He slammed his hand into a vending machine. A crack appeared in the
glass.
    “Hey, don’t do that. You’ll break your
hand, or the machine,” Hugh Thunder Hoof said, coming down the
hall. “Rick said you might need company. What happened?”
    “Jessica got shot tonight. Someone is
gunning for her. I don’t know why. Unless she’s right and it wasn’t
terrorists who killed her brother.” Joe clenched his
jaw.
    “Wait? The new computer genius that
hacked our system? Shit. We need to keep her in lock down. That
girl is seriously talented. Our computers have better security than
the Pentagon.”
    “Did you find anything on the DEA
agent, Kramer, I told you about?” Joe rubbed his hand over his
eyes.
    “No money trail, but lots of people
think he’s dirty. I don’t know, maybe he’s one of those guys who
everyone loves to hate. I’ll keep looking.” Hugh
shrugged.
    “You do that. I have a feeling
something is very wrong here and Jessica is smack dab in the middle
of it. I’m not losing my mate now that I’ve found her.”
    “Yeah, I hear you. Can I do anything
else?”
    “Send someone over to the Rattler and
pick up the company car. Jessica’s purse is on the floor of the
passenger seat. She’ll want it when she wakes. Lock down the fort
and handle things without me for a while. I’ll be right here with
Jessica if you need me.”
    “Sure thing, Joe. Don’t be too hard on
yourself, and don’t break the vending machines. I happen to like my
daily Cheetos fix.” With a wave, Hugh walked toward the
elevator.
    “Smart ass,” Joe mumbled. He shouldn’t
have taken Jessica to