Chapter Four

San Diego, six months later…

The bullet wound in his side seemed to be getting worse. What did you expect, Scott, that it would feel better? He stumbled down the darkened street knowing he was not of the right persuasion to be down here, but he didn’t care.

The sudden lights blinded him and he stumbled to a halt, holding his hand in front of his eyes. As he lowered his hand Scott found himself surrounded by a group of younger men of a variety of races who didn’t look at all happy to see him. Their weapons were shoved into the waistbands of their pants and Scott, although extremely fatigued, went into battle mode.

“Well, well, well. What have we here?” one of the men asked his friends.

“I think you took the wrong street, man,” another said as a third shoved him to the ground.

Scott showed no emotion as he was forced to the pavement. Maybe they just want to scare me, he told himself. The second he felt a kick in his side he knew he was wrong. His body reacted violently as the next person kicked him.

Reaching out, he grabbed a leg and twisted it, tossing the body off balance. As that man hit the ground, the others began to swarm over him. The loss of blood slowed Scott down considerably. The men were obviously high and felt no pain, whereas he did. He was holding his own until he felt a hit into the back of his head and he dropped like a light, losing what little ground he’d gained.

What are they up to now? Alexis hurried towards the group of guys that seemed to be kicking or at least prodding something. Her hair bounced in time with her steps; she’d just left the corner bar from her date and wasn’t in the mood for Jay and his gang. They knew better. Last week she’d found them beating a helpless puppy in a bag; their behavior was getting old. “Hey!” she shouted, getting their attention. “Back off,” she ordered.

The ringleader looked up and rolled his eyes. “Lex, go home,” he yelled back as her steps brought her closer. “It ain’t got nuttin’ to do with you.”

She ignored him and shoved her way through only to stop and gasp. The form on the ground was a man. “What the hell are you doing?” Instantly, she placed herself over the man who was lying face down and began to check him for injuries, each one she found making her angrier. The Caucasian male was either unconscious or very close to it. Checking for a pulse, she breathed a bit easier when she found it, faint but steady. Her body trembled as she touched him.

“Leave him alone! He shouldn’t be down here! And we found him like this” the oldest boy protested.

Rising to her full height, she glared back at him, totally unintimidated. “What the hell do you think you were doing? The puppy was bad enough, but damn it, Jay, this is a man.”

“He was trespassing. We were just looking to see if he were dead. We didn’t beat him up.”

Trespassing? The man on the ground moaned. “I suppose he got these injuries by himself? Get out of here,” she hissed as she knelt back down beside him. “Easy now.” Her voice dropped into her soothing bedside manner voice.

“Alexis?”

Her heart froze. No, it couldn’t be. Not here. Carefully, she rolled the man over so she could see his face. Oh, dear Lord. It was. “Commander?” she asked softly.

“You know him?” Jay asked.

“Get over here, Jay, you and the rest of your friends who seem to think I am not serious. Pick him up and take him to my car.” She stood quickly. “Hang in there, Commander.” Her eyes snapped with impa-tience. “Now! Damnit, move!”

The five remaining men struggled to carry him to her sport utility vehicle, before they climbed in at her glare to ride with her to her small, three-bedroom rambler. She led the way to her spare room as the boys carried Scott laid him on the bed.

“Where do you know Casper from, Lex?” Jay asked her.

“He is a Commander in the US Navy and a SEAL, so if you guys weren’t getting the shit kicked out of you, then he has another injury somewhere.”

“Alexis?” The slur came again.

“I’m here, Commander. Right here.” Instantly she was beside him, touching his face. “I have to check you out. Can you tell me where you are injured?”

Those eyes opened and settled on her face. A quirky smile tugged the side of his mouth. “Still so beau-tiful, I like your hair down. I have a gunshot wound in the side.” He looked around the room at the men. “Is it safe here?”

Jay stepped forward. “We’ll be the ones asking questions, Casper. Where did you get shot at?”

Alexis waved him away, her insides trembling at Scott’s words. “You’re fine. You are at my house.”

“Them?”

“They helped bring you here. Close your eyes, Commander,” she ordered as she moved towards her doctor’s bag. “I have to get you stabilized and to a hospital.”

“No!” He grabbed her arm, sending shivers through them both. “No hospital.”

She removed his hand carefully, ignoring his comment, and got her bag. “Quiet. Conserve your ener-gy.”

Scott did, slipping into unconsciousness.

“You gonna call the police, Lex?” Jay asked as he watched her skillfully remove Scott’s shirt to expose the gunshot wound. It sat about an inch lower than the scar left from when she’d sewn him up on the Endeavor the last time they’d met.

Alexis disinfected her hands with a towelette. “You better pray I don’t. You boys would be in serious trouble, attacking a man just because. Don’t tell me you are trying to join that damn gang.”

Jay turned away from the man’s scarred body. There were dark bruises forming from where he and his boys had kicked him. “I swear we didn’t shoot him, Lex.”

“Quiet, Jay, let me concentrate.” There was silence in the room as her now-clean fingers probed into the wound, then she stuck in some clamps and pulled out the bullet. Correction, bullets. There were two inside his flesh. Holding the second one up, she frowned. “Hmmm. It’s a .38. Interesting.” She dropped it into the metal dish with a loud clang.

Her arresting gaze took in each and every one of the young men in her room. “Think about the choices you make, ’cause I don’t want to be doing this to you one day.” Her lean hand shook the container holding the bullets. “Now, go on, get some sleep.”

“It started to rain, guys…it’s gonna be a wet night,” Jay told his crew.

“Guys,” Lex interrupted. “I meant go crash in the living room. You know you are welcome to stay here. Just make sure you don’t disturb him.” Five young men smiled at her as they went to grab their usual sleeping gear from her hall closet to make up their beds.