“Yes,” she said, a little breathless. “Just sore. Thank you.”

“No problem, miss. Follow me outside where the police officers will question you. They will restrain you until they can verify your identity. Don’t be scared. It’s standard procedure.”

Then he let her go and surreptitiously cradled his injured arm, leading the way until he had the door open. Officers rushed forward to grab the rescued hostages.

Scotty paused beside him, wedging the door wider with his boot. “You okay, buddy?”

Shane shifted and gritted his teeth hoping his best friend wouldn’t notice through the NVGs the fact that Shane wanted to hurl.

“Sure.”

He followed the rest of the guys outside and they headed to the rendezvous point to meet up and debrief. He paused to carefully flip up his NVGs as the power was restored and the world came glaring back to life.

Unfortunately, that meant the others could now see the unnatural angle of his lower left arm as it rested across the top of his carbine.

Gold team leader Payne Novak met him halfway with their medic. They wrapped his arm in a temporary splint and slipped a sling around his neck. All Shane could think about was how much it was going to suck getting out of his favorite flight suit.

When Novak indicated that the ambulance drive toward them, Shane balked. “I can walk.”

“And risk severing an artery?” Novak snapped.

Well, maybe not.

“You shouldn’t have moved once you realized it was broken.” Novak sounded pissed.

Shane was valiantly trying not to vomit all over his friend and boss, so he didn’t bother to argue. Suddenly going to the hospital didn’t seem such a bad idea.

Shane swallowed and asked quickly, “We lose anyone?”

“No. Nor any hostages. From what we can gather, they killed the marshal who you discovered, plus the unfortunate court reporter before we started our assault.” Sobering news which proved the white supremacists had been serious about their intentions. “All six hostiles are dead,” Novak told him and Shane felt a crushing weight release off his shoulders.

“In fact,” Novak smiled slightly as he indicated Scotty get in the ambulance with Shane. “You’re the only HRT casualty today.”

Shane groaned, as much from embarrassment as pain. “The woman who came out with us, is she okay? And the judge?”

Novak nodded. “Yep. Both shaken but no obvious injuries. There are easier ways to impress women, you know.”

Shane shook his head, knowing he was never going to live this down.

“I’ll expect a full report when you get back to Quantico.” Novak closed the ambulance doors and thumped the back to tell the EMT to get going.

“Fuck.” Typing up FD 302s with his non dominant arm was going to take forever.

“Of all the ways to be brought low—a woman in high heels was not on my bingo card today.” Scotty grinned.

“Always expect the unexpected.”