And maybe, just maybe, Dodge was right. Maybe Colt would let God show him what might be on the other side. Because, frankly, it just sorta hurt to get in God’s way.

She leaned back. “Now get back into bed. Before I call the nurses on you.”

“They like me. Think I’m a hero or something.”

“That’s because you are, tough guy.”

He turned around, pulling his jammies shut behind him. “No peeking.”

She laughed, and he climbed back into bed. She helped hook him back up to the ECG machine just about the time his nurse came back in.

“You turned it off?” She shook her head, checked the machine. “Don’t tell me you’re going to give us trouble, Master Sergeant.”

“Brace yourself,” Tae said, her eyes shining.

“No ma’am,” Colt said. He took Tae’s hand. “My trouble days are over.”

Tae rolled her eyes again.

He laughed, but yes. At least, as much as it was up to him.

Please, God, give me a new heart.

Tae sat down in the chair beside Colt’s bed as the nurse left the room. “Your latest blood work shows that you have developed antibodies against the horsepox virus, which means it’s working.”

“Don’t lab rats get some sort of reward for surviving?”

She cocked her head.

“Too soon?”

“Depends on what kind of reward you want.”

“I have some ideas.”

“They’ll need to be tame ones.” She raised an eyebrow. “No excitement.”

“Like a walk on the beach.”

“Not a walk on the beach. I don’t know how you do it, but even that is way too exciting.” But she smiled.

“Fine. How about a date. Disney World.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“Sorta.”

“You know there is still one canister out there.”

“They didn’t find it yet?”

She shook her head. “But Logan says that Jones, Inc., and that means you, can stand down. He and Roy are after it.”

He stared at her hand, still gripped in his. “I don’t like it.”

“I know. But you can only do what you’re asked to do. You have to let God do the rest.”

He looked at her, raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

She shrugged. “Something I’m working on.”

“I like it.”

“Me too. So, yeah, I’ll go on a date with you. And then . . .”

“Then?”

“Then, we’ll see.”

He could live with we’ll see.

For now.

“I don’t like walking away from this.”

Ranger couldn’t agree more with Ham’s words. Only problem was that Ham meant the hunt for the last S-poxR canister.

Ranger meant Jones, Inc. The sense of being the tip of the spear. He still hadn’t quite shrugged off the adrenaline of the assault, almost five days ago now. Still remembered how it felt to take down the shooter who’d nearly killed Colt.