Picnic in Someday Valley (Honey Creek #2)(80)

Leroy stormed back and forth. “He couldn’t yell cause you two gagged him.”

Both men shook their heads.

“Damn it to the moon and back, he didn’t do that to himself. So who did it?” the sheriff demanded.

Both Marcie and Piper raised their hands, as if to answer a question in school.

The sheriff looked from one to the other, then back at Brand and Colby. “Are you trying to tell me that my new dispatcher and the mayor did that to this man?”

The men didn’t even blink as they nodded.

LeRoy turned to his deputy and yelled loud enough for the whole valley to hear. “Well, Rip, what do you think happened to him?”

Rip, who’d been standing by the door, took one more look at Leon and answered, “Looks like an accident to me.”

LeRoy waved the ambulance in and ordered them to keep him tied up until he was cuffed to a hospital bed. “As soon as he’s patched up, I’m booking him for every crime I can spell.”

He turned to Colby. “Ranger, I know I don’t have the power to boss you around, but take my squad car and get Piper to the hospital. I’m guessing she doesn’t want to ride with Leon. I see blood dripping out of the back of her head. Her neck is also bleeding. Have the doctor check her right leg, she’s limping.”

Colby moved close to her and tenderly lifted Piper. “I warned you about those high heels. I knew one day you’d twist your ankle.” He’d already tied his handkerchief around her neck, but he hadn’t seen the back of her hair.

She put her head on his shoulder. “I knew you’d come.”

As he carried her away, Piper heard the sheriff tell Marcie to get a few hours’ sleep and if she felt like it, come in tonight to relieve Pecos at the station. “When the kid heard you two were in danger, he wouldn’t let anyone take over. He’s already making enough overtime to send that kid to college.”

As everyone began to move away, LeRoy raised his voice. “I want to see you all in my office tomorrow to make statements.”

*

Marcie wrapped her arms around Brand’s arm. “I remembered everything you told me. You said if I have to fight, fight like my life depends on it. And I did. I saved us, because of you.” They walked toward his truck as if the dozen people standing around were invisible.

“Now, my little koala bear, you’ll have to come home and save me.”

“What’s wrong with you?”

“I’m dying to hold you. When I saw you make that last hit, I saw a warrior born. I saw my mate, strong and beautiful. Without you, my life will always seem dark and silent.”

“I can save you, Brand.” She put her hand on his chest and smiled up at him. “You know, when you said you loved me?”

“I remember.”

He opened his pickup door and lifted her in. “We’ll come back for your car later. I need you in my sight for a while.”

She didn’t argue. “I’ve been thinking about what you said, and I think I should let you in on something too. I think I love you. You know, with that forever kind of love.”

“When will you be sure?”

“Probably as soon as our clothes hit the floor.”

He smiled his slow smile that lit up her world. “It’s going to be ten miles before we get back home. Why don’t you start undressing now, and I’ll drive and watch.”

She laughed and followed his suggestion. “You want to know why I fought so hard?”

“I do.”

“I had to get back to you.”





Chapter 53


Colby


Colby sat beside Piper in the ER. A hundred questions kept running through his mind. He wanted to hear every detail she remembered from the moment she left him at the café, but Piper needed to rest. She’d had four stitches in her throat. She had a bruise on her left cheek that seemed to be turning darker by the minute. When the creep had hit her to knock her out and kidnap her, he’d left an open wound. She needed stitches in the back of her head. The area had been cleaned and bandaged, but the doctor wanted her to rest a bit before they started again.

He was glad she couldn’t see the wound.

Colby thought the strangest thing of all was when he asked her how she was doing, Piper teared up and said that Leon burned a hole in her dress. The mayor was definitely delirious. She almost died and she was worried about how she looked.

Now and then he could hear Leon in the other emergency room at the clinic. He kept yelling, then he started crying when the doctor examined him.

One of the nurses said Leon planned to sue pretty much everybody. He was innocent and Marcie beat him up for no reason. He claimed it was his word against hers.

When the nurse reminded him that the mayor had been there, Leon said that Piper Mackenzie was a liar. He claimed she was just mad at him for hitting her in the head. He claimed he’d explained to the mayor that he was just using her as bait. He said he was taking it easy on her until she broke three of his fingers for no reason at all.

“I swore the cut on her neck wasn’t my fault or the gash on the back of her head,” Leon protested loudly. “How else was I going to get her in the trunk if I didn’t knock her out?”

When the nurse talked to Colby a few minutes later, she just smiled and said, “I told Leon I’d write everything he said down, word for word, and would be happy to testify in his trial.” She grinned. “I said he’d probably get out of jail.”