“Chase...” Harper’s eyes fluttered open and relief poured through him.
“Harper...angel...” He was reaching out to her, desperate to make sure she was okay, when the walls began to close in. He fought to stay on his feet, but his knees weakened, buckled, his vision narrowed, and everything went black.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Still feeling sluggish and faintly nauseous, Harper sat next to Jason Maddox in the emergency room of Baylor Medical Center. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Chase lying unconscious on the pavement, a pair of EMTs working over him, trying to stop the blood seeping out of a bullet hole in his chest.
After the crash, only a few minutes had passed before a swarm of police cars, red and blue lights flashing, screeched to a halt, hemming them in. Patrol car doors flew open and police officers poured out, guns drawn. Maddox raised his hands, his pistol hanging loosely from his fingers.
“On the ground! Now!” Three officers rushed forward, one of them snagging the pistol. Another whirled him around and shoved him to his knees, then facedown on the ground. Dragging Maddox’s hands behind his back, the officer locked a pair of handcuffs on Jason’s wrists.
“The men in that car tried to kidnap me!” Harper frantically explained, pointing toward the Suburban. “Chase Garrett and Jason Maddox saved me! Please, Chase has been shot! He needs help!”
Officers were already there, working to slow the bleeding. A few minutes later, an ambulance rolled up, and a pair of EMTs got out and took over.
She was shivering, Harper realized as she watched them, her short cotton nightgown little protection against the chill. A female officer walked over with a blanket, which she draped around Harper’s shoulders.
“Thank you.” She spotted a dark-haired man in a brown sport coat walking toward her.
“You’re Harper Winston?” he asked. She noticed he wore wingtip shoes and had big feet.
“I’m Harper.”
“Detective Heath Ford. I’m a friend of Chase’s.”
Relief filtered through her. Someone on their side. “Thank God.”
He flicked a glance at Maddox, who was handcuffed on the ground a few feet away. “I’m a friend of his, too, though he can be a royal pain in the ass sometimes.”
She was too upset to smile. “Jason and Chase saved my life tonight. If it hadn’t been for them, I don’t know what would have happened to me.”
Ford turned to one of the patrolmen and tipped his head toward Maddox. “Uncuff him. Believe it or not, he’s one of the good guys.”
Jason cast Ford a dark look, but the officer chuckled as he unlocked the cuffs and Maddox rolled to his feet, rubbing his wrists.
“What about Chase?” she asked anxiously. “Is he going to be all right?”
“He’s awake. Looks like the shot went all the way through, but he’s lost a lot of blood. They’re loading him into the ambulance now.”
“I want to go with him.”
“I’ve got some questions first,” the detective said.
Maddox flashed her a glance. “I’ll take you to the hospital. You don’t need to worry.”
She didn’t want to wait. She wanted to be with Chase, make sure he was going to be all right.
Maddox leaned over and tipped up her chin, forcing her to look at him. “Chase’s tough. He’s had worse. He’ll be okay.”
Resigned, for the next half hour Harper explained what had happened, how men had started a fire in her town house to drive them outside. How they were waiting in back for them to come out. She told him how if it hadn’t been for Chase and Jason Maddox, the men would have kidnapped her and taken her God only knew where.
She didn’t tell them about her brother. She answered the questions she was asked but didn’t expand on why she was being abducted or who might be behind it. Not a lie, since she didn’t really know.
“You did good,” Jason said as he drove toward the hospital after Detective Ford had finished his questions—at least for now. “Better to say as little as possible until we know what the hell is going on.”
She glanced over to where he sat behind the wheel of his now-battered SUV. He’d found a T-shirt in the back and pulled it on, covering his powerful chest. Dark-haired and blue-eyed, Jason Maddox was a big, handsome man. With his two-day growth of beard and deep Texas drawl, he might seem a little rough around the edges, but he was also brave and loyal. She had learned that tonight.
“Untilweknow?” she said. “That includes you?”
