He shook his head. “Not yet, but he’s full of sedatives.”
Jason stood at least a foot taller than she, and his dark blue eyes sparked with anger. Even furious, he was a handsome man, with his closely cut beard and his broad shoulders. Solid, with a high percentage of muscle mass compared to fat, he’d obviously been working out these months in jail.
She swallowed, refusing to show fear. He needed the fear and wanted it desperately. So she rolled her eyes.
He blinked and then slowly removed his hand.
Her throat ached, but she kept calm, glancing at the bandages covering his wrists. “You didn’t cut very deeply.”
“I didn’t really want to die.” He smiled. “However,youare going to meet your maker.”
She considered viable plans of action and pivoted her hips twenty degrees, driving her knee up to his groin, impacting soft tissue. He instinctively bent over and emitted a low groan. She struck toward his eyes, trying to blind him. He dodged to the side, and she hit his mouth, his teeth scraping her knuckles with a painful slice.
Taking advantage of his movements, she retrieved her gun from the back of her waist.
He punched her wrist, and her hand smashed against the wall, pain careening up her entire arm. She dropped the gun.
Grunting, she rotated and punched him in the eye, and he fell back. Then she kicked him in the groin again. She started to yell, but he smashed her in the cheek. She flew toward the bed, impacted the side, and crashed down, screaming for help. Then he kicked her under the jaw. Her head snapped back against the bed again, and darkness fell across her vision.
“What is going on here?” a female voice yelled.
A body landed next to Laurel. She couldn’t see. Her vision blurred.
“We aren’t done.” Jason Abbott’s voice came from very far away.
A high shriek next to her made Laurel jump, and she blindly scrambled for her gun. Jason kicked her shoulder, and she careened across the room, slamming into the wall head first.
Then darkness fell.
* * *
“I’m relatively unharmed,” Laurel protested again, sitting on the hospital bed as Fish and Wildlife Captain Huck Rivers ducked to look into her eyes.
The doctor tapped notes on a tablet while leaning against the wall. “You’re going to be a little sore.” He looked up, his blue eyes bloodshot and his grizzly gray eyebrows bushy. “You took a good hit to the cheek and the jaw, and your shoulder and forehead are bruised, but from the look of your knuckles, you inflicted damage as well.”
She had kicked more than she’d punched, so her foot should hurt more than it did. She made a mental note to buy more of these type of boots. “How is the nurse?” Thank goodness the woman had arrived and screamed so loudly for help.
The doctor’s lips tightened. “She has a broken jaw, unfortunately. Nurse Wallentrout isn’t going to like that.”
Huck winced. “No, she isn’t.”
“I owe her gratitude for her intervention.” Laurel stared down at her phone, fighting panic. “We have a felony arrest warrant out for Jason Abbott, and all agencies are on the lookout for him.”
Huck stood tall in front of her, his expression calm, but his eyes a glittering brown. Heightened color showed along his cheekbones, and his shoulders appeared an inch higher than usual, showing extreme tension. “Do you think he’ll leave the state?”
Laurel rolled her neck from side to side in an attempt to ease the residual pain. “I’d like to think so, but he’s angry. He’s been locked up for months, and he wants revenge.”
“On you?” Huck asked shortly.
She nodded. “On me, and most certainly on Abigail.” On any professional woman who’d crossed him, which included Abigail, Laurel’s half sister, who had experimented on Jason Abbott and probably pushed him into killing sooner than he would have otherwise.
“Do we have to warn her?” Huck asked wryly.
An unwilling smile tickled Laurel’s lips. “I’ve already notified FBI Special Agent in Charge Norrs from the Seattle office.”
Huck’s dark eyebrows rose. “Are they still dating?”
“According to him, yes, they are. He unfortunately believes they are becoming serious and once again requested a dinner date with us.”
