“I don’t mean Fred. My guy’s right out there in the alley and if I don’t get out there in the next five minutes with our lovely friend, he’s coming in here both barrels blazing.”
“You’re not taking her anywhere. If you’re lucky, I’ll let you live another day. Keep pushing and you’ll be pushing up daisies.”
Smirking, he shakes his head. “You don’t understand how this works, sheriff.”
“I really do. And I know one damn thing that you don’t. You’re a dead man if you touch her again.”
His smirk disappears and so does his hand. “I think you’re the dead man.”
His hand moves to pull out his gun but I’m quicker, firing two shots so fast that it almost sounds like one.”
A burst of red flowers on his white shirt and he glances down at it and then at me, shock painted all over his craggy, disgusting face. Right before his body hits the ground.
Squatting, I quickly find where his artery is and there’s nothing. Not even a whisper.
He’s dead.
But I don’t pay a damn bit of attention to him. Slipping out the back door just in time to see a dark sedan racing out of the alley, the headlights disappearing around a corner. Shaking my head in disgust, I race back inside the diner and back to Fee. Bending down I pick up Fee, cradling her gently in my arms.
With a glare at the stranger’s body, I stride out the door and to my SUV in back. Once I reach my vehicle, I lay my precious cargo across the backseat and tuck a blanket that I always keep in my backseat around her so she doesn’t catch a chill.
And then I start the car and head home, one last glance in the mirror assuring me that she’s safe with me.
And that’s where she’ll always be. Safe with me.
CHAPTER 2
Fiona
Cursing and groaning, I slowly blink my eyes open, pain squeezing my head like a vise.
“Shit,” I mutter under my breath, flinching when something cold and wet hits my cheek.
“Wha…?”
“Hold still, Fee. I’ve got you.”
My eyes don’t open but I would know that voice anywhere. “Sheriff?”
“Call me Grady,” he snaps and I flinch back from his iron hand that’s holding me still, cupping the back of my head while he holds an ice pack to my cheek gently.
My eyes slowly open and I groan when I see his stormy gray eyes flashing at me.
He’s pissed.
My eyes roam around the room and widen. “Where am I?”
“You’re home,” he mutters. My home.” I swear he says something else under his breath but I can’t hear him.
“What am I doing here?” His big hand cradles my cheek and I can feel the warmth and the slight scrape of callouses on my sensitive skin. Can smell the sweet pine scent of him, like the forests in winter, with a crisp edge like the smell of snow on theair. Can feel the icy chill of the pack on my skin that doesn’t seem to help the fire burning when his stormy eyes gaze at me.
“You weren’t in any shape to take you home. Besides that, I don’t want you anywhere near Fred’s shit.”
I flinch again and his hand presses the ice pack a little harder into my skin, his iron-jaw clenching tight. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me what was going on with Fred?”
“Because I didn’t really know what he was doing! I just saw little things that made me wonder what was going on.”
“Like…?”
