Hannah nodded, a little worried. She didn’t feel too bad, but what if she had a concussion or something?
River ran through a few simple tests, getting Hannah to follow her finger with her eyes, checking out the depth and severity of the wound. Finally she leaned back and nodded. “It doesn’t look like it’s a concussion,” River told her. “Just a cut. I’m going to clean it up and bandage it, okay?”
“Sure,” Hannah replied, trying to keep her voice steady. She didn’t want anyone to see how shaken she really was, even though she was sure it was obvious.
Xavier reached over to rub her shoulder gently, and she managed to smile at him—God, she was so grateful for everything he had done for her. If it hadn’t been for him…
Hannah winced as River cleaned off the cut, then gently placed a bandage over it to keep it from getting infected. She smiled and gave Hannah’s hand a squeeze when she was done. “There you go, all finished,” she assured her.
Hannah looked toward the front doors as Bailey burst into the reception area, followed closely by Aaron. Lawson and Cade behind them.
“Oh my God,” Bailey gasped when she saw Hannah and Xavier. “What happened? Are you okay? Aaron filled me in on some of it, but—”
Xavier gestured for her to take a seat and caught her up on a little of what had happened. He seemed to be able to remember so much more than Hannah did. Her memories were frayed around the edges, and she couldn’t piece together everything that had gone down.
Hannah clutched her mug, trying to ignore her brother’s heavy gaze, and listened to Xavier speak, trying to let herself be soothed by the sound of his voice. He had made it out okay. They had both made it out okay. That was what mattered right then.
“Do you remember anything specific about the vehicle that hit you?” Bailey asked, pulling out a notebook.
Xavier grimaced. “A little,” he admitted. “It was a black truck, looked like a Ford, maybe early 1980s. Custom fog lights and grills.”
“Good, good,” Bailey muttered, scribbling away in her notebook.
Hannah raised her eyebrows. And that was him only remembering some of it? Damn, he was doing a lot better than her. Thank God he had been there. She wouldn’t have been able to give Bailey much more than the color and how terrified she had felt when it was closing in on them.
Aaron shook his head. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” he muttered. “Who do you think it was?”
“The Haynes brothers, maybe?” Bailey suggested. “You and Lawson went to their ranch to confront them about the generators. This could have been their way of getting back at you for accusing them.”
“I don’t think the Haynes family would do something like this,” Xavier replied. “They’re jerks, sure, but this would have taken some planning—to figure out when we were going to be onthe road, finding a place to push us off where nobody else would see. I don’t think they’ve got that in them.”
“I agree.” Lawson chimed in. “This is not their style.”
“Yeah, they’ve caused a bar fight here and there,” Aaron added. “But they’ve never deliberately endangered lives. This feels more—”
“Personal,” Hannah whispered, finishing his sentence for him. The thought of this being a specific, targeted attack scared the hell out of her, more than she could put into words.
“You think it’s connected to what happened with the generators?” Bailey asked, continuing to write in her notebook.
“It could be,” Xavier agreed, then he hesitated, glancing over at Lawson.
“Tell her,” Lawson prompted, realizing what he was about to say.
“Someone broke in to my room a few days ago. I don’t think they took anything, but I do think it might be related.”
“What?” Bailey replied, looking confused. “I didn’t hear about that.”
“I hoped there was nothing to it,” Xavier admitted. “I just told the sheriff today. That’s where we were coming back from when the wreck happened. I should have said something sooner, but I guess I was in denial. This, though…” He shook his head. “Everyone needs to keep their wits about them,” he warned the small group. “There’s trouble brewing around here. We have to look out for each other.”
Silence weighed heavily over everyone for a moment. Hannah knew what was going through their minds—the same thing going through hers. They had been so sure their troubles were over, and now this. A new reason to be scared and watching their backs at all times.
Just when she thought the worst was behind them, something like this sneaked up on them again. The reality of ithurt to think about. This place was supposed to be a safe haven, but instead, someone was intent on tearing it apart and hurting the people who lived and worked there.
“That’s enough for now. I’m going to write this all up and you two need to get some rest,” Bailey told Xavier, rising to her feet. “And I’ll take it to Willis in the morning. He can add it to the file he’s building. I don’t know what’s going on here, but we’re going to figure it out, okay?”
Xavier nodded.
Aaron clapped Xavier on the back and followed Bailey back out the door to their cabin.
