In the chaos of everything that had been going on, he had almost forgotten about Lainey, which he felt guilty about now. What if they knew where she was and went after her? He didn’t think that was possible, since no one knew she had been there. But if Granger really had the connections all over the place like Lainey claimed he did, she could be in more trouble than she realized.
“Why don’t you give her a call to tell her what’s happening?” Sarah suggested.
“Good idea,” he agreed, and he pulled out his phone and dialed Lainey’s number, resting his arm on the bed next to Sarah as he did so. She rubbed his shoulders gently, as though she could sense how tense he was.
No answer. He ended the call and tried again…and again, and again. But nothing. His jaw tensed. He didn’t like this, not one bit. Especially not after the events of the day.
He put his phone away, and Sarah slipped her arms around him, searching his eyes. For what, he wasn’t sure, but decided not to ask. He knew she was concerned for him, just as he was for her.
“She’s probably fine,” she assured him. “Maybe she’s in the shower or stepped out for a minute or something. I bet she’ll call you as soon as she sees she missed your call.”
“I hope so,” he said, though he wasn’t sure he entirely believed it.
She leaned her head against his for a moment, and he closed his eyes. He just wanted this to be over. Maybe he never should have gotten involved with this in the first place, but he knew there was no way he could let Lainey face this on her own. She was his friend, after all, and he stood by his friends, no matter how hard it might be, or what dangerous situations they needed help with.
“I’ve got this…feeling,” she murmured, her voice tinged with worry. “Like something bad’s going to happen.”
He opened his eyes and pulled back, gathering her in his arms.
“It’s going to be fine,” he promised her with as much certainty as he could muster. “Try not to worry, I’ll do everything in my power to protect you.”
“I know. I trust you.”
He planted a kiss on her lips, sealing his promise. He didn’t care what happened next, he didn’t care what kind of danger he had to face to keep her safe—he would do it.
“Come on, let’s get you back to your cabin. I’ll tell the guys we’ll meet in the morning. I think we could all use a good night’s rest.” He held on to her hand as they walked down the stairs and out of the lodge.
When they got to her door, he gave her one more kiss and waited until she was inside before heading back to the lodge to tell the guys they’d meet tomorrow.
He wasn’t sure what would come next, but he did know they all needed to be alert and ready.
“SO LET ME GETthis straight. You were almost shot dead in the town square?” Hannah asked Lawson, raising her eyebrows at him in horror.
“He was never going to get me from that angle,” he protested. “And besides, I had a gun. I could protect myself.”
The air was tense this morning while all eight of them gathered in the main greeting area of the lodge and went over everything again from the last couple of days.
Lawson and Sarah had both been exhausted and the guys had been too wound up to deal with the day’s events last night. Everyone needed a clearer head and a good night’s rest to process what had happened and come up with their next course of action.
Facing Granger and his men sleep-deprived would do none of them any good in the end.
“In Lawson’s defense,” Sarah rushed to add, “there was no way to know something like that would happen. We were leaving one minute, then the next, shots were being fired. Lawson did what he had to do to protect us both.”
“I thought we could trust Sheriff Willis and his men,” Xavier muttered, clearly disappointed. “But if they couldn’t even keep those two under lock and key—”
“Hey, now that’s not fair,” Bailey chimed in. “That is the first time since I started working at the station that something like this has happened. Those two creeps were making all kinds of noise and had everyone uneasy. Everyone—”
“Xavier. They’re not used to dealing with people like that,” Lawson protested, interrupting Bailey. He didn’t want their discussion getting off-track. “They didn’t stand a chance. It’s a miracle none of them got hurt.”
“No, they came right after you,” Cade pointed out. “They could have killed you. In the middle of the town square. In front of everyone.”
Lawson felt the wound in his side throbbing at him again. It wasn’t bad, but it was a reminder of how close he had come to taking a bullet in the gut.
“But they didn’t,” Lawson replied urgently. “And we don’t have time to talk about what might have happened. We’ve got to focus on what we’re going to do now that one of them has gotten away.”
“Yeah, and where do we start with that?” Xavier asked. “We don’t even know how long it’s going to take Paul Donner to get to Granger—”
“Or where he even is,” Cade added.
