Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 133849 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 669(@200wpm)___ 535(@250wpm)___ 446(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133849 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 669(@200wpm)___ 535(@250wpm)___ 446(@300wpm)
Grim let a cold practicality come over him. He couldn’t go into this hot. Whatever had been done to Nicole, he would fix. They would coddle her and love her back to normal. They wouldn’t let her go through this alone.
“If she’s hurt,” Josh said as he rolled up next to Lan’s truck.
“I’ll take care of it until the ambulance gets here. I can stabilize her.” A vet was not licensed to work on humans, but this would be an emergency. He could stabilize her until they got to the hospital.
Please let her be alive. Please. Let her be alive. He could handle anything as long as she was alive.
Then he saw what had caused Landon to hang up and run. There was a body on the sidewalk.
“Harlow,” Dad said. “Fuck. That’s Harlow.”
She lay on the sidewalk outside the room Kim had occupied. He knew it was her from the shock of blue hair. Landon was on his knees next to her.
Grim was out of the truck before Josh put it in park. He grabbed his emergency kit and ran. It was smaller than his normal working kit. This was the one he used when someone needed first aid. A ranch could be a maze of minor injuries, and he was always ready to help.
What had happened to Harlow was anything but minor.
The light-colored shirt she was wearing was stained in blood. Her skin was a stark white, her eyes closed.
“I turned her over.” Landon had gone pale. “I shouldn’t have done that, but I panicked. Damn it. I know not to turn her over. Did I hurt her?”
Pops was back on his phone. “Yes, ma’am. We’ve got at least one gunshot victim. Let them know. We’re looking for the second woman. She might have been kidnapped.”
Or they might find her body somewhere else.
From what Kim had said, there was no reason to kidnap Nicole. They’d come here to silence her.
Harlow was pale but she was breathing. Her eyes opened, and she looked up at him. “It’s hard to breathe, Grim.”
Okay. He could do this. “Pops, I need your help.”
Sam Fleetwood was by his side in a heartbeat. “Jack and Josh are doing a sweep. They will find her, Grim. I promise. Hey, Harlow, sweetie. Looks like you got into some trouble.”
“She ran,” Harlow managed, pain obvious on her face. “I think Nicole ran toward the woods. I’m not sure. I couldn’t see.”
“She did.” A tall brunette in a caftan was beside Harlow. “Nicole ran into the woods, and those two men who were coming after her followed. I was in my room. I saw the whole thing. I came out and held this woman’s hand. I called the police.”
“They’re on their way,” Pops replied. “And I thank you for staying with her.”
“Is she okay?” Landon asked.
Harlow tried to take a breath but a rattling sound came out. He knew exactly what was happening.
“The bullet nicked her lung. Or maybe it’s lodged there,” Grim explained, finding a latex glove. “We need to be careful when we move anything.”
“We need to seal the wound. That glove should work,” Pops said. “Hand it to me and I’ll hold it until the paramedics get here.”
It was exactly what he’d been about to do. The prettiest of his fathers was calm and cool under pressure. And knew way more about sucking chest wounds than Grim would have imagined.
“The ambulance is a few minutes out.” Landon was on his feet again, and there was a gun in his hand. “I’ll make sure no one comes near her until then.”
Pops took the glove out of his hand and lifted her shirt, easing it over the wound he found there with a competence that shocked Grim. He sealed the wound, holding his hand over the glove, and immediately Harlow was breathing more easily. “Hey, I’ve learned a thing or two over the years. I’m more than pretty, son. Now go with Josh and find your girl. Lan and I can handle this.”
“Her husband is alive,” Harlow said with a grimace, but she sounded far more solid. “I don’t know how but he’s here, and he’s going to kill her. The brother-in-law is here, too. Both armed. She ran into the woods.”
Where Dad had been taking her and teaching her to ride and navigate. Where she could hide. Smart girl. She’d lured them away from Harlow, and he prayed it didn’t cost her.
He heard sirens in the distance.
“Hey!” Josh shouted.
Grim stood and saw what Josh had seen. A tall man dressed in black pants and a black sweater walked out of the woods, his path about to take him to the parking lot. The man stopped, obviously caught by surprise. Nicole’s brother-in-law. He’d seen pictures of the man. For a moment he seemed stuck, utterly unmoving. Then he raised his gun and pointed straight at Josh.