By that time, Lindsay had jumped out and was scrambling toward the two men wrestling for control. Daniel was the bigger, the more powerful, she saw immediately, but his right arm hung at his side and his gun had disappeared. Had it fallen from his hand?
The truck headlights partially illuminated the scene, just as the car’s headlights speared the darkness of what might be a pasture.
Daniel spun his adversary and used his weight and strength to pin him against the back door. But, on a spurt of terror, Lindsay saw the pistol still clutched in the other man’s hand. He was struggling to turn it. He couldn’t see her approaching, so she got within feet of the two men and cried, “Drop the gun or I’ll shoot!”
The barrel swung toward her. She couldn’t see most of him, but his arm would do. This close, she couldn’t miss. Grimly willing her eyes to stay open, she aimed and squeezed the trigger. As she heard the scream, the gun dropped from his hand.
“I’m kicking his gun under the car,” she told Daniel, sounding astonishingly collected.
With what had to be a massive effort, he spun the killer and slammed him face-first against the metal of the car.
“I have cuffs in the glove compartment.” Daniel’s voice was guttural.
She put the safety on her borrowed gun and tucked it back in her waistband, then made her way back up the bank to the truck. Within moments, she returned.
“I have them.”
“Snap one cuff on this wrist.” Daniel pulled the man’s right hand back despite another agonized scream.
The cuffs were metal ones, thank goodness; she didn’t even know how the plastic ones worked. But she closed first one cuff on the wrist Daniel forced into view, then the second.
In moments, the man who’d tried to burn them out of Daniel’s house tonight and killed so many people lay facedown on the ground. Daniel drilled one knee between his shoulder blades. “You’re under arrest. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.”
He went on, every word in that same raw, angry voice. Not until he finished did he raise his head.
His expression was nothing Lindsay had ever seen or ever wanted to see again. And yet, for all the rage there, he’d continued to do his job. He would have died to stop this man, both because of the atrocities he’d committed and to keep her safe. Her heart squeezed with love too painful to give joy.
Only then did she lower her gaze to the now diminished man who kept his head turned away from her. She circled behind Daniel, around the feet wearing white athletic shoes stained with blood, until she saw the face.
She wanted to be surprised, but couldn’t.
“How could you do such terrible things?” she asked her mentor, her friend.
“I’d have done anything for you.” Bitterness corroded his low voice. Without trying to meet her eyes, Glenn turned his head away.
She pressed her hand against her stomach to try to contain the nausea. He’d tortured and killed for her. What had she ever done or said to make him think she’d want any such thing?
She suddenly realized that Daniel was looking at her. Despite his pain and the banked anger, what his eyes held was understanding.
“It was never about you.”
She managed a nod and backed away just as a police car screamed to a stop right behind Daniel’s truck.
Epilogue
Every time Daniel surfaced from the anesthesia-induced grogginess, he asked for Lindsay. If he got answers, he didn’t remember them the next time he awakened.
This time, he opened his eyes, worked his mouth and understood from the curtains pulled around the bed that he was in the hospital and no longer in recovery.
“Lindsay,” he mumbled.
Like an angel, she appeared beside the bed. “You’re awake.” She gave him some sips of water and slivers of ice to roll around in his mouth.
“You’re here,” he managed. Brilliant.
“Because you kept asking for me.” She smiled. “Otherwise they might not have let me in because I’m not family.”
He groaned. His family would descend on the hospital room like a plague of locusts once they heard he’d been injured again.
“Melinda called and spoke to your mother. They’ll be here in the next hour or two.”
He reached across his body with his left hand and seized her wrist. “Don’t leave.”
She sat on the edge of the bed. “I don’t know if I’ll be allowed to stay.”
“Fianceé.”
Her eyes widened. “What?”
He repeated himself.
“I’m…not a very good liar.”
“No lie.” He worked his mouth until he could speak a little more coherently. “Doesn’t have to be.”
“You’re asking…”
“Please.” He took a deep breath that hinted at oncoming pain. “We don’t have to hurry, but I don’t want you to move out.”
“Oh.” She nibbled on her lip. “You know your house suffered some damage?”
He hadn’t given his house a thought yet. And, damn, then there was his truck. “Bad?”
“According to the fire chief, no. A good part of one wall will need to be replaced, the kitchen door, and some work on the eaves. But with the sprinklers, the fire didn’t progress, even fueled by gasoline.”
“Good.” He ought to release her but didn’t want to. “You know what they did to me?”
What she told him rang a bell. The nurse in recovery had probably said the same. The surgeon had removed a bullet from his shoulder, and he had broken ribs from the two bullets that had struck his Kevlar vest.
He looked down at his right hand. The response was sluggish when he commanded it to ball into a fist, but eventually he managed it. He closed his eyes briefly in relief.
A hand cupped his jaw. “You’ll have to do some physical therapy to get back full function, but the surgeon is confident that if you do your part, it will happen.”
“Good.” His jaw was probably scratching the palm of her hand, but he let go of her wrist to lay his left hand atop hers, pressing it to his cheek. He turned his head enough to kiss her palm. Daniel couldn’t help noticing she hadn’t given him an answer on the marriage/living together question. Or had he actually asked?
Probably not, he decided. He tried again. “Will you stay with me?”
“Here? Or…after they let you go home?”
“Both.”
This time, she didn’t look away. “The idea is scary for me. You know that. But… I loved living with you. I want to do that. To find out if we both keep feeling the same. So…yes.”
“Love you,” he whispered.
Lindsay bent forward to touch her forehead to his. “I love you, too.”
“You can trust me.”
As if startled, she straightened up, searching his eyes. “I know that! How can you think…” And then emotions crossed her face too quickly for him to identify, although bewilderment was in there somewhere. At the end came an unfamiliar softness. “Of course I trust you. You would have given everything to protect me, wouldn’t you?”
If by everything, she meant his life, the answer was yes.
A smile bloomed slowly on her face, making him think of dawn. But all she said was, “They’ll have to drag me out of here kicking and screaming.”
That constituted all the promise he needed. He wrapped his working hand around her nape and drew her down again, until he felt her breath on his neck.
Then he fell asleep again.
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
http://www.harpercollins.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
> Bay Adelaide Centre, East Tower
22 Adelaide Street West, 41st Floor
Toronto, ON, M5H 4E3, Canada
http://www.harpercollins.ca
India
HarperCollins India
A 75, Sector 57
Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201 301, India
http://www.harpercollins.co.in
New Zealand
HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
http://www.harpercollins.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
195 Broadway
New York, NY 10007
http://www.harpercollins.com
The Hunting Season Page 19