Harlequin Intrigue March 2021--Box Set 2 of 2

by Nichole Severn

  Ben scooted back, and Hunter stared down at Ainsley. He didn’t see any blood anywhere, but he did see a blossoming bruise underneath her chin. The sight made his blood boil. Who had done this to her and what other injuries had she sustained?

  Thankfully at that time the ambulance pulled up, and two of the paramedics jumped out of the back and grabbed a gurney. “I’m not sure what injuries she’s sustained, but she’s been unconscious since I came on scene,” Hunter told Matt Daniels, one of the paramedics.

  Nick also showed up, along with Zac Ross, another deputy working the late shift. As the paramedics loaded Ainsley onto the gurney and took off for the hospital, Hunter turned to quickly explain the situation to the two deputies.

  “Take Ben’s statement, see if you can find any evidence around the area and I’ll be in touch. Right now I’m heading to the hospital,” he said.

  “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of things here,” Nick assured him.

  Hunter got back in his car and headed for the hospital, his thoughts consumed with Ainsley’s condition. Was she going to be all right? What had she suffered before falling unconscious? The thought of somebody beating her...the thought of her in pain tortured him.

  Dammit. He clenched his hand around the steering wheel as anger burned in his gut. It was an anger not only directed at the perpetrator, but also at himself.

  He should have seen something like this coming. When she’d received the dead rat, he should have recognized the situation had escalated.

  And his main question continued to be who was behind all this—who had attacked her with deadly intent tonight? Hopefully Ben saw or heard something that would help them identify the perpetrator. And hopefully Nick and Zac would find some concrete evidence that would lead to an arrest.

  The Dusty Gulch Hospital was located in a large brick building that also housed several doctors’ offices. Hunter parked and raced into the ambulance bay, but they had already unloaded her and taken her inside.

  He walked around and entered into the emergency waiting room. Sandy Silver, a nurse he knew from around town, sat at a desk.

  “Sandy, Ainsley Meadows just arrived in an ambulance. Could you tell the doctor on call that I’m out here and need an update on her as soon as possible?”

  “It’s Dr. Lockwood tonight, and I’ll let him know,” she replied. She got up from the desk and disappeared through a door that was marked No Entry.

  Hunter started to sit in one of the green plastic chairs, but he had far too much adrenaline rushing through him to just sit. Instead while he waited, he paced the length of the small waiting room.

  Sandy returned. “He said he’d be out to speak with you as soon as possible.”

  “Thanks, Sandy.” He resumed his pacing, but as the minutes ticked by, he finally sat and stared at the tile floor beneath his feet.

  As he waited, he called Ed to let him know what had happened and told the man that Ainsley wouldn’t be in to work for a while. He also asked if it would be okay for Melinda to spend the next day at his house. Ed assured him that it was fine, and Hunter promised to call him the next day.

  He hoped Ainsley didn’t get angry for him overstepping his boundaries, but he was relatively certain she would not be working and it was important to let Ed know as soon as possible so he could make the necessary adjustments.

  When he’d hung up, his thoughts were as scattered as the stars in the sky. There were so many questions and no answers. Fear battled with anger as he waited to find out Ainsley’s condition.

  The outside door opened, and he looked up to see Sheriff Black walk in. “Wayne.” Hunter stood.

  “I got here as soon as I heard. How is she?”

  The two men sat down side by side. “I haven’t heard anything yet,” Hunter replied. “She was unconscious when they brought her in, and it looked like she’d taken a punch to her jaw, but I don’t know anything else yet.”

  “Well, I just wanted to come by and let you know I called in a couple more deputies to search the area around the café,” Wayne said.

  “Thanks, I appreciate it.” Hunter raked a hand through his hair. “I don’t have a clue who is behind this, but I’m sure it’s the same person that left the nasty note in the café and a dead rat on her doorstep. Unfortunately, whoever it is, he’s smart and hasn’t left any clues behind.”

  “Hopefully that will change tonight and the men will find something that will help identify the perp,” Wayne replied. “In fact I’m on my way over there now.” Wayne rose. “Let me know how Ainsley is doing. I’m putting Nick in charge of this investigation.”

  Hunter looked at him in surprise. “What? Why not me?”

  “Hunter, you know there can’t be any appearance of bias. You have a personal relationship with the victim, and that means you’re off this case.”

  Hunter wanted to protest, but he knew Wayne was right, and the last thing Hunter wanted to do was give the perp a reason to have a defense due to bias on his part. “At least I know Nick will do a good job,” he finally said.

  He looked at the door where the doctor should come through. What was taking so long? His nerves jangled. How badly was she hurt?

  “I’m off,” Wayne said. “I expect to hear from you later, and I’m sure Nick will be in touch.”

  About fifteen minutes after Wayne left, Dr. Andrew Lockwood walked into the waiting room. Hunter shot up out of his chair and approached the doctor. “How is she?”

  “She’s alert and we have her resting comfortably,” Dr. Lockwood said. “She has a broken rib and bruising all along her rib cage. She also took a pretty good blow to her chin. None of the injuries are life-threatening, but we’re going to keep her for the rest of the night and, barring no complications, she should be able to go home tomorrow.”

  “But she was unconscious. What caused that?” Hunter asked even as an intense shudder of relief swept through him. The relief was short-lived as he thought of what she must have gone through.

  “Shock and pain, but again, she’s resting comfortably now,” he replied. “We’ve given her something for her pain.”

  “Can I see her?”

  Dr. Lockwood frowned. “Only for a short visit. What she needs right now is rest. She’s in room 106.”

  Hunter raced down the quiet hallway and turned into her room. He paused in the threshold, aching at the very sight of her.

  Her eyes were closed and she looked as pale as the white sheets that surrounded her except for the bright purple of the bruise on her chin.

  As he stared at the bruise, and thought again of the broken and bruised ribs, a deep rage filled him. Who had done this to her? She was so kind...so giving and yet somebody had put their hands on her.

  Her eyes suddenly fluttered open. She held his gaze for a long moment, and then she began to weep. “Honey...don’t cry.” He hurried to her side. He drew up a chair, sank down and took her hand in his. “Please don’t cry. It’s only going to make you hurt.”

  “I’m trying not to,” she said and drew in several shallow breaths in an obvious effort to contain her emotions.

  “I’m so sorry. Ainsley, I’m so damned sorry I didn’t see something like this coming. I’m so damned sorry that I wasn’t there to protect you.”

  “Neither one of us saw something like this coming.”

  “You want to tell me what happened?”

  As she gave him a blow-by-blow account of events from the time they had hung up with each other to when she had come to consciousness in the ambulance, once again a deep sense of rage filled him.

  “Did you recognize anything about him? Anything at all?”

  “No, he was dressed all in black and wore a ski mask. The only thing I can tell you is it’s definitely a he, and he’s strong.” Tears filled her eyes once again. “I was terrified that he was going to pick me up and carry me away and I would never see
Melinda or you again.”

  “Thank God that didn’t happen. Did he say anything to you?”

  “No, not a thing.”

  “What about smell? Did you notice anything about the way he smelled?”

  She looked at him in surprise. “I hadn’t thought about it.” She frowned and then winced, as if the facial gesture had hurt her. “Now that I do think about it, he smelled...funky.”

  “You mean like dirty?”

  “No, it wasn’t the smell of perspiration or dirty clothes—it was a strange, nasty scent that I’ve never smelled before, and I can’t even describe it. I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t apologize,” he said.

  “Ben saved me. If he hadn’t been there and yelled out, I would have either been beaten to death or kidnapped.”

  “Thank God for dumpster-diving drunks,” he replied.

  “Thank God,” she echoed.

  She closed her eyes for a long moment, and when she finally looked at him again, he saw not only exhaustion in her eyes, but also realized whatever they had given her for pain was making her sleepy.

  “You get some rest now,” he said and released his hold on her hand. He half rose up and then leaned over and kissed her softly on her forehead. “I’ll be back tomorrow, okay?”

  “Okay.” She closed her eyes once again and appeared to be asleep before he even left her bedside.

  He remained in her doorway for several long moments, his thoughts tortured by what had happened to Ainsley. He had to figure out a way to keep her safe. His gut clenched. He had to keep her safe, because he didn’t believe this was the end of it. Somebody wanted her dead, and Hunter had a terrible feeling that the man wouldn’t stop until he’d achieved his goal.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Ainsley opened her eyes to the early-morning sun drifting into her hospital room. She instinctively knew that to move meant pain, and so she stayed still.

  She vaguely remembered Hunter stopping by the night before. She’d felt his concern and caring, and it had almost warmed up all the iciness in her soul...almost, but not quite. And that iciness encased her heart once again this morning.

  She was scared. No, she was absolutely terrified. Not only by what had happened the night before, but also about what might happen in the future.

  If the man last night had wanted to kidnap her, he’d failed. If he’d wanted to kill her, he’d also failed at that, too. Would he try again? Was he out there now already planning his next attack on her?

  And as always, her biggest question was who was it? Who had attacked her last night? She now positively knew Ben Wilkins had nothing to do with it. In fact, if he hadn’t been dumpster diving again last night, she would probably be dead by now.

  There was obviously something good and decent still left in Ben. He could have stayed hidden behind the dumpster while she was being attacked. But instead, even drunk, he’d done what he could to help her. He’d saved her life.

  She tried to draw a deep breath, but pain ripped through her ribs where the man had kicked her. Her jaw ached, and overall she felt as if she’d gone ten rounds with a heavyweight boxing champion.

  Finding the remote for her bed, she pressed the button to raise her head. She moaned as her body readjusted to the new position.

  At that moment Callie Roberts walked in. “Oh good. You’re awake,” she said. “I’m just going to take your vitals.” She prepared the blood pressure cuff. She plumped it up and then slowly released it.

  After a minute or so, she pulled off the cuff and smiled at Ainsley. “A little high, but that’s probably due to pain.”

  “Oh, I’m definitely in some pain,” Ainsley replied, even as she tried to smile at the young nurse.

  “The doctor ordered something to help with that. I’ll be right back in with it.”

  As Ainsley waited, she thought of her daughter. Thank goodness she was at Juanita’s. Once it got a little later in the day, she’d check in there.

  An hour later Ainsley felt a little better. The medicine had taken the edge off her pain, and she drifted in and out of sleep.

  She came awake again and was surprised to see Hunter sitting in the chair next to her bed.

  “Hi,” he said.

  “Hi,” she replied and forced a smile. “Fancy meeting you here.”

  “I’d rather be meeting you anywhere but here,” he replied. His green eyes held such warmth, such caring it took away what breath she had. He reached for her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “How are you doing this morning?”

  “I hurt, but I’m better than I was last night,” she replied. “But I’m not going to lie...I’m scared, Hunter. I just know the man last night first tried to kidnap me, and when he couldn’t get me up, he wanted to kill me.”

  “Nick has been assigned to the case. I haven’t spoken to him this morning, but I’m hoping he got something to help us identify this guy.”

  “And if he doesn’t?”

  “Then we’ll keep digging until we find him.” His voice was filled with grim determination, but as much as she wanted to believe his words, in this case she felt like the bad guy was definitely winning.

  “Thank God Melinda wasn’t with me last night,” she said. “But what happens next time?”

  “There won’t be a next time,” he said firmly. “I don’t want you and Melinda going back to your apartment. Until we find this guy, I want the two of you to move into my place.”

  She looked at him in stunned surprise, and then more than a little bit of relief flooded through her. “Are you sure you want to do that?”

  “Positive,” he replied firmly. “According to the doctor, you’re probably going to be released today. My plan is to get Melinda and we’ll go to your place and you can pack up what you need.”

  “What about my work?”

  “Ainsley, the last thing you need to worry about right now is your job. First of all, you need time to rest and heal. I already talked to Ed to let him know what’s going on, and he knows you won’t be working for a while.” He squeezed her hand once again. “I don’t want you to worry about anything.”

  She laughed and then winced. “Oh Hunter, right now I’m worried about everything.”

  “Well, stop it. My shoulders are broad, and you can leave the worry to me.”

  She studied his features without speaking for a long moment. He was so handsome and so earnest in this moment. “I wish it were that easy,” she finally said.

  “Me too,” he replied.

  At that moment Dr. Lockwood entered the room. “On a scale of one to ten, ten being the worst pain you’ve ever experienced, where are you right now?”

  “Before the pain medicine, I would have said about an eight, but now I’d say I’m about a six,” she replied.

  He nodded. “The good news is I’m going to release you today, and I’m going to write a script for ten days of pain meds. The bad news is that these injuries are going to take some time to stop hurting.”

  “I figured that,” she replied. She’d had broken ribs before and knew they took a long time to heal.

  “I’ll send the nurse in to remove your IV and will write up the paperwork to get you out of here.”

  An hour later Hunter helped her walk out of the hospital and to his truck. “I guess they didn’t feed you any breakfast. You want to grab something in the café before we pick up Melinda?”

  “That’s not necessary. I’m really not hungry,” she replied.

  “Okay, then we’ll go get your daughter and head to your place so the two of you can pack.”

  “Don’t you have to work today?” she asked.

  “I took the day off. At least when I have to go in to work tomorrow, I know you and Melinda will be safer at my place. My doors and locks are better than the ones in your apartment. I don’t like the idea that not only could anyone come through
your front door, but they could also come through the door that separates your apartment from the café.”

  “How are we going to do this? You only have one bedroom available,” she said.

  “You and Melinda will have the bedroom, and I’ll bunk on the sofa.”

  “Oh Hunter, I don’t want you to make that kind of a sacrifice for us,” she protested.

  “Nonsense, it’s not a sacrifice at all. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve fallen asleep on my sofa. It’s really quite comfortable.”

  She smiled at him. “You’d tell me that even if your sofa was made of rocks.”

  He returned her smile. “Probably, but thankfully my sofa isn’t made of rocks.”

  They fell silent for a few minutes as he drove to Ed and Juanita’s house. A million thoughts burned through her head as she stared out the passenger window.

  Surely she would be safer at Hunter’s place than at her own. Hopefully the man who was after her wouldn’t know where she’d gone. If Hunter kept his usual schedule and she and Melinda didn’t peek outside, maybe nobody would even know they were there.

  She almost laughed at her own stupidity. Of course everyone in town would know where she’d gone because everyone in town knew she and Hunter were a couple. Still, there was no question she’d feel safer staying there.

  She’d have to keep Melinda out of school for a while, but that seemed a small price to pay for their safety. Or she could pack up their things and run.

  God, the very thought of starting over someplace else broke her heart. Despite what was happening to her, she still loved it here in Dusty Gulch. She still believed in the goodness of most people here. This was exactly the place where she wanted to raise her daughter.

  She certainly didn’t want to give up Hunter and the life she saw here with him because of the actions of a single person. She would give this plan a chance and hope within the next couple of days her attacker would be arrested.

  Fifteen minutes later they were seated at Juanita’s kitchen table. “You know Ed won’t be happy about losing one of his favorite waitresses for a while, but we both want you to take all the time you need to get the healing you need,” she said.