Unforgettable Heroes II Boxed Set

by Elizabeth Bevarly

  A clammy film of sweat beaded on his neck. “Get back,” he shouted in the empty car. “Get out of the way.” He shifted gears and pushed for speed, his eyes as much on Dee as the road before him. He saw the second she looked up. Saw the recognition of danger stiffen her body. “Move,” he shouted again. As if she heard him, she took two steps back, stumbled and fell, her arms looped over her head.

  The car, never slowing, sped away.

  “No! No! No!” His right hand reached for the radio but met only empty space. He wasn’t in his cruiser.

  He rifled through his pocket for his cell phone as he punched the accelerator to the floor. Once he reached the valley, the road would be wide open and flat. Only snatches of Dee’s unmoving pink shirt peeked out through the trees.

  “Geri!” he shouted as he lifted the phone to his ear.

  “Jared?”

  Words piled up in his mouth until he couldn’t sort them into sense. “Highway 18. Hit and run. Seven miles west of Moore’s.”

  “Got it,” she said with crisp efficiency.

  He put the phone on speaker and tossed it in the passenger seat as he negotiated the last of the long, wide curve. He listened to Geri dispatching an ambulance and calling for available officer support.

  “Isn’t that the same place you called about a car broken down last week?” Geri asked, returning her attention to him. A long pause was followed by a sharp rasping breath. “It’s not…”

  “Dee,” Jared roared as tremors rocked him. Think. You can handle this. You’re a cop. You’ve seen it before.

  The twist of his stomach proclaimed that statement a lie. It had never been this personal.

  He forced himself to pull in one slow breath. Hold, release. Draw in another. Plans circled in his mind, first choice, second, if necessary. “Mike’s in Maystown. I was on my way to meet him. Have him drive out Highway 18. Tell him to be on the lookout a silver compact. Older, about an ’86. Probable Honda. I didn’t get the tags. My ETA’s two.”

  “Medics are on the way. They should reach you in five. Is…” She hesitated. “Is she okay?” Geri’s professional voice cracked.

  “I can’t tell. She’s not moving.” Jared squinted through the windshield as he neared. “Looks like she’s curled in a ball.” On her knees. With her arms stretched out. Like she was paralyzed in some awkward position.

  The car jolted as he pulled off the road, a spray of loose dirt and grass flying out as he hit the brakes; and still Dee did not move. Jared fumbled with the door and ignored his hip as he pushed out of the low-slung car. “Dee?”

  Her body appeared appropriately aligned, no obvious fractures, no blood. “Dee?”

  A sound, soft as a breeze, reached him. A singing, soothing, whispering sound that teased along the tense lines of his body.

  “It’s all right. It’s all right. Come to me, baby. I won’t hurt you.”

  A not unpleasant chill swept his body. Was she talking to him?

  “Come on. You can trust me. Just one step at a time.”

  Confused, but lulled by her voice, Jared took one step. Then another. “Dee?” he pitched his voice soft and low, matching her tone.

  “Don’t come any closer, Jared.” Her voice remained soft, bright, comforting, and somehow full of warning.

  Obedient, he halted. Watched. Waited.

  The air was heavy; dark clouds in the distance threatened a late summer thunderstorm. The drone of cicadas drifted on a sullen breeze.

  Dee lay unmoving in the grass before him.

  His muscles ached with the effort to remain still when he wanted to go to her, touch her, and assure himself that she would survive. “Are you okay?”

  Her head dipped a fraction of an inch. “Come on baby. You can do it.”

  The dried weeds rustled. A tiny whimper came from within.

  “Come on,” she encouraged. “Just one more step.”

  The slow appearance of a black nose, dirty white snout, and floppy brown ears followed another whimper. The puppy limped one step closer and tentatively sniffed Dee’s outstretched hands.

  The sound of the cicadas seemed to expand inside his skull. It was a dog. She was making him wait for a stupid dog when he needed to be checking her injuries.

  He marched across the uneven rock of the drive. “Where are you hurt?”

  The puppy startled at his tone and with a shiver, eased back among the weeds.

  “Ja…red,” she sang in a calm, pleasant voice that punched him between the eyes, “you’re sca…ring him.”

  He swiped a hand down his face. Dee Quinn was like no one else he’d ever known.

  Through his fingers, Jared watched the puppy approach as Dee continued to croon. Her hands trembled as she stretched another inch to touch the dog. Her fingers slid in a light caress over its head, behind its ear, and under its jaw.

  The lucky puppy closed its eyes on a sigh, and a low groan drifted on the air.

  Jared’s eyes snapped open. Surely the sound had come from the dog.

  Dee lifted the pup, and it began to cry, a sound ten times bigger than its small body.

  “Oh,” Dee gasped as she pulled the puppy close and lowered her head over it. “He’s hurt.”

  “But what about you?” Was she such an animal lover that she could ignore her own pain in favor of the dog?

  The puppy’s cries grew louder, more pained, as it snuggled against Dee’s breast.

  “It’s okay, puppy.” Dee’s voice quivered as she draped the puppy over one arm and cupped the tiny head. “Jared.” She lifted liquid eyes. “He’s hurt.” Dee stumbled as she stood.

  His heart lurched, hard and painful. His arms reached out automatically.

  Two patrol cars screeched to a stop as he was patting up and down her arms, her hips, her legs.

  Dee gasped.

  The dog growled.

  Mike jumped out of his car. “Is…umm,” Mike coughed, “is everything okay here?”

  Couldn’t he see she was hurt?

  A second door slammed. “How bad is it?”

  That was Frank’s voice, Frank’s feet pounding the asphalt as he hurried to get a look.

  Kneeling before her, Jared froze, his hands were still on her hips.

  “Did someone call an ambulance?” Frank asked as he stopped beside Mike.

  Mirrored sunglasses hid the expression in Frank’s eyes as he surveyed the scene. Mike’s amusement was hard enough to take without multiplying it.

  “Geri did.” Mike answered. “I don’t suppose you thought to call her back this time?”

  As soon as some of his circulating blood left his blistering face and returned to his brain, Jared would say something. Do something. Like stand.

  Her gaze trained on their audience, Dee lifted the pup and stepped away from his grasp. “He’s hurt,” she said. “I think a car hit him.”

  Jared whipped his head around and stared at her as his empty hands settled at his side. Even from a distance, he’d clearly seen her fall back, saw her roll, saw her lie there unmoving… right by the puppy. Dammit!

  “Someone,” Mike said, “reported a hit and run.”

  Dee stared at Jared. “But you weren’t even here.”

  Frank stood silent, a smirk ticking up one side of his mouth.

  Jared blew out a breath. “I was coming over the hill. From there it looked like you were hit.”

  Dee leaned around him and peered at the hill in the distance. “You could see me from up there?”

  “I guess,” Mike said, being no help at all, “if someone’s looking hard enough, you can be seen from that vantage point.”

  Jared rolled his eyes and frowned. “Your pink top stood out against the grass.”

  Dee’s instant flush looked every bit as hot as his felt.

  “That’s what caught my attention.” It sounded plausible.

  An ambulance pulled up, stopping in the middle of the road.

  He was never going to live this down.

  “Who’s the injure
d, here,” one of the medics asked as the two men climbed out of the vehicle, emergency lights flashing.

  The weight of everyone’s stares fell on Jared.

  Dee lifted the puppy resting quietly in her arms. “Him.”

  “So you’re telling me you’re not hurt at all?” Jared asked in a private whisper.

  “No, I’m not.”

  Jared stepped closer. “That car. It swerved toward you.”

  “Oh, you saw that?” she said, her voice sugary sweet. “I thought it was the welcoming committee.”

  Jared scowled, grateful Mike and Frank were talking to the EMTs.

  “It couldn’t have been anyone I know, because I didn’t tell anyone I was here.”

  Had he thought he missed her? “It wasn’t…”

  Her eyes flashed. “How do you know? How?”

  It had been five days since that first inquiring call. “Did you recognize the driver?”

  “Darn, I didn’t get a chance to study the driver closely,” she said batting her lashes. “But he didn’t seem familiar.”

  He turned to Mike and Frank. “Did either of y’all pass a small car? Gray, two-door hatchback…”

  “It was a Civic,” Dee said.

  Jared lifted his brows.

  Dee shrugged. “The Honda emblem was almost imprinted on my backside.”

  “I came from town,” Mike said. “I didn’t pass anyone on my way out.”

  “I was in the county,” Frank answered. “Nothing in my direction. But there are several roads that turn off this highway between here and town. Want us to make a sweep?”

  “Do you have the time?”

  Frank lifted a shoulder. “Nothing’s cooking right now, just routine patrol.”

  “Gray, probably silver Honda Civic,” Mike said. “They’re a dime a dozen.”

  A great choice of car use if you wanted to blend in. That would give her assertions credence. The possibility was staggering and way outside of normal for Central Kentucky where Frank kept a close watch on all his officers.

  Jared slanted a glance at Dee. Of course, normal had flown out the window the minute she’d arrived.

  Still, it would mean the decorated and honored Chief of Police in Columbus was dirty.

  He stepped back as the EMTs moved around Dee and the puppy. She wove her spell around the unsuspecting EMTs as she explained about the dog’s possible injury. Her lure even pulled Mike into the tight circle. Was it always like this around her? Did she always, effortlessly, draw every guy in?

  He could almost feel sorry for Carl Ormsby.

  A shrill noise drew him to his car. His cell phone was on the passenger-side floor, still engaged.

  “Geri?”

  “Jared? Thank God. Is Dee okay?”

  He regretted causing Geri distress, but no way would he admit to over-reacting. Especially when he hadn’t. He called it the way he’d seen it. Still… “She appears fine. Only minimal injuries here.” She’d get the real story as soon as Mike and Frank left.

  He walked over to Frank, standing in the periphery of all the excitement. “Not a dog lover?” he asked.

  Frank looked at him, one brow raised. “They make a lot of noise.”

  Jared grinned as the puppy yelped. “That they do,” he said, “which isn’t always a bad thing.” Dee snuggled the puppy under her chin. Maybe this was some sort of providence. Living alone, she could use the companionship, and the security.

  “I take my dogs to Doc Johnson,” one of the EMTs told Dee.

  Dee’s hand made a slow pass down the puppy’s back. “Where is his clinic?”

  “On Main Street,” the EMT nodded toward the road behind her. “In Maystown.”

  Frightened by all the attention, the puppy burrowed closer in her arms, his tongue occasionally flicking out over her neck, her chin.

  “Is it easy to find?”

  “Yeah. Stay on this road. It’s on the right-hand side just on the far side of town.” The EMT reached over and rubbed under the dog’s chin. “What’s his name?”

  Dee shrugged. “He’s not wearing a collar.”

  “He looks half-starved,” Mike said as he lifted a paw, eliciting a pitiful cry. “He was probably dropped around here.”

  She was so genuine, so nurturing with the injured dog. It was hard to reconcile what he saw in her with the reports Frank had gotten from Columbus.

  “Well, he needs a name,” the EMT said.

  Tucking his injured paw, the puppy lifted himself on Dee’s chest and lavished her face with sloppy kisses. “That dog is nothing but lucky,” Jared muttered as he pushed his way to Dee’s side.

  She beamed at him. “That’s a great idea.” She nuzzled the wriggling bundle of fur in her arms. “His name’s Lucky.”

  “Well, Lucky seems to have a sore paw,” one of the EMT’s commented. “Doesn’t look like anything serious, but let Doc Johnson look at him,” he said as he climbed back into the ambulance and pulled away.

  “He’ll fix him up and find him a good home,” Mike said.

  Jared reached over and rubbed the dog’s ears. “I think Lucky’s already found a home.”

  Dee lifted quiet eyes to him. “I wish there was some way I could keep him.”

  “Why can’t you?”

  She snorted and shook her head. “Dogs in cars…”

  She was still thinking of running. Well, that needed to stop. This incident could have been nothing more than someone not paying attention to where he was going. “So don’t ride him around in your car. You’ve got plenty of yard up there to fix him a spot.”

  Heat rose in her cheeks. “I can’t stay here. You saw what just happened.”

  “What about Ray and the bar? Are you just going to walk out on that?”

  Her eyes narrowed in a scalding expression. “What am I supposed to do? Just wait like a sitting duck?”

  “You’re supposed to stay. Live up to your promise to Ray.” The heat in her eyes pleased him. “Stand your ground. That car probably had nothing to do with Columbus.”

  “Easy for you to say,” she said. “It’s not your life on the line.”

  “What kind of life is running? You’d always be looking over your shoulder and never feel safe.”

  Her arms tightened around the puppy. “What other choice do I have?”

  “Stay,” he said. It was the right choice; he felt it in his gut. He let his gaze slide slowly from Mike to Frank and back. “You’re not alone anymore. You’ve got protection, if you need it.”

  “You don’t believe me,” she accused.

  He shrugged. “I haven’t found any evidence to back your story.”

  “Well, that,” she muttered, “makes me feel all safe and secure.”

  “I’m keeping an open mind. We all are.”

  “If it makes any difference,” Frank said, “we can increase patrols down this stretch of highway.”

  “If that car wasn’t connected to Carl, yet,” she added with emphasis, “won’t that be like waving a red flag announcing my location?”

  “This is a major highway in the county,” Frank assured. “It wouldn’t be unusual to have a patrol car drive by every hour or so. And,” he added with a quick smirk at Jared, “you can be seen from that hill.”

  “If you ever need us, we can be here within minutes,” Mike offered.

  She studied each of the men. “Unless you’re tied up with something else.”

  “Call Jared first,” Mike suggested. “He’s on leave for another month.”

  Her gaze sharpened on Jared.

  “Accident,” he explained

  Arguments swirled behind her golden green eyes as they stood on the edge of the road.

  “Come on,” he said, unafraid to push her decision. “Let’s get Lucky to the vet.”

  Chapter Seven

  Something was bothering Jared. Glancing in the mirror over the bar, Dee could see it in every stiff line of his body as he sat at a table behind her. Was he one of those brooding, moody men? She’d
never picked up that impression before. Intense, yes. But not sullen.

  “Is this what you had in mind?” Jack Duer asked. The man had showed up within five minutes of her arrival, sketchpad in hand.

  Dee leaned over the bar and followed the pencil sketching across the pad of white, gridded paper. “The deck needs to be larger,” she said, tracing a finger over one of the lines. She looked up and grinned when she caught Ray rolling his eyes.

  “If you go out any farther,” Jack’s pencil tip dotted the paper, “you’ll cut into the parking area. There’s no point in remodeling if he doesn’t have a place for customers to park.”

  “You’re not thinking big enough,” Dee said, spreading her fingers. “He’s going to buy some of the property around this. We’ll build a new parking lot.” She glanced at Ray. “Have you started looking into that?”

  Ray nodded, expression grave.

  “But it will significantly bump up the cost,” Jack said, his argument directed at Ray. “You’d have to haul in lots of fill and lay a deep layer of gravel.” Jack turned to Dee, his brows meeting in a hard, straight line over his eyes, “You’re not suggesting he pave it, are you?”

  Ray remained silent.

  She wanted it paved; high heels didn’t fare well on gravel. But she wanted this job more. “We’ll go with gravel.”

  Ray relaxed.

  “For now.”

  Ray’s hand twitched around a towel, but he didn’t protest.

  He needs to think about the future, Dee decided. As a business owner, he always needs to be looking ahead.

  That point settled, Dee let her gaze stray to the mirror, again. Jared’s midnight eyes were vague as if his mind was nowhere near the body that occupied the chair. Long, lean fingers dug into his thigh as if to soothe a deep ache.

  “What about this?” Jack said, turning to the next page in the pad and beginning another sketch. “Why can’t we put the deck here?” He boxed in an area at the back of the main building.

  Dee huffed out an exaggerated breath. “Because….”

  “We could wrap it around the side, like this,” Jack interrupted. His pencil scratched quick, short lines on the paper. “You could have the large deck you want without touching the parking lot. Ray wouldn’t have to purchase any more land. It would amount to considerable savings.”