by Sharon Kay
He jerked her head back roughly and tied a cloth across her mouth. Okay, not passed out. The rough fabric sawed at the corners of her mouth. “Fucking bitch,” he muttered, tightening the knot. It tangled in her hair, pulling sharp spikes of pain from her scalp.
He straightened, scanning the trees.
Tears sprang to Rosie’s eyes, not from physical pain, but from knowing she couldn’t do anything more to help Cruz. She only hoped he’d heard her. She searched for the light in the trees but found only darkness. One eye felt funny when she blinked. Was it swelling? A tear overflowed and trickled down, stinging.
The other man swore softly. “Who the fuck is out there?”
“I’m here.” Cruz’s voice came from the darkness straight ahead. Closer than she had expected. He flicked on his flashlight, illuminating the ground and sweeping it back and forth. The beam passed over Rosie’s feet. “What the fuck?” He shone it higher. “I said not to fucking touch her!” He darted toward her.
Esau lunged, blocking Cruz’s path to Rosie. A smack echoed as heavy bodies collided. Rosie could barely see through the dark and through her half-closed eye. The flashlight fell to the ground and rolled toward her.
The air filled with the sounds of fighting: the crack of a jaw, the thud of fists hitting flesh, grunting and swearing. The ground shook as they fell and rolled.
Abruptly the flashlight was picked up and brought toward her head. Then a click echoed off the trees and cold metal pressed to her temple. Esau’s partner spoke. “Game’s over, Zaffino.”
Both men stopped and looked.
“No!” Cruz leaped off of Esau, who also scrambled to his feet. “Let her go. I’m here. What the fuck do you want from me?”
Esau trained his gun on Cruz. “You fucking snitch.”
“What?”
“You heard me,” Esau went on. “You pissed off Big J with your story. His parole hearing was coming up and then it got yanked. Must be nice, snitching to walk free.”
“I didn’t snitch on anyone, asshole.” Cruz’s voice was low with menace. “I’m out because the witness changed his story. Told the fucking truth for the first time.”
“What witness?” Esau asked.
“From my trial. Juanito. Johnny Crazy Legs.” Cruz shifted his focus from Esau to the man by Rosie. “Maybe you should be talking to him.”
“Aw, shit. Crazy Legs?” Esau’s partner gave a half laugh. “He’s off the grid. No one seen him in months.”
“That piece of shit,” Esau muttered. “Heard he was arrested for dealing. Then…nada.”
“Maybe someone ratted on Big J, but it wasn’t me,” Cruz said. “Time to let us go. We’ll pretend we never saw you.”
“No can do, cabron,” the man by Rosie said. “Even if you didn’t do it, you both seen too much.”
Rosie’s breath came in short bursts. Her cheek throbbed, but terror coursed through her veins in a lethal takeover of her rationale. Both these guys had guns. They might be crazy. They probably shot people all the time. Please don’t let Cruz die. He couldn’t die, not tonight, not here in front of her. Not ever. I love him.
Cruz clenched his fists. “Let her go. She had nothing to do with any of this until you assholes dragged her in.”
“Too bad. Too late now,” the man said. “There’ll just be one less blond bitch down here in the sticks.” He moved his hand, and a click echoed from his weapon. “Any last words for your little lady?”
“If she dies…” Cruz spoke with eerie calm. Rosie wished to god she could see his face clearly. But he was shadowed and too far from her. “I’ll fucking kill you both and I’ll take days to do it. You’ll be begging for me to end you.”
Esau shook his head. “You fucking cocksu—”
A deep familiar voice cut through the night, bellowing a word she didn’t understand.
Rosie gasped. But before she could form a thought, a low dark shape hurtled into the clearing with blinding speed. It jumped on Esau with a growl.
A gagging sound came from the man next to Rosie. A thud and the rustle of brush. Air whooshed past her, around her, as the clicking of metal on metal reached her ear. Shane rattled off Miranda rights.
In front of her, Esau howled in pain from somewhere on the ground. More growling came from the low shape still connected to him. Denver.
“Rosie!” Cruz was right in front of her, cupping her uninjured cheek. “God damn it.”
Behind her, steady fingers worked swiftly to undo her gag, then moved to her hands. “Mother fuckers.” Shane cursed a streak as he took apart the knots. Then he was speaking to someone. “Move in. One subject in handcuffs. Bring the ambulance.” In his next breath he was up and running toward Esau.
“Rosie.” Cruz folded her into his arms. “Rosie. Christ. What did they do to you?”
“Just-just…h-hit…” Ow. Her jaw ached. “Cruz.” She clung to his broad shoulders as tears fell. “P-please don’t let go.”
He sat and shifted her onto his lap, sideways, her good cheek against his chest. “Never. Never letting go of you.”
She sagged into him, grateful for his strength as relief washed over her. He’s okay. She curled her fingers into his shirt. “C-cruz, I thought they were going to kill you. Whatever they said, I-I didn’t want you to do it—”
“Shh, baby, don’t try to talk.” He kissed her hair. “No one’s gonna kill me. I’m not going anywhere. I promise.”
Several feet away, Esau moaned. Shane said something in German. Denver moved, then Shane was cuffing Esau, reciting Miranda rights.
The crash of many feet and male voices cut through Esau’s grunts of pain. Rosie jerked her head up to see dozens of flashlights coming closer. “What’s going on?”
“That’s the rest of the county sheriff department. They were on standby a mile away. Ambulance too. Can you walk—oh shit.” He glanced at her feet. “Damn it, I’ll—”
“No. Don’t let go. Please. Let them do it.” Her teeth chattered though the night was warm. Now that she was finally in Cruz’s arms, she didn’t want any space between them. Not even for him to undo the rope around her ankles.
The cops reached their group. Shane gave gruff commands. Someone set up a floodlight. Two EMTs rushed toward Rosie.
“Evening miss. I’m Andrew and this is Brandon,” one said. With close-cut hair and a baby face, he looked like he was right out of college. He knelt in front of her and set a bag on the ground. “Can you tell us your name?”
“Rosie Marlow.”
Brandon nodded. “All right Rosie, I’d like to check your pulse.”
She nodded and extended her arm.
“I’m gonna go ahead and cut that rope off your legs.” Andrew took a pair of scissors from his bag. Swiftly, he dispatched the bindings from her ankles.
Brandon cautiously examined her wrists. “Some abrasions here. I’ll be as gentle as I can.”
Only then did she peek at her arms. The rope had dug in, creating purple bruises and a web of tiny scratches. She winced. If this was what her arms looked like…how bad was her face?
“Sorry about that,” Brandon murmured.
“No, it didn’t hurt that much. It’s just…how bad is the rest?”
Andrew offered a kind smile. “Mind if I take a look at your cheek? Looks like a nasty bruise.”
Rosie nodded. “He hit me. I can talk okay…” She straightened up, but didn’t leave Cruz’s lap.
Andrew gently tilted her face. “Do you have more injuries?”
“I don’t think so but, um…” She tried to think back. What happened after they had her in their car?
An angry growl rumbled in Cruz’s chest. “Did they touch you?”
“They…they had a rag with something on it. They held it over my mouth.” God, that seemed like ages ago, yet it had been this same night. “They put me in thei
r car and when I woke up, we were here.”
“Goddam sons of bitches,” Cruz muttered.
Brandon looked up from where he was checking her pulse. “If you inhaled a substance that caused you to lose consciousness, we should get you to the hospital just to check out your lungs. And run some tests, make sure whatever it was is out of your system.”
“Okay.” She didn’t like hospitals. But their words made sense. She held on to Cruz’s shoulder. “I want him to come with me.”
“Of course,” Andrew said. He pressed gently on her cheekbone. “Any tenderness here?”
“No,” she murmured. “It’s mostly my jaw.”
“It may just be a bad bruise, but the doctor can tell you for sure.”
Heavy foot falls came close and Shane lowered his frame to her line of sight. “Did you say doctor?”
Andrew and Brandon both straightened. Andrew cleared his throat. “Officer Marlow—I mean, Sergeant Marlow, sir.”
“Your sister was made to inhale a substance that made her lose consciousness. She agreed to come to the hospital to get checked out,” Brandon said.
Shane took her hand. “Jesus Christ, Rosie. You gonna be okay?”
“I just feel like I got punched really hard. The stuff they gave me…I don’t know.”
“We’ll search their car, any of their belongings, once we get a warrant,” Shane said. “We’ll find out what that shit was and call it in. You going to Central Redemption?”
Rosie caught Brandon’s eye. “Can we go there?”
“Anywhere you want, Miss Marlow.”
Denver trotted over, and both EMTs gave him a wide berth. “Hi, Denver.” She reached up to scratch his silky chin. “You were a good boy today.”
The big dog chuffed out a breath and shook his head side to side, making his silver chain collar rattle.
“On that note, I’m gonna need one of you guys to look at that piece of shit’s arm,” Shane muttered and hooked a thumb in Esau’s direction. “Denver took a chunk out of it. He didn’t like what they were doing to his aunt.”
“On it, sir. “Andrew hustled over to Esau, who was still on the ground, surrounded by officers.
“I have to stay here for a bit, but I’ll come over there as soon as I can,” Shane said. “Call me if anything happens. I gotta handle this. I’ll see you both soon.”
Cruz stroked her back. “You ready to get up?”
“Yeah.” It was silly but part of her wished he could just carry her. He shifted her toward Brandon and between them she stood up. She took a deep breath, relieved that her legs and feet felt absolutely fine. “I’m good. I can walk.”
Brandon handed Cruz a flashlight, then flicked on his own and led them through the trees.
Cruz slid his arm around her waist. “Not letting you go.” He kissed her temple.
Rosie leaned on Cruz and just breathed. Her mind was a tangle of emotion. She still didn’t understand all the details of why these guys had shown up in Sundown. But Cruz had come for her. Saved her again. He’d risked his life for her. She loved him, and that was all that mattered.
Chapter 30
The clock on the wall of their little recovery room read three am. Central Redemption Hospital’s emergency section had actual rooms for its patients, not just partitions between them like some of the hospitals Cruz had been in.
Thank god for the room, but he was ready to jump out of his skin. Every mottled and marred inch of Rosie’s face made him want to kill Esau, slowly and repeatedly.
Guilt had been ripping long, agonizing slashes in his soul ever since that Facetime conversation. His beautiful country girl had been attacked, kidnapped, beaten and bound—because of him. He was lower than low, an ex-inmate with powerful enemies. She deserved a nice guy whose past wouldn’t come calling like a nightmare.
Not him. As much as he loved her, he couldn’t ask her to live her life in danger.
Still in her work clothes, Rosie lay on a bed, propped up on a mountain of pillows and with a blanket over her because the hospital air conditioning was on at full blast. They were finally alone after a dozen staff members had come by to do test after test. One of the county officers had come by to get a statement from each of them.
Now, they were waiting on lab results. Rosie removed the ice pack she’d had on her cheek. “Ugh, this is too cold, and this room is already freezing.”
Cruz set it on the counter of the sink in the corner. “You probably don’t need it anymore.” He settled back on the chair next to her bed. “Is that Tylenol helping?”
“Yeah.”
He took her hand between his. “Rosie… I’m sorry.”
Gorgeous blue eyes blinked in confusion. “You don’t have to be sorry for anything.”
“Yes, I do. This entire night was my fault.” He held up a hand when she started to protest. “Someone came after me. They couldn’t find me so they did the next best thing and grabbed you. To get to me.” His voice dropped to a growl. “You got hurt because of me.”
She shook her head. “It’s not your fault. You couldn’t anticipate some lunatic coming after you.”
“And that’s my point.” He ran a hand over his hair. “Some of the men I knew, they might still be in jail but they can still order hits. They have that much power.”
Her mouth twisted downward. “I’m still confused about what those two guys were saying in the woods. Someone ratted someone out?”
“That, I’m not sure on.” He blew out a breath. “Johnny Crazy Legs was the one whose testimony did me in.”
“I remember you said that. He lied and said you shot that guy.”
“And three months ago he recanted—but I never heard why. I didn’t question it.”
Her fingertips rubbed along his. “Of course not. It was the truth. Finally.”
He forced himself to study the myriad of red and purple on her cheek. Hatred that his past led to this oozed through his body like lava. There was no avoiding its destructive path. “Rosie…I don’t know when someone else will get pissed and try something like this again.”
“Cruz…”
“You could have died. I can’t live with that.”
“You could have died too!” She sat up higher on the pillows. “He was holding a gun to your head. I was terrified that I might lose you. Cruz.” She squeezed his fingers. “I love you.”
Her words punched a hole in his gut. “You shouldn’t. I don’t deserve it. My past is part of me that I can’t escape. That ugly criminal part. It’ll always be there.” Her eyes narrowed and he knew an argument was coming. “No. I can’t ask you to potentially put yourself in danger because of me.”
“You’re not asking.” Her voice took on a defiant edge. “I’m telling you, I’m not going anywhere.”
Don’t argue with a country girl. Shit, she was making this harder and harder. “What if I can’t get to you in time next time? I can’t stand to see you hurt again.”
She reached to cup his jaw. “What if the sky falls and the world ends tomorrow? You can’t live your life hiding from the what ifs.”
“I’d rather live it knowing you’re safe.”
“Cruz.” Blue eyes pierced him with so much love he couldn’t breathe. “Before I met you, I almost died.” She let the words linger in the air. “Anything can happen to anyone on any given day. It hasn’t been easy to move forward, but I did. Mostly. And what I couldn’t move past, you accepted. Don’t you see? You accepted all of me. The parts I hid and couldn’t share with anyone else. I love you and I need you. And if you’re trying to get rid of me, it won’t work.”
“We’re talking about your life. I can’t let you risk it.”
“My life?” She shook her head. “My life is connected to yours. I love you. And if I die tomorrow, I’ll die happy knowing I had these months with you. That I had months with someone who
held me and accepted me, who let me cry and told me it was going to be okay.” Tears sprang to her eyes. “Someone who didn’t think I messed up too bad to have a fresh start.”
“Of course you didn’t.” He grabbed a tissue and handed it to her. It killed him that she was so hard on herself, that she let one mistake become a ruling factor in her mind. And it humbled him more than anything ever had that she trusted him with her deepest scars.
She dabbed at her eyes. “And you moved here for a fresh start. Damn it. Cruz, you deserve it. Don’t you dare tell me you don’t.”
He stared into the endless blue of her eyes, at the mix of love, anger, and fear there. And he knew she was right. Their lives were connected. Even if he left, she might still be a target if anyone came after him again. And he’d rather be here, to protect her, than in some other town.
And god knew, she was it for him. No other woman. Ever.
He smoothed a strand of hair away from her cheek. “All right, you stubborn country girl. I won’t argue with you.”
“You were arguing with me.” She raised a brow.
“My mistake.” He brushed a gentle kiss across her lips. “I love you so damn much, and I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“I know you don’t,” she whispered. “And I don’t want you to go anywhere. Never let me go. You promised.”
“You got it, pretty girl.” He kissed her more deeply, teasing her lips with his tongue—
A sharp knock sounded on their door and the on-call doctor opened it. “Oh, I’m sorry!” She paused.
Cruz pulled back from Rosie and turned to the doctor. “It’s okay.”
“Come in,” Rosie said. “Dr. Farran, right?”
“Yes. Good memory.” She stepped in, carrying a laptop, and closed the door. “I just wanted to give you an update.”
“Go ahead.”
“The deputies called in, reporting they found a chemical called chloroform in the vehicle belonging to the, uh…men.” She said the last word with distaste, as if she’d rather call them something else but knew it wouldn’t be professional.