Daniel had only come in first to make sure Lauren had an exam room ready before he carried Rosa inside to be treated for her mild hypothermia. Now he could only be grateful to whatever instinct had compelled him to leave her in the vehicle.
She was far from safe, though. He knew the dangers. He would rather she were miles away in the FBI safe house with Cale Davis and Gage McKinnon.
Heavy pressure dug into his lungs, the onus of knowing he had to protect two women. He couldn’t mess this up.
Fox hissed a pungent oath. “I don’t believe you.”
Daniel shrugged. “Believe what you want. She’s not here. Who knows? She could be halfway to Juarez by now. It’s just the three of us. Now why don’t you let Lauren go so you and I can figure out a way to work this out. I know you don’t want to hurt her.”
His arm tightened around her throat and he dug the gun into her temple harder. Daniel’s gut clenched. He could see the desperation in Fox’s eyes, the grim realization of what he had done already and the implications of those actions.
He had shot a deputy sheriff. He had to be feeling any chance at a future that didn’t involve serious prison time slipping away.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen. This whole thing has been screwed up from the minute we brought that little bitch over the border. It’s all her fault everything is falling apart.”
Daniel hitched in a breath as he saw that Glock quiver again. The man was as twitchy as a polecat bedded down with a rattlesnake.
“Look—” he kept his voice slow, even “—let Lauren go and you and I can talk about this. I’m sure if we put our heads together we can figure out what to do from here. She doesn’t need to be in the middle of this. I know you don’t want to hurt her.”
His arm clenched around her throat. Any tighter and he would be cutting off her air supply, Daniel feared.
“Here’s a better idea. Drop your weapon nice and slow and Lauren and I will go for a little drive.”
No way in hell. Fox wanted to use her as his ticket out of here. As soon as she lost her usefulness as a bargaining chip, Daniel knew the bastard would have no qualms about killing her and dumping her body somewhere along his escape route.
His mind raced through his options. They were terrifyingly limited. Whatever he did, he didn’t have much time. Already, Fox was on a knife’s-edge of control, not thinking rationally. He had to know he was in far worse shit now than he would have been even if Rosa had testified to the grand jury about the smuggling ring.
The slightest misstep by Daniel would likely send Fox careening over that edge.
Daniel’s options were limited and his window of opportunity was narrowing by the second.
“Come on, Sheriff. We can’t stand here all day. Sooner or later, one of us is going to blink. You know you can’t shoot me or you’ll hit Dr. Maxwell here. You want to keep her alive, your best chance is to drop your weapon now and let us out of here.”
He released a breath, knowing he had no choice. After a long, painful pause, he bent at the waist and placed his weapon on the floor.
Lauren gave a tiny, anguished whimper, the terror in her eyes ticking up a notch.
Trust me, he mouthed while Fox’s attention was glued to his Beretta on the floor tiles between them.
“Good choice,” the man said. “Now if you’ll just step aside, we’ll be on our way.”
Adrenaline flowed through him as he tensed, ready to pounce, when suddenly he heard a noise from outside the treatment room. The outside door opening, he realized.
A moment later, he heard a small, concerned voice. “Daniel? Lauren? Donde éstan?”
Rosa. Mierda!
Kendall Fox froze at the voice, then a dark and ugly satisfaction spread over his too-handsome features.
“Your lover boy is a liar, Lauren,” he purred. “Looks like I’ll be able to take care of my little problem after all.”
He drew the gun away from Lauren’s head to aim it at the door and released her slightly. Daniel knew this was his only chance.
He hadn’t played college football in more than a decade but he still knew how to take a man down. He used Fox’s momentary distraction to charge. In an instant, he pushed Lauren out of the way and plowed into the other man.
They both toppled to the floor and Fox instinctively fired, but the shot went wild. Still, the other man managed to keep hold of his weapon and for what felt like an eternity, they grappled fiercely for it.
Daniel was desperate to wrest it away, but the doctor was just as determined to hang on. Though Daniel outweighed him by at least thirty pounds, the bastard was tougher than he looked, wiry and quick. It didn’t help his concentration that he was painfully aware of Lauren and Rosa huddled together in the doorway.
He wanted to yell at both of them to get the hell out of there and call for help but he didn’t dare even take his attention off Fox for an instant.
Finally, the tide began to turn. He was able to drive an elbow into the doctor’s nose and when his head whipped back, Daniel grabbed hold of his wrist and slammed it with vicious force against the hard tile floor.
The weapon flew free, sliding across the floor. Breathing hard, adrenaline coursing through him like crazy, Daniel dragged them both to their feet and shoved Fox against the concrete wall. His head connected with a loud crack, and with a moan he sagged to the ground.
In seconds, Daniel yanked out his handcuffs and used only a little more force than strictly necessary to drag his arms behind his back.
The bastard had shot one of his deputies, was responsible for all the misery Rosa had endured, and had threatened the woman Daniel loved.
For the first time since he went through police officer training a decade ago, Daniel fiercely wished he wasn’t a cop bound by laws and the Bill of Rights. He would give just about anything for the freedom to administer a little frontier justice right about now.
He read the dazed man his rights. Only when he was sure he wasn’t going anywhere did Daniel pick up his own Beretta and Fox’s weapon and turn to check on Rosa and Lauren.
Rosa was gazing at him with a wide-eyed kind of awe that left him highly uncomfortable. Lauren, on the other hand, looked ready to spit nails.
“Are you both okay?”
“We’re fine,” Lauren answered, her voice hard and tight. “You’re bleeding.”
He looked down and saw a red blotch spreading on his sleeve. He hadn’t paid any attention to it in the heat of the moment, but now he realized his arm stung like hell.
“Did he shoot you?”
He flexed his arm. “Don’t think so. I’m okay. I must have broken through my stitches from the other night when I was subduing him. I’ll deal with it after I get Fox into custody.”
Her mouth tightened. For a moment, he didn’t quite understand the reason for her anger, and then he remembered everything, all he had told her the night before about her father’s downfall and his role in it.
Of course. She hated him now. She was probably wishing Fox had shot him.
The satisfaction that churned through him at subduing and arresting Fox—at finding the man who had hurt Rosa and shot his deputy—dried up instantly and he was miserable once again.
She had never been so angry in her life.
The fury coursed through her like a thick, torpid creek and she couldn’t seem to wade across it.
She managed to contain it while she treated Rosa for mild exposure and tried to follow the girl’s story about what had happened earlier, about how she had heard a gunshot and climbed out the bathroom window and slogged through the snow as fast as she could looking for shelter.
She asked questions and made appropriate responses as best she could in Spanish, but the whole time she was afraid her fury would suck her under. The source of her anger was still in her clinic talking to Cale Davis and Gage McKinnon about what had happened.
She would have to give a statement soon, she knew, but right now her patient took precedence.
Rosa
yawned suddenly in the middle of her story and Lauren forced her attention back to her patient, tucking the warmed blankets closer around her.
“Rest now,” she said. “You can tell me the rest of the story later when Daniel is here.”
Daniel was apparently the magic word. Rosa was crazy about him. The events of the last hour only seemed to have solidified the girl’s hero worship.
Rosa nodded. Lauren smoothed a hand over her hair and she smiled, closing her eyes. She stayed with her until she fell asleep, then dimmed the lights and slipped out of the room, leaving the door ajar so she could hear if her patient awoke.
Out in the hallway, she finally let down her guard and leaned against the wall, utterly exhausted by the strain of the day and the sleepless night that preceded it. Her cheek and her head both ached where she had slammed against the wall and she closed her eyes, trying to relax the tight grip of tension in her shoulders with a couple of breathing exercises.
They didn’t seem to want to be soothed, especially when some sixth sense warned her she wasn’t alone.
She jerked her eyes open and found Daniel standing five feet away, watching her out of those intense dark eyes that missed nothing.
He looked so big and comforting and wonderful and she had to grip her hands together to keep from sagging against that hard chest and holding on tight.
Until she remembered how angry she was with him.
“Everything taken care of with Kendall?” she asked, her voice deliberately cool.
“Yeah. Cale and McKinnon will be picking him up at our jail and taking custody. Your Dr. Fox isn’t going to be seeing the light of day anytime soon.”
“He’s not my Dr. Fox. I hope he never gets out of prison for what he’s done.”
He looked a little surprised at her vehemence, which only seemed to make her angrier. Did he honestly think she would have a shred of sympathy for Kendall?
“You need to let me look at your arm.”
He glanced down with a distracted look, as if he had forgotten all about it. “I think it’s stopped bleeding.”
“I still want to check it out. Come in here.”
She didn’t give him a chance to argue, just headed for the nearest exam room. After a pause, he followed, looking about as thrilled to be there as a two-year-old on the way to a booster shot.
“Would you take off your shirt, please?” she ordered. The words had an oddly familiar ring and she couldn’t figure out why until she remembered she had made the same request of him the night Dale Richins found Rosa in the bed of his pickup.
Everything had changed in those few short days. She had kissed him, touched him.
Discovered how very much she loved him.
She huffed out a breath. She wasn’t quite ready to surrender her anger yet by giving in to that soft twirl of emotion.
Still, she had to admit her insides shivered when he shrugged out of his uniform, baring that vast expanse of bronze skin and muscle.
She was a professional, she reminded herself. She shouldn’t even notice. She stepped closer, and pulled the exam light over so she could look at his injury.
“The stitches still look good,” she said after a moment while she rifled through a drawer of the exam table for the necessary supplies to clean off the crusted blood. “You must have just bumped it in a bad spot and started it bleeding again. I’m sure you were too busy being an idiot at the time to notice.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Was I?”
“What else would you call it? You could have been killed, Daniel. He had a gun, in case it escaped your attention.”
“I believe I was aware of that.”
“What kind of idiot rushes toward a man holding a gun aimed at his chest?”
“It wasn’t aimed at my chest when I tackled him, it was aimed at the door. I was well aware of the risks but I had everything under control. I had to take a chance, Lauren. I couldn’t let him hurt you or Rosa.”
“You were willing to sacrifice yourself for us!”
“It wouldn’t have come to that. I wouldn’t have let it.”
Abruptly, all her anger seeped away, leaving only the echo of that raw, terrible fear she had endured watching him wrestle an armed and desperate man. She swallowed hard, hoping he couldn’t see her hands tremble as she wiped gently around the edges of his injury.
“You could have been killed,” she said softly. “I have never been so scared in my entire life.”
To her horror, her voice broke on the last word. She took a breath, then another, trying to regain control, but it was too late. A sob escaped her and she dropped the gauze on the exam table and buried her face in her hands.
“Lauren,” he murmured, then he wrapped those strong, wonderful arms around her and held her against his bare chest while she wept.
Those terrible moments replayed through her mind again and again, her fear and helplessness and the horrible dread when that single shot exploded through the room.
“Everything’s all right now,” he said. “We’re all okay. You and Rosa are safe and that’s the important thing.”
Her hand curled into a fist and she struck out blindly, punching him in the chest, even though she was far too upset to put much force behind it.
“Don’t you ever do that to me again, Daniel Galvez. I died inside when I thought he had shot you.”
At her words, he froze, the hard, smooth muscles against her fist suddenly tight. After a charged pause, he covered her hand with his and drew it to his heart, squeezing tightly as if he didn’t dare let go.
Her gaze lifted to his and the intense emotion there snatched away her breath.
“You did?” he asked, his voice low, shocked.
Her chin quivered as she nodded and wiped away a tear with her finger. Another one slipped out after it, but he dipped his head and absorbed it with a gentle whisper of a kiss.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured, kissing away another and another.
“You’d better be,” she replied, then she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and drew his mouth to hers.
She kissed him fiercely, pouring every ounce of the emotion raging through her heart into her embrace. Love and anger and a deep, cleansing celebration of life.
Several long moments later, he lifted his head slightly, his expression dazed and his breathing ragged.
“You’re going to have to take me back a few steps here, Lauren. I must be a little slow this afternoon. I thought you hated me. After what I told you last night, I figured you would never want to talk to me again.”
“I could never hate you.”
“Ten minutes ago you were furious with me.”
“I was angry at you for rushing a man with a gun, for risking your life. I still am.”
During those long, terrible moments, all she wanted was the chance to tell Daniel how she felt about him. Now that she had the opportunity, the words seemed to catch in her throat.
She swallowed hard, then drew a deep breath for courage. “Mostly, I was angry because I couldn’t bear thinking you might have died before I could ever tell you I love you.”
Had she really just blurted that out? She was the idiot here. With her pulse pounding loudly in her ears, she finally lifted her gaze to his and the raw emotion in his eyes sent that pulse racing into what she was sure couldn’t be a healthy rate.
He looked thunderstruck at first, completely stunned, then a fierce joy leaped into his eyes.
“Say that again,” he ordered, his voice hoarse, stunned.
She managed a watery smile, tenderness soaking through her. She wasn’t afraid of this. With everything inside her, she loved this man. Somehow she knew he would never hurt her. He had risked his life for her. Risking her heart was a piece of cake compared to that.
“I love you, Daniel. I think I have for a long time, I just never realized it until these last few days. I love your strength and your courage and your goodness. I love the way you touch me and the way you make me feel inside, like I’m r
iding a roller coaster without a seat belt, and the amazing way you seem to believe I can do anything I set my mind to do.”
Daniel heard her words but he couldn’t quite comprehend they were coming out of her mouth. He was afraid to believe it could be real, especially after the long, miserable night he had spent lying awake on her couch watching the flames dip and sway and wishing away the past.
He hated to ask, but couldn’t seem to contain the question. “What about your father? About the investigation? You don’t blame me for what happened?”
She sighed, looking weary. “How can I blame you for doing your job? My father made his own choices, every step of the way. You had nothing to do with them. I’ve had to accept that his choices had a ripple effect in many, many lives. I just never realized until today that some of those ripples have helped shape and guide my life into a direction I can’t regret. I have a great life here. Good friends, patients I care about, a growing practice. No. I don’t blame you.”
Relief poured through him and he wrapped her in his arms again, resting his forehead on hers. He was at peace as he hadn’t been in a long time and he wanted to hang on to the feeling forever.
“I have one more confession,” he murmured.
She looked wary suddenly and he smiled, kissing her hard. “I have to tell you that when I was a kid, you were everything I ever dreamed of, everything I wanted. I think I was in love with you, even back then. Nothing has changed.”
He stopped and shook his head slightly. “No, that’s not true. Everything has changed. Before, I wanted this image I had of you, the perfect house and the pretty girl who went along with it. I didn’t know that pretty girl would grow into this smart, incredible woman I love so much, someone who pours her heart and soul into healing others, who has this powerful sense of justice, a bottomless well of compassion in her heart. And a rather terrifying obsession with hot chocolate.”
She laughed, though a faint wash of color danced across her cheekbones. He brushed his mouth across her soft, delicate skin. He couldn’t believe this was real, that she was in his arms.
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