Shelby lay back, eyes closed, while he drove the short distance to the hospital. On the way over, she told him what had happened. The quiet anger swirled around Dakota. He didn’t talk at all, but his mind seemed to operate at warp speed. Was this the SEAL reaction? The man who had survived years in hostile environments? Her nose and face ached so much Shelby couldn’t think very far beyond that.
“Stay here,” Dakota growled, opening the door. He’d parked the SUV at the doors of the E.R. “I’ll get a gurney. Stay put.”
The warning in his voice reverberated through Shelby. Not to worry, she didn’t want to go anywhere. Her head hurt. Her nose ached like hell. Tipping her head back, Shelby closed her eyes as some of the fear and realization that she’d almost been kidnapped seeped like a poison through her. She tasted fear and had never felt as vulnerable as she did right now. The only thing between her and those two convicts willing to capture her was Dakota.
* * *
“SHE’S GOING TO be okay,” Jordana reassured Shelby and Dakota. Standing in an E.R. cubicle, she’d finished looking at the X-rays.
Shelby sat up on the gurney. “That’s good,” she muttered, barely touching her nose. The swelling had begun in earnest. At least the bleeding had stopped.
Jordana nodded. “I use homeopathic remedies to stop the swelling.” She placed some white pellets in Shelby’s hand. “Take these, let them melt in your mouth. Hopefully, it will stop you from looking like a raccoon by tomorrow morning.”
Grinning lopsidedly, Shelby did as she instructed. “Thanks, Jordana. So, my nose is fractured?”
“Yes, hairline. No surgery needed. It will be sensitive for a month, but you’ll heal up fine.” She checked the swelling on her left cheek and quickly cleaned it up. “You’ve been roughed up, but you got off a lot better than Hartley.”
“I wanted to blow his head off,” she admitted, giving the doctor a quick look.
“I understand,” she soothed, adding some antibiotic ointment to the scratches on her cheek. “Dr. Collins is taking care of him. You shot him in a good spot. No major damage, but he’s not going anywhere fast. You clipped his wings.” Her lips twitched and she held Shelby’s dark stare. “Right now they’re taking him over to another wing of the hospital, up on the sixth floor, with two deputies guarding him. I heard Cade Garner just got here and he’s going to interrogate him.”
“Hopefully to find out where Welton is holed up,” she muttered. “Thanks, my cheek feels better.”
“You’re welcome. I’ll send a nurse to get you a prescription for any residual pain you have with your broken nose. I’d try a couple of aspirin first, however.”
Shelby nodded and then looked up at Dakota. She continued to feel the harnessed rage vibrating around him. He’d said little, and it was starting to worry her. Reaching out, she covered his hand with hers. His was so scarred-looking compared to hers. “How are you doing?”
Dakota looked down at Shelby. Her face was bruised. He could see purple shadows beneath her eyes, all thanks to Hartley breaking her nose. Lifting his hand, he gently eased some gold strands away from her cheek. “Okay. I’m more concerned about you.”
“I’m coming down from the attack. I feel like so much jelly held together by skin at this point, if you want the truth.”
Dakota allowed his hand to come to rest on her slumped shoulder. “You handled the situation fine.”
Seeing the pride in his darkened eyes, she couldn’t help but protest. “I should have checked out around my Land Cruiser. I checked inside, but not around it. It was a rookie’s mistake. My head was still wrapped around all those briefings I gave the law enforcement guys today. I was distracted. I should have been focused.”
He heard the censure in her husky voice. All he wanted to do was hold Shelby. Hold her and keep her safe. But she wasn’t safe and Dakota knew it. “Listen, why don’t you lie here on the gurney and rest for a while? I need to go talk to Cade. I have a plan, but I need his help on it. Okay?”
Though she gave him a quizzical look, Shelby did as ordered and lay back down on the gurney, the pillow feeling good behind her aching head. “What plan?”
Dakota watched her with that enigmatic expression. He had his own agenda. Trying to ease the worry in her eyes, he leaned down and tenderly caressed her lips. He eased away. “I’ll tell you more, later.”
* * *
CADE GARNER HAD JUST come out of Hartley’s hospital room when he saw Dakota come striding down the hall. Nodding to the two armed deputies at the door, he went to meet him.
“How’s Shelby doing?” he asked, putting his notebook in his pocket.
“She’s okay,” Dakota said, looking beyond the deputy to the room where Hartley was kept under guard. “You get anything from Hartley?”
Cade shook his head. “He’s not talking. Smart-assed bastard. He lawyered up. Now I have to give him his call to get an attorney tomorrow morning.”
“Let me talk to him,” Dakota said, drawing him aside.
“I can’t do that. I want to, but it’s against the law.”
Hand slowly curling, Dakota stood glaring at the door where Hartley was inside. He wanted the son of a bitch dead. “Okay,” he rasped. “I need to get Shelby somewhere safe. I know your family ranch has a number of cabins on it you rent out every summer to tourists?”
“Yes, my parents have rentals.” He quirked his mouth. “You’re worried that Welton knows where your cabin is?”
“It could be compromised, and until I know for sure, I need Shelby somewhere safe.”
“Well, maybe safer,” Cade said, frowning. “It would be better if both of you were at our ranch. She’s going to need a full-time bodyguard.”
Dakota silently promised she was going nowhere without him from now on. “She’s going to want to go back to work.”
“I need her, Dakota. She’s the one who tracked Welton and Hartley in the first place. Everything’s in motion now. I can’t take her out of the equation, and you know that.”
He didn’t want to hear it, but agreed. “Okay, but I’m in the mix.”
“I want you with her,” Cade said. Looking at his watch, he said, “I’ll call my parents and find out which cabin you can have. Let me get back to you later tonight by cell? It won’t take too long.”
“I appreciate it,” Dakota said, meaning it. He knew the deputy was up to his ass in alligators with the search moving forward plus trying to squeeze intel out of Hartley as to Welton’s whereabouts. The deputy turned and walked down the hall toward a set of elevators.
Dakota stood for a moment, checked out the area. The room was at the end of a hall. The nurses’ station was around the corner. There wasn’t much activity on this floor; plus, it had been cordoned off to keep reporters and nosy people away from it. He studied the two deputies and knew both of them.
Looking at his clock, he decided to get down to the E.R. and keep Shelby company. It was where he wanted to be. As the rage moved lethally through him, Dakota stared at the door one moment where Hartley was, memorizing it. He was going to get to that son of a bitch and, one way or another, get the information on Welton’s whereabouts. His mouth hardened, and he kept going down the hall.
* * *
DAKOTA HAD MADE SURE Shelby was comfortable in the cabin on the Garner family ranch. It was near 10:00 p.m. A wrangler kept guard outside the cabin. Dakota drove back to the hospital. Everything was quiet. It was time.
Only one deputy was at Hartley’s door when Dakota arrived on the sixth floor. He checked out the nurses’ station. One woman was hard at work on the computer, entering info. Turning, he headed down the tiled hall. Deputy Gary Epson raised his head.
“Hey, Gary, how’s it going?” Dakota asked. The man was twenty-one, fresh from law enforcement training.
“Hey, Dakota, fine. How’s Shelby doing?”
“Fractured nose, roughed up, but she’s going to be all right.”
“That’s good news.” Epson looked around, a worried look on
his face. “Hey, I gotta get to the bathroom. Can you stand here for a few minutes? My partner is down at the cafeteria grabbing a bite to eat. I’m not supposed to leave, but nature is calling. Would you? Hartley’s cuffed to the bed, so he isn’t going anywhere.”
Dakota nodded. “Sure, go ahead. Your secret’s safe with me.”
He waited until the deputy disappeared around the corner. He knew the restrooms were near the nurses’ station. Turning on his heel, he entered the room swiftly and silently.
Hartley was sitting up, wearing a blue gown, his one leg wrapped in a white dressing. He looked like a skinny jaybird. Dakota quietly shut the door and closed the distance on the convict. He didn’t have much time and he was going to make the most of it.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“HEY!” HARTLEY YELLED. “Who the hell are you?” He saw the tall, dark-haired man with eyes like slits heading straight for him. It was his posture, his shoulders hunched, head leading his body, his hand curled into a fist at his side that scared the hell out of him. Fear shot through him. He had no way to escape the stranger.
Without a word, Dakota’s fist shot out like a striking snake. It connected solidly with Hartley’s fear-etched face.
The blow sent the convict slamming into his bed, jerked sideways by the cuff holding his left wrist to the railing. He cried out once, slumped to the floor, his nose bleeding profusely.
Without a word, Dakota leaned down, grabbed the guy by his shoulders and hauled his ass up on the bed. He pushed him down.
Eyes wide with fear, Hartley cringed away from the man. “Who are you?” he shrieked, trying to get away from him.
“Your worst nightmare,” Dakota hissed. He yanked Hartley back, slamming his head into the pillow, his long, greasy hair between his fingers. Savage pleasure hummed through Dakota as he saw he’d broken the man’s nose. It was crooked and bleeding heavily. He put his face inches from Hartley’s and snarled in a low growl, “I’m Ellie Carson’s brother. Ring a bell?” He tightened his grip on the man’s hair.
Hartley gasped, the name hitting home. His eyes widened even more, his mouth opening. “Oh God...”
“I want to know where Welton is. I’ll give you one chance to answer me or I’ll kill you. Got it?”
Hartley saw murder in the man’s narrowed eyes, the way violence surrounded him. His nose was bleeding heavily, the blood spilling down his lips, chin and splattering onto the blue gown across his chest. Hartley knew the man would carry out his threat. “He’s in a cabin off a dirt road. Th-there’s no road name.”
“It has a number, asshole. All forest service roads have a number. What is it?” he snarled, his breath puncturing across Hartley’s frightened features.
“I—uh...uh...”
There wasn’t much time. Dakota knew the deputy would be back very shortly. He raised his right hand and slowly curled it into a fist. “I can kill a man with one strike.”
Welton made a mewing sound, trying to move, but Dakota had him pinned. Escape was impossible. “Y-yes...the number is 420.”
Dakota smiled. “Smart move. I broke your nose because you broke my woman’s nose earlier this evening.”
Hartley blinked once. He’d hidden a shiv that the deputies had not found, beneath the bed, just in case. His hand reached out, feeling for it, found it with shaking fingers. Hartley knew he was a dead man. His fingers wrapped around the four-inch shiv. With a grunt, he wrenched up his right arm, aiming to sink the shiv into the man’s chest.
Dakota saw the flash come up in Hartley’s hand. His reaction was automatic. In blinding seconds, he bunched his fist, striking Hartley in the temple, sending broken bone splinters into the man’s brain. He never even felt the shiv penetrate his lower arm.
Hartley slumped suddenly, dead in his hands.
Son of a bitch! Breathing hard, Dakota held the little bastard’s limp body. Remorse flowed through him. He didn’t need this. Although Hartley sure as hell deserved to die, Dakota knew this would be a messy detail. Dammit! The bloody shiv lay nearby. Blood was dripping from his left forearm, near where he’d received the grizzly bite. The drops congealed on the floor near Hartley. Mouth tightening, Dakota turned and knew he had to do the right thing. Cade Garner would have to be notified. He’d just killed a man in self-defense, and the weapon and his wound would prove his story. Still, Dakota hated the complexity that this would cause. Right now all he wanted to do was go find Welton. But that wasn’t going to happen. He’d have to wait.
As he walked out of the room, Gary, the deputy, was returning. It was going to be a long night. He pulled out his phone to tell Shelby what had happened. She wasn’t going to be happy, either. No one would be.
* * *
WAS HE IN TIME? Dakota stood quietly as he stalked Welton’s cabin. Would Welton know Hartley was dead? Cade Garner was keeping the information off the airwaves in hopes that he could nail Welton at the address Hartley had given him. He moved like a shadow near the road leading up to the cabin where Welton was supposed to be. He wore dark clothes, a black bandana around his head, dark green and black face paint, his eyes adjusted to the thin wash of moonlight through the forest. Without a sound, he trotted up the curve.
Ahead, Dakota saw the silhouette of a cabin. He halted and knelt down behind some brush, waited and watched. His breath came sharp and fast, mouth open so no one could hear him breathing. In his left hand he held his M-4. He had a Nightforce scope on it and he could see through the dark with it. His SIG Sauer was strapped low on his right thigh, the restraining strap released so he could smoothly pull it out and use it if he had to.
Dakota heard and saw nothing. There was no vehicle around, either. Was Welton here? Had he somehow realized he was being hunted? Unsure, Dakota moved like the shadows around him, soundlessly, as he checked out around the ramshackle cabin.
Nothing.
His senses were on high alert. He drew close to the house. The porch was grayed by weather, several boards sticking up that needed to be nailed down. Moving silently, Dakota made it to the door. Gloves on so no one could lift fingerprints on him, he tested the knob. It moved. It wasn’t locked. He slowly looked around, his ears keyed to the sounds of the night. Nothing seemed out of place.
In an instant, Dakota slipped through the door, M-4 jammed against his shoulder, the barrel pointed toward anything that moved. After swiftly entering the cabin, he cleared it. The place was empty.
Dakota continued to look around and made sure the only door had nothing behind it. Everything was quiet. Welton was not here. Turning, he began a quiet search of some clothes strewn across the empty bed. It took him ten minutes to search through everything. Welton was either out on the prowl or had been nearby when Hartley had jumped Shelby and then disappeared.
And then it struck him. Dakota realized that Welton might have tracked Shelby back to his cabin after that incident. Damn! With a soft hiss, he turned on his heel, leaving the cabin and hurrying down the narrow road toward his well hidden truck far below.
* * *
BY THE TIME DAKOTA HAD driven up to his cabin, it was 2:00 a.m. The moon was low on the western horizon. Not taking any chances, he parked his truck near brush at the base of the road. He ran silently full tilt up the road, M-4 in hand. If Welton was up there, he’d know shortly. His breath came in quiet gasps, and as he neared the cabin, Dakota spotted no vehicle. And no one seemed to be around.
Moving into the shadows, the trees and brush hiding him, Dakota kept his M-4 up and ready to fire. He used the Nightforce scope to detect any thermal heat movement of a human being hidden nearby. Nothing.
As he moved parallel to the front door, he saw it was ajar. He never kept the door open. Kneeling, he waited and watched. The crickets were chirping. They always stopped singing if they were disturbed by human activity. His instincts screamed that Welton had already been here, not found Shelby and had left. Damn! Quickly moving, Dakota checked out around the cabin before entering it. When he did, he found the place tossed. Everything was
on the floor, the mattress torn apart. His mouth turned into a snarl as he surveyed the mess. Welton had followed Shelby!
There was a whine at the door.
Head snapping up, Dakota saw Storm quietly enter the opened door.
Relief flowed through him as the wolf came over, licked his gloved hand, tail wagging. Dakota petted her head, so glad Welton hadn’t found her. The convict would have killed Storm without a second thought.
“Good girl,” he murmured, running his hand over her back.
He took off his clothes and put them and the gloves into a bag. After washing his hands and face, he drew out a new set of clean clothes.
Once dressed, Dakota went outside and noticed a half-eaten rabbit on the ground near the porch. Storm hunted every night. In this case, hunting had saved her life. He paced soundlessly across the porch. The road was powder-dry dirt. There could be footprints from Welton imprinted in the soil. A new kind of satisfaction thrummed through Dakota as he carefully retraced his own footsteps. He’d come up here tomorrow morning and find what kind of shoe or boot Welton was wearing. It was one step closer to finding the murderer.
* * *
SHELBY AWOKE SLOWLY. Her headache was gone. And her nose wasn’t aching. She turned over in the luxury of a queen-size bed. Reaching out, she felt a warm spot where Dakota had lain earlier. Sunlight lanced around the edges of the window where the dark burgundy drapes were drawn. Pulling herself up, she felt achy and sore. The door was open and she could hear the clink of pots and pans out in the kitchen.
She pushed her hair out of her face and forced herself to sit up. Her bare feet touched the pine floor, grounding her. The smell of coffee laced the air and she lifted her nose, inhaling deeply. It smelled good. She was surprised she could smell anything at all with a broken nose. Sitting there, she felt her heart move powerfully with love for Dakota.
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