She came back a moment later, holding a ball of twine. “I found this, but I don’t think you’re going to need it.”
“Did I miss all the excitement?” Toby said as he entered the room behind Dusty. “I hate it when that happens.”
Luke kept his eyes on Broeker as he said, “As usual, I play the entire game and you show up in time to cross the end zone. Throw your cuffs on this guy, and call in an ambulance for Wayne. He’s lying in the floor in the other room, acting like he’s dying.”
“Ambulance is already on its way.” Toby leaned down and snapped his handcuffs on Broeker’s wrists. “I called them as soon as Corinne told me you were out here. I figured you were ready to put the whoop on someone. Onto your knees.” He stepped back and pulled Broeker’s arms back so he could go to a kneeling position, then guiding him into a stand.
“What about our friend Kenny?” Toby asked.
Luke shrugged. “That’s something we need to discuss with these guys. He’s not here, unless he’s hiding under a bed somewhere. My guess he’s either holed up somewhere waiting for them, or else he’s no longer among the living.” Broeker seemed to have little compunction about killing his team members. Luke studied his face for a sign.
Broeker smirked. “Don’t worry, he’s alive, unless he managed to kill himself somehow.” He turned to Toby and cocked his head. “I might be coerced into making a deal. Say, I tell you where he is, and call it even.”
Toby looked at Luke. “Isn’t it touching to see loyalty among partners?” He turned and pushed Broeker toward the door. “You’ll tell us where he is, and we don’t call it even. We get a little irked when people shoot our law officers. Your social calendar is going to be full for a while.”
As they passed Dusty, Broeker leaned close and leered at her. “Wait for me, darling?”
Luke palmed the top of Broeker head and shoved him forward. “It’s not too late for me to shoot your ass.”
He stood in the doorway and watched until Toby had driven out of sight. The ambulance pulled into the drive as soon as Toby left, and Luke led them into the bedroom where Wayne lay groaning. Luke called for Adam to come out and guard the house until the FBI team could get there and wrap up the crime scene. Then he stood back and watched, his eyes on the EMTs, but his mind seeing Dusty’s tear-filled, terrified gaze as Broeker shoved the gun up under her chin. His ears heard the technicians tell Wayne he was going to be okay, but his mind heard over and over again Dusty’s words, and he felt his own answer on his tongue, saying the words only his heart had known.
The EMTs loaded Wayne onto a stretcher, and two carried him out while the third turned to Dusty. “Let’s take a look at you.”
Dusty crossed her arms over her chest and hunched her shoulders. “I’m okay. He didn’t hurt me.”
“You’re pale and shaking and frankly, you look like you’re about to pass out. Sit down here on the bed and let me take your blood pressure.”
“I said I’m okay.”
“I’ll bring her in in a few minutes, Albert,” Luke said.
Albert looked at Luke, then shrugged. “Okay, but make it quick, okay? I don’t want to have to come back out here.”
Only after everyone had left and the house was filled with quiet did Luke trust himself to look at Dusty.
She stood perfectly still in the center of the room, her hands clasped tightly before her, her eyes wide, and though he could see she fought to control them, tremors ran through her body.
Her eyes met his. She swallowed and bit her lower lip. “I really don’t need to go to the hospital. He didn’t – “
Her voice broke. Luke reached for her and pulled her into his arms, wrapping himself as tightly as he could around her. He held her while the aftershocks of the ordeal shook through her, he felt the soft thump of her heart alive and beating against his, the rise and fall of her chest with each breath she took, heard her voice and rejoiced at all these things telling him what he needed most to know – that she was okay. She was live and okay and in his arms.
And she loved him.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered against his neck. “I wanted to help and I made it worse. I couldn’t stand the thought of you being down here alone, probably outnumbered, so I came but I didn’t help at all, I just made it worse.”
“Shhh.” He stroked the back of her head and held her tightly. “It’s okay. It’s okay now. We’re both here and we fought the bad guy together, and we won. You did great. You’re fierce. You’re a warrior. It’s okay.”
She sniffled a laugh against his neck, and he pulled back and tilted her chin up so he could see her eyes. He thumbed the line of tears that ran down her cheek.
Her eyes shifted away from his, and the words they’d spoken to each other became the elephant in the room.
“Dusty.” He wanted to hear her say it again, needed to know he hadn’t just made it up. But he couldn’t bring himself to ask. All he could say was, “Dusty,” the one word that filled him simultaneously with joy and terror.
She refused to meet his gaze, but instead of frustrating him, this only filled him with more tenderness. She was afraid. She’d leaped across that precipice, and now she was on the other side, off-balance, out of her element.
It was okay, Luke told himself. She’d said the words, he knew now that she loved him, and he could give her the space she needed to come to terms with that. They had time. His heard soared with the glad knowledge of it. Broeker and Wayne were safely out of the way now, and they had all the time in the world. They had their whole lives.
He hugged Dusty to him again, then pulled away. “Let’s get you to the hospital.”
“I really am fine. You saw it. He didn’t hurt me.”
“You’re not going to put up a fight over this, are you? Make me drag you in kicking and screaming? I’m tired, Dusty. I’ve had a hard night.”
She laughed, and he knew it was more out of relief that he didn’t bring up the “L word” than it was at his lame joke.
“All right, all right. But just a quick blood pressure check. I don’t like a lot of people touching me and hovering over me.”
“You’re probably going to have to answer a lot of questions. Don’t worry. If you’re not up to it, I’ll make them wait until you are.”
“I’ll be up to it.”
He took her hand and led her out the back door. They stood hand in hand in the yard, comfortably silent together, until Adam pulled up to guard the house. The sky was growing pink in the east, and Luke realized with a shock that it was almost dawn.
It was only then that he realized he had left his pickup at the top of the hill, beside Dusty’s trailer. The hill looked impossibly tall now, his legs sore and weak. He turned to Dusty. “You want to wait here while I get the pickup? I can come back down and get you.”
“I can make it.”
He smiled at her, and reached for her hand. After a second, she slipped her hand into his.
“Okay then.” He squeezed. “Let’s get going.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Luke rubbed his eyes and sat back in his chair, looking down the hallway in the direction Dusty had left over an hour ago. He and Buddy had gone over the events of the early morning several times, but all Luke could think about was Dusty. How terrified she’d looked with that gun jammed into her jaw. The way she’d clung to him, after everyone was gone.
I love you, she’d said, tears in her eyes and despair in her voice.
“You’re beat. I think we’re through here. If I have any questions, I’ll call you.”
Luke groaned as he stood and braced his weight with his hand on the table. “I am beat. I’m going to go get Dusty and go get some sleep.”
He stopped by the nurse’s station on his way through to check on Wayne, but he’d been taken to Abilene to a bigger hospital. There was another officer walking through, and Luke motioned to talk to him.
“Do you know anything about the third guy, the young one we held here last week?”
/>
“Yeah, both your guys were real generous with information. Somehow they got the idea that they’d get a better deal if they told us where he was. He was holed up in some motel in Denver. He was taken into custody about half an hour ago, no problem.”
“I’m not surprised. Kenny wasn’t really the one I was worried about.”
“From what we’ve gathered, he was just a mule, really. Schotts siphoned off information and Kenny carried it out, then Broeker took it to their buyer.”
Luke looked forward to testifying at Wayne and Broeker’s trials, but he hoped they went easy on Kenny. “I think Kenny got in over his head and didn’t know how to get out. Do you know where they took Dusty?”
The officer shrugged. “No idea. Oh, wait. Is that the gorgeous blonde?”
“That’s her.”
“They finished with her about forty-five minutes ago. Last I saw she was headed out the door.”
Luke frowned. He had assumed she would wait for him. Dread sprouted in his stomach almost immediately, and he recalled waking alone last night, knowing she’d run out on him.
But he’d driven her here himself, and she couldn’t very well walk all the way back to Trailertopia. She was as exhausted as he was.
He checked the hospital cafeteria, actually little more than a break room with some vending machines, and then the lobby. Finally he walked out into the parking lot. The morning air was cool, scrubbed clean from the previous night’s storm. The parking lot was empty.
Surely she hadn’t really left without saying a word, after what they’d been through together.
I love you.
She’s said the words. He’d said them back.
He went back inside and talked to Jolene at the reception desk. “Have you seen Dusty?”
“Yeah, she got a ride home with Geralynn at the end of her shift.” Jolene looked at the clock behind her. “About forty-five minutes ago.”
The feeling of dread grew. He dragged his body to his pickup. Maybe she was just too tired to wait around for him. Maybe she thought he would be tied up with Buddy for a long time.
But he knew why she’d left. She’d told him she loved him, and now she was in a panic. He knew, because he’d told her the same thing, and he was kind of ready to panic, himself.
It would be okay, he told himself. She wouldn’t leave town. The big Jubilee celebration was tonight. She’d promised to stay for that. She would keep her commitment.
As he drove back toward the courthouse, he rolled down the window and let the cool morning air blow through the cab to keep him awake. He had a lot of paperwork to take care of now, but it was still a struggle to keep from going to Trailertopia first.
He couldn’t push now. That would be his worst mistake. Obviously, she was pulling back because she was afraid. He had to give her time to adjust to what they shared. If he pushed now, he would only succeed in giving her reason for that fear.
He pulled into the courthouse parking lot and sat in the pickup, arguing with himself. He could just drive out there and make sure she was okay. She’d been pretty shaken up, and it might not be a good idea for her to be alone.
But if he saw her now, he wouldn’t be able to keep from pushing. To force a reassurance from her that she really meant what she’d said, to make her know that he’d meant every word of what he’d said. He would not be able to give her the room she needed.
Her feelings might be hurt if he didn’t at least check on her, he told himself. But that was just a desperate grasp at a straw and he knew it. Dusty was not the type to get upset over an imagined slight.
He was still arguing with himself when his dad pulled up and got out of his own pickup.
“Heard about all the excitement this morning. You okay?”
Luke nodded and slid out of his seat. The soreness in his leg was still fresh from all the rigors it had been through during the night, and his fatigue wasn’t helping any. “Yeah, I think I’m going to live.” He’d already talked to his mother so she could get the details straight from him. If she learned everything through the gossip mill, the tale would take on events that would be more dramatic than factual.
He wasn’t surprised, though, that she hadn’t passed on the news to his dad. Luke had learned a long time ago that he had to repeat everything at least once.
“I’m glad to hear it,” Claude said. “I’m proud of you.”
Luke was surprised to hear that. And even more surprised when his father took the hand Luke had held out for a handshake and pulled him into a hug. Words of praise and demonstrations of affection were a rarity. But then, Luke figured, he had never before been shot and captured dangerous felons in the span of a week. Circumstances were unusual all around.
He returned his father’s hug. “Now I have a truckload of paperwork to take care of. Want to come in and watch me fill out forms?”
Toby was inside talking on the phone. “You look awful,” he said casually as he hung up the phone. “Too bad you have all that paperwork now.”
“You could fill them out for me.” Luke pulled out the rolling chair in front of the typewriter stand and dropped into it.
“Sorry, against the rules. But I’ll stay here and keep you company while you do them.”
“Big of you, man.”
Claude sat beside Luke, fidgeting in his chair. When Luke asked if everything was okay, Claude insisted that it was. He pulled off his John Deere cap and turned it over and over in his hands.
Luke tried to ignore him as he pecked his way through the form in the computer.
Claude had creased the bill of his cap until it formed and inverted v. He cleared his throat and sat back in his chair, then leaned forward again.
“You want a soft drink?” Luke asked, saving one form and opening another.
Claude shook his head. “Nah. I’m fine.”
Luke nodded. “Yeah, I can see that. What’s going on?”
“Nothing’s going on. I just…”
“Yeah?”
Claude leaned back in his chair again. “The other day when your mother was giving you all that baby stuff…”
“Yes? What about it?” He was too tired to be patient.
Claude sighed. “I don’t know. She sure was mad.”
Luke didn’t remember his mother acting mad at the time. Confused and thoughtful, but not mad.
But he nodded silently and pecked a few words onto the form.
“Well?”
Luke turned back to his dad. “Well, what?”
“Well, what was she so mad about?”
“How should I know?”
“Did she say anything?”
“Like what?”
“Like anything about me?”
This was bizarrely like dealing with Corinne and Toby in the sixth grade, Luke decided. He also decided he was too involved in his own problems, for once, to get wrapped up in those of his parents.
“I don’t remember her saying anything about you.”
“Think. She’s really mad about something.”
“So what else is new? She’s always mad about something.”
“This is different. She won’t even talk to me.”
Luke shrugged. “You miss the constant arguments, then?”
“At least when she’s arguing with me I know she cares. Now, even if I try to get a rise out of her, she just looks at me like she doesn’t know who I am.”
Luke gave a gusty sigh and tapped the backspace key to erase the error he’d just made. “Maybe she’s not mad. Maybe she’s just remembering how things used to be between you two, and wondering why you have to argue all the time. She was looking at that picture of you with your new car, when you were first married.”
“We were still in honeymoon mode when that picture was taken. You can’t stay like that your whole life. That’s not how it works in the real world.”
“A, you don’t have to fight all the time in the real world, either. People in the real world are capable of treating each other with respect
and kindness, even after years of marriage. And B, don’t tell me, tell your wife.”
Claude snorted. “If she would –”
“’If she would’, ‘if he would’, ‘if she would stop’, ‘if he wouldn’t insist’.” Luke rose from his chair so fast it rolled back and hit the filing cabinet. “That’s all I’ve heard, my whole life. If you both weren’t so busy blaming each other and looking for ways to find fault, you might discover that you have a pretty good thing going. If you would open your eyes and see how lucky you are, you might realize that not everyone has the blessing of spending their lives with the person they fell in love with.”
He picked up a manual, hefted it a couple of times, then dropped it to the desk with a loud bang and turned back to Claude.
“You know, you two deserve each other. You’re both pig-headed stubborn and care more about being right than you do about being happy. You have messed up your relationship so much that you actually see an argument as proof that she cares. Maybe Mom is realizing how ridiculous that is, finally. And maybe it’s time you woke up and quit taking your marriage for granted.”
Claude looked at him like he was crazy. Toby pretended to be hard at work, not hearing a word.
Luke didn’t care if he heard or not. Toby had grown up seeing how the Tanners acted toward each other. It was no secret with anyone in town that they fought constantly. Luke didn’t see any reason to be discreet now.
Luke grabbed his hat off the rack by the door. “If you were any kind of man at all, you’d be home talking this over with your wife, instead of pumping your kid for information. I have problems of my own to deal with. I don’t have the time or energy to deal with yours.”
He slammed the door on the silence in the room behind him.
He finally found her at Tumbleweeds. She sat alone on the stage, her head bent over her guitar, picking out a new song. He stood in the doorway and watched her for a few seconds, marveling as he always did at the magic she worked with the strings.
He wouldn’t push, he promised himself. He would give her the space she needed. But he would not let her run away, either. He took a deep breath and thought about how he was going to handle it.
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