Matt’s brother looked down at her. An immediate feeling of calm took over, brushing aside the panic. Nate would take care of his brother. She lifted one hand to the mask covering her mouth and nose. She pulled it out of her way. “Matt? How’s Matt? He was right behind me !”
Nate leaned closer and brushed the hair off her forehead. “He’s coming in right behind you, Pip. How badly are you hurt? Can you feel your arms , legs ?”
“Yes. Just can’t breathe. Ribs. Rafter fell…” Pip remembered it all in that moment. Remembered her sister. “Nate! Perci! Perci was with me! The rafter fell on my sister! You have to find Perci! Help her !”
“Shhh. Pip, I’ll take care of Perci. I promise .”
“Perci and Matt and Jay Gunderson and…please, Nate… Please !”
Pip kept pleading and kept calling for Matt and Perci until she was coughing so badly she couldn’t speak again .
73
M att’s eyes opened and he looked up into a familiar face. He thought about talking, then thought better of it. Only one word escaped around the tube in his damned throat. It was completely garbled but his younger brother understood .
Nate leaned closer. “Wondered when you were going to rejoin the land of the living .”
He tried to say her name again. Nate just sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. “Let me guess, you are going to be just as single-minded as Joel was, aren’t you? Pip is doing fine. Minor burns, broken ribs, sprained ankle, smoke inhalation—which was the biggie—and a black eye. Gunderson apparently hit her a time or two. Other than that, she’s right there. Sleeping. See?” His brother pointed to the next bed over. “We thought about putting her in with her twin, but Perci said Pip snores and you get custody of her from now on .”
Matt just looked at his brother significantly .
“Perci took a nasty hit across the back from a burning beam, Matt. She’s going to have a bit of a scar. She does have six cracked ribs. The beam bounced down, we think, and broke her leg. The opposite end caught on part of the back stall that hadn’t burned yet. They got extremely lucky that they were on a pile of hay. It had some give and at the angle the beam fell, they weren’t completely under it. It kept it from landing full on them while burning. Perci’ll be on crutches for a while—and both are on bronchodilators and a host of other things to repair the smoke damage to their lungs. Same as you. As for you, you took a crack to the head—Pip said a shovel?—a broken clavicle from that shovel, broken ribs, fractured radius in two places, and you and Gunderson beat the hell out of each other. You’ve had some burns to the throat and mouth. But nothing too serious there. You’ll be out of here in a week tops. Just in time for Mother to get back into town and take care of you. She’s already called. After what happened to Joel and her being stuck helping out in Mexico with that earthquake…well…she’s ready to help her baby boy .”
Matt looked at his brother in horror. His mother…hovered…whenever one of her boys was injured. Horribly .
“Yeah, thought that would get your attention.” Nate’s face darkened. “As for Gunderson…Bowles told us what he saw and what Gunderson did to Bowles’ little assistant. Joel also found the remains of a gasoline can inside the barn. Not to mention what the sonofabitch did to the deputy. Guy’s going to live, but he got lucky, too. There’s a lot of that going around, apparently. Jay Gunderson has been making threats from the moment he was brought in. We have him in a secure room two floors down. Joel and some other officials are waiting on statements from you and the twins. Hell, Matt, I’d only been gone two hours before they were bringing you all in .”
Matt wanted the sonofabitch gone. He didn’t want Gunderson in the same damned building as Pip. He started to sit up, to look at her for himself. His brother stopped him. “Relax. Joel is working on transferring him to the prison ward eighty miles away. Guy’s cuffed to a bed and sedated anyway. He’s not getting near her or her sisters again. Levi’s sitting in the hallway between your rooms, and Pan’s in with Perci .”
Matt pulled at the tube in his throat. He wanted it out .
His brother understood. “You turn uncooperative and I’m shoving it right back in .”
“Move me closer.” Matt’s words were harsh and raspy, but Nate understood .
Nate shook his head. “I can’t do that. Cords aren’t long enough .”
“Then get a damned extension cord in here. Get a dozen. Just get my bed right next to hers. I’m going to be the first person she sees when she opens her eyes, Nate. You’d better damned well believe it,” he rasped .
“How did I get cursed with the most difficult brothers? Seeing her isn’t enough. You have to be practically in the same bed with her? You’re as bad as Joel was .”
Matt glanced at his brother again, finally taking his eyes off Pip. “Just you wait. You and Perci …”
“Will never happen. Just get that out of your head. A guy will need a cage and a whip to tame that woman. She’s a damned tiger .”
“She saved our lives, too. I thought—“ Matt forced himself to speak over the emotion threatening to choke him up. “That beam fell on the two of them and I watched. I couldn’t do a damned thing to stop it. Pip was right beneath it, Nate. And then Perci jumped her. She knocked Pip out of the way; she had to know she’d be hurt doing it. And she just did it anyway. It landed on the both of them and they were screaming, hurting, and I couldn’t do a damned thing to help them. If it wasn’t for Bowles…he helped me get them out. Perci just laid there, not making a sound. And it was burning on top of her. She didn’t make a damned sound. I’ll never forget that.” He stopped to fight a cough and take a drink of water his brother held out to him. “And Pip—Pip was trying to help Perci and she couldn’t. She was crying and trying to pull her sister free. I thought they were both going to—Perci’s going to be ok ?”
“No lasting damage. Except a scar or two. Second degree burn, at worst. She got lucky. It wasn’t burning significantly at that point. It was just heavy. As for Pip…some burn scars, small ones. That’ll be all she’ll be able to see. It’ll be the emotional scars that take the biggest toll. On them both. But she has her family to help her get through it. And ours. Am I to take it that there will be another Tyler sister living at our place soon ?”
“As soon as I can get her to say yes. ” And in the meantime, Matt was just going to lie there and watch her sleep. But… “Nate? I’m serious about those extension cords. You want me to stay hooked up to those damned machines, I’ll need a much longer leash. I’m going to be next to her, no matter what .”
74
M att was holding her hand when Pip finally awoke. She fought off the instinctive panic being in the hospital brought her and forced herself to stay calm. Matt was alive and looking down at her. Holding her .
Smiling .
Which meant…they were all ok, weren’t they? “Matt, where’s Perci ?”
“Next door. I heard her yelling at Nate a few minutes ago. Apparently, he threatened to chain her ass to the hospital bed if she so much as moved a muscle. And that’s a direct quote.” His voice was horse beyond belief. His arm was in plaster and he had stitches in his forehead. But he was alive and leaning over her—from a hospital bed that had been pushed up right next to hers. “She’s ok, honey. She did break her leg, and she’ll have a scar where that damned rafter landed. But she’ll be just fine eventually. We all three will .”
“And Jay? What happened to him?” The last thing Pip remembered was Perci telling the EMTs—people her sister knew through the hospital—that Gunderson was an attempted murderer and her sister and Matt were to be treated first. The EMTs had listened .
It had been hard not to with Jay Gunderson screaming over and over again that Matt needed to die, that Perci did, too, for trying to keep Pip away from him .
She’d never forget the things he’d been yelling or what he had tried to do .
Pip was not going to let herself be afraid of him anymore. He had almost taken everything from he
r this time. But she hadn’t let him win. She had fought him herself. Fought for the people she loved most in the world .
And she had won .
It had been a team effort, but no one lived in a vacuum, did they? Family and loved ones and those she could trust—that was what mattered .
She loved the man looking down at her. Holding her, when he should have been lying down resting, healing. Taking care of himself instead of her .
If he was busy taking care of her all the time, who was taking care of him ?
That was going to be her job from now on—showing him just how much she loved him. Trusted him .
Wanted him. Loved him. Was there any other way for her to put it, even to herself? She’d probably started trusting him the day he’d been there at the flooded river. Caring about him as the weeks had passed and they’d been together. Loving him the moment he’d given her Wind Lover, perhaps. Or the first time he’d ever kissed her .
Or the moment she’d realized he wanted her. That she mattered to him as much as he had grown to matter to her .
Or when he had touched her for the first time in that barn .
It had only become clear to her when that damned Jay Gunderson had almost taken him from her .
“I love you.” It mattered that she be the first to say it, didn’t it? That she be in control of this epic change in her future. It mattered .
He leaned down and kissed her lightly—she had a stitch or two in the side of her mouth where Gunderson had hit her—and whispered the words right back to her .
Pip reached out and wrapped one arm around him gently. He looked so banged up and battered, after all .
She just held him as close as she could .
Until his brother came in and forced Matt back into his own hospital bed. “Behave, you two. There will be plenty of time for that kind of stuff later. When you’re both able to sing your ABCs at the top of your lungs again. And no making me an uncle before you’re married. What would Mother say if you did that ?”
Matt laughed. “Be good, Nate. Or I’ll tell Mother all about the crush you have on Perci. And that you really need Mother’s help to convince her of your feelings. How would you like that ?”
“You are a horrible older brother, Matthew. But I am glad to see you’re alive to torment me. Now, back in your own bed. Or I’m ordering you moved across the room again .”
“Just try it and see. I’m right where I belong. And this is where I am staying .”
Pip was going to hold him to that. And she told him so as Nate finally stepped out of the room, leaving them completely alone .
They just stared at each other for a long, long time .
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Excerpt
Also From
Calle J. Brookes
Her Best Friend’s Keeper
Book 1 in the
Finley Creek
Romantic Suspense Series
Ten years. Three months. Sixteen days. That was how long it had been since Gabby Kendall had felt safe. As a teenager, she’d witnessed the execution of four members of the Marshall family and been powerless to help. The case had remained unsolved—the killers were still out there .
And they knew who Gabby was. Where she lived. Who her friends were. They knew everything about her .
Elliot Marshall, Jr. had never intended to take the position with the Finley Creek Texas State Police that his father had once filled. Sitting at the same desk his father had before he’d been killed brought it all rushing back .
Not just for Elliot .
For Gabby. For Gabby’s new best friend—a woman who’d known his family long ago, too. For the killers. He’d keep his late sister’s best friend out of harm’s way—no matter what the cost .
Gabby would gladly take his protection—but what would she do if the price of her safety was the woman who’d become her new best friend ?
Or Elliot ?
She couldn’t lose someone she loved like that ever again …
T HE desk had been his father’s. The position, as well. Elliot Marshall Jr. never thought he’d do more than share a name with the greatest man he’d ever known .
His father’s murder had made sure of that .
The decor had changed in the ten years since his father had occupied this particular office with the Finley Creek post of the Texas State Police. But the desk...the desk was still the same one .
Elliot didn’t know how he thought about that. About how he’d handle the memories of what had been lost .
His father had been damned good at what he did, the best police chief the Texas State Police had ever had. It was what had gotten his father killed, along with Elliot’s mother, younger brother, and sister .
Or so the rumors went .
They’d never found the bastards responsible. Speculation was rampant that Elliot Sr. had run into a nasty and powerful man. The rumors spoke of bribes and kickbacks. Corruption. The very word had a particular stench all its own .
Good or bad. No one really knew the truth about his father. Had his father been fighting the corruption or had he been a part of it? Questions were still whispered when the infamous Marshall Murders were mentioned .
Truth , no one seemed all that interested in finding it. There was no way his father had been a dirty cop. It went against everything the elder Elliot had stood for. Everything his father had taught him .
Sitting in his father’s chair hurt more than Elliot had ever thought it would .
He had his father’s old office now, a personal assistant of his own, and a whole hell of a lot of responsibility. The Texas State Police was the smallest law enforcement body in the state. The Texas Rangers outnumbered the TSP ten to one. This post where he sat was the second largest post of the ninety-two spread out across the state. Only headquarters in Wichita Falls, fifty miles to the northeast, was larger .
He was going to run it as best as he possibly could .
Nothing would stop him. Hopefully, along the way, he’d find the answers he’d spent ten years searching for. Maybe then he would find peace .
“Will you be needing anything else, Chief Marshall, sir?” Officer Magda Journey asked. His assistant was an attractive young woman with an impeccable record at the TSP and a cool manner he respected. Professionalism was what he prized in his people. Everything else was just secondary. She’d been temporarily assigned to him before he’d arrived in Finley Creek but she’d impressed him with her efficiency fifteen minutes after he’d met her. It would be a permanent position if she wanted it. Elliot was rarely wrong in his assessment of people, and he’d peeked at her personnel file, as well. Very impressive for someone of her age. He hadn’t accomplished half as much when he’d been in his middle twenties .
“I think I’ll be good for tonight, Magda, thank you .”
He needed time to process the changes life had brought him .
His appointment to the position had come from the governor of Texas directly. His cousin Marcus, the governor, had told him it was a last minute replacement, and he’d snapped up the appointment without thinking it through. Now he was starting to question himself and the why of the position .
He’d certainly never made any friends in Marcus’ office. He and the governor weren’t exactly the closest of cousins, let alone friends . The biggest question he had was why Marcus had put him there .
Why any of it, at all .
And what in the hell was he supposed to do here in Finley Creek now ?
GABBY Kendall didn’t know what to do. No real surprise there; that was kind of what Gabby was used to, was known for, even. It was just the way things always ended up for her .
But this…this was a bit scarier than she ha
d expected. She was fighting off a full-blown panic attack and failing. Miserably .
It had been ten years, three months, and sixteen days since her world had tilted on its axis and made her afraid of every shadow in the room. She’d thought she’d gotten herself past all of it. Thought she’d convinced herself the world was actually a pretty safe place after all .
The call from her stepfather had erased ten years of hard work in five minutes .
Gabby closed her eyes and forced herself to breathe again. To think .
It was just coincidence. If someone was gunning for her, they wouldn’t have far to look. Gabby had lived in Finley Creek almost her entire life. She was safe. They were not coming for her .
Of course...it could be because they hadn’t found her yet .
They hadn’t found her yet. If they were smart, they weren’t even looking. They’d probably faded into the evil-people sunset or been arrested on other crimes long ago. Maybe they had even been eaten by rabid coyotes or something .
Unable to make good on the promise to find her and kill her they’d made ten years ago .
Yeah, that was what she hoped. She’d just have to convince herself of that, somehow .
Her partner pushed her own chair back and said Gabby’s name. Gabby looked at the redhead across the table from her. Brynna was staring at her. Again. Brynna stared at Gabby a lot . “What ?”
“Something’s wrong . What ?”
“Just some bad news from my stepfather. Nothing to worry about. Nothing that I can’t handle.” Breathe deep. Breathe deep. She didn’t have to have a total freak-out in the middle of the computer forensics lab .
Discovering the Doctor (Masterson County Book 2) Page 14