by Debra Kayn
He laid Samantha on the couch and covered her with a blanket. He waved his hand in front of her face, but her pupils remained enlarged, and her eyes didn't react to the movement. She stared at nothing.
"Sammy, can you hear me?" He smoothed her hair away from her face.
"Yes," she answered automatically. "I'm fine."
He held her limp, cool hand while he punched the number for Luce's on his cell phone. He didn't want to leave her alone, but needed to finish up at the sheriff's office and deal with his men.
With Luce on the way, he found a washcloth and ran it under warm water. He returned to the couch and washed the blood from around Samantha's mouth. Her lipsstayed parted, and she only blinked.
"Oh, Sammy, I wish I could go back to the day I met you and start all over again on the right foot. I really screwed things up." He kissed her forehead.
Luce knocked on the upstairs door, and Bobby stood to let her in. After filling Luce in on what had happened, he glanced one more time at Samantha and left to finish wrapping up the case.
He planned to spend the rest of his life with her. It might take a lifetime to make this up to her, but he'd do it happily. She meant everything to him.
***
The county sheriff's office became packed to capacity with men from the Federal Narcotics team. The men horsed around and celebrated the biggest bust of their careers, but Bobby wasn't up to joining them tonight. He wanted to finish the paperwork and get back to Samantha's apartment.
He headed back to Sheriff Dickerson's office where he'd find privacy to get the paperwork done and make the calls to get Morgan's body transported. Huddled over the reports that needed filled out before they could close the case, his thoughts were on Samantha and how tonight would affect her.
A knock on the door startled him. He jerked up. "Come in."
"Hey, boss, the sheriff's here and wants to see you." Bobby's second in command waited for orders.
"Thanks, Jerry. I'll be right out." He shut the folder with a slap of his hand and left the office to deal with the sheriff and hand the paperwork off to his men for transporting.
Telling the sheriff of Skamania the job was over and that his men would be leaving the area was one task Bobby looked forward to. Besides acting irresponsible and unethically, the joke of a sheriff had made things more difficult than necessary during his stay. The way he'd treated Samantha would also be taken into account, and Bobby would make him pay for that later, after things settled down.
No, the sheriff hadn't heard the last from him. He might end up leaving the area, but before he left, he'd take the sheriff out of office. The town of Skamania would thank him for one less asshole in their tight community. They just didn't know how truly horrible their sheriff was when he was off duty.
"Sheriff Dickerson, our job here is done. You'll get your office back the moment my men are finished cleaning up. I want to thank you for supporting the Federal Narcotics Division and our endeavor." Bobby offered his hand.
The sheriff shook his hand and quickly shuffled about the room, picking up objects on the desks and putting them back down. Dickerson opened his mouth to say something, but shut it without speaking.
That's right. Be nervous, you son of a bitch.
Bobby walked around the man and headed for the door. He'd let Dickerson sweat, wondering when he would have to pay for what he'd done to Samantha. He'd mention his findings to the higher powers and let them rip off Dickerson's badge. Afterward, he planned on decking the obese sheriff in the mouth for harassing Samantha and making her suffer through the threats on her brother.
"Thornton? Are you leaving tonight too?" Sheriff Dickerson called out.
"Oh, not me, Sheriff. My fiancée is part of this community. You'll see me around. I promise." He turned and headed over to the clinic.
***
Bobby sat on the edge of the couch and stroked Samantha's cheek. He'd hoped a change in her condition might have arrived while he was wrapping everything up. It killed him to see her so despondent. He'd give anything for her to sit up, call him a bastard, and push him out of her apartment.
"Sammy? Everything is over, baby. Nothing bad is going to happen to you. I'll never let anything else happen. I swear." Bobby nodded to Luce, who tiptoed toward the stairs.
He lifted Samantha off the couch and sat down with her on his lap. "I'm going to hold you until you decide to come back to me. Take your time and know that it's safe here. Just the two of us."
She lay limp. Her facial features remained the same, and the only movement came from her chest that fell and rose with each breath. Occasionally, she blinked. Bobby kissed her forehead.
"Remember back at the lake I showed you? You asked about my childhood. I never told you, but I also worked as a lifeguard in high school." He gazed down at Samantha, who stared up at the ceiling. He hoped she listened.
"I don't know if this is the best time to explain everything that happened the last year—and I'll probably end up telling you again later—but I want you to understand what kind of person I am today." He inhaled.
"About a year ago, my men and I responded to the call of a drug trade going down. I was in charge of leading the takedown. Kevin, my partner at the time, elected to stay back, out of the mix, and monitor action from the stakeout van."
He closed his eyes and laid his head on the back of the couch. "We suspected a former narcotics officer had turned dirty, and this was the big day to find out if our suspicions were right. Chuck Morgan was that man.
"I'd checked the entrance to the building twice and then proceeded to the door. Somehow, Morgan had anticipated the attack." He paused and gazed down at Samantha. "I had on full protection. Bulletproof vest, face shield, the works, but I totally missed Morgan coming around the building behind me."
He sniffed and ignored the tears wetting his face. "Kevin didn't miss a thing, though. He left the vehicle, screamed my name, and dove to knock me out of the way." His shoulders shook, and it took him a minute to go on with his story. "Morgan shot Kevin in the back. He took the bullet meant for me. He wore no protective gear and died in my arms."
He pulled his arm out from under Samantha and ran a hand over his face. "He left behind a wife and a two-year-old little girl, Mandy. They were the sunshine in his life, and because of me... I broke up a family. It should have been me that Morgan shot."
Samantha never acknowledged that she listened or understood, but he kept talking, because he wanted her to know the truth and didn't want anything to come between them. He'd held back too long, and that ended today. He wanted her to know every single detail. She needed to know every dark secret he held, and only then, if she wanted him to, would he walk away.
"Someday soon, I want to take you to Grandpa's house. It's such a special place. I know you'll sense that too, when you see it. We can walk along the beach in the early morning hours. Just me and you." He paused. "We can take Parker too. I can teach him about crabbing. You like crabs?"
She never answered. He pulled the blanket up around Samantha's chin, settled back on the couch with her, and closed his eyes. His stories faded away, and exhaustion caught up with him.
Hours later, Bobby awoke to the sound of footsteps pounding the stairs. He sat up and lay Samantha down on the couch, straining to hear who it could be. Maybe Luce had come back to check on Samantha.
Bobby covered her back up and straightened at the sight of Sheriff Dickerson standing at the head of the stairs. He frowned. Something about the way the sheriff stood kept Bobby planted in front of the couch to hide Samantha from view.
"What the hell is going on?" Bobby glared at him. "How did you get in here?"
The gleam off the forty-caliber pistol in the sheriff's right hand drew Bobby backward, and the back of his legs bumped into the couch.
"I'm the sheriff..." He sniffed and stumbled, but never lost his balance. "Keys are easy to make."
"Put the gun down. Let's talk." Bobby held his hands out in front of him.
"
I came to finish what Morgan didn't." Spittle flew out Dickerson's mouth and he laughed.
Samantha's hand grabbed the back of Bobby's jeans, pulling the material closer to her. Bobby widened his stance to hide her movements from the sheriff and hoped she realized the danger standing in her living room.
"Morgan's dead, Sheriff." He kept his gaze on the sheriff's every move.
"I know he's dead, you son of a bitch, but he was supposed to kill Samantha James!"
Bobby stiffened. The reaction from Samantha meant she'd snapped out of the shock from earlier and that she understood the danger of the situation. She groped higher up on his jeans, and Bobby froze.
Of course, his service pistol still remained tucked into the back of his jeans! He hoped Samantha's wandering hands would soon find the weapon.
"Why was he going to hurt Samantha, Sheriff?" He bent his knees, lowering his waist for Samantha.
Dickerson paced back and forth in front of Bobby, the gun he clutched waving all over the room in agitation. It was obvious that Dickerson had hit the bottle pretty hard after he'd left the office earlier.
"With Samantha alive, she's proof that I helped in her kidnapping. Hell, Morgan probably told her I was part of his team. Without me, there was no way Morgan could have ditched you and your men all summer." Dickerson laughed. "That's why I have to kill you both."
Bobby doubted the man realized his confession had bought himself a life sentence if he or Samantha survived. The heavy weight of the revolver left his pants. He didn't want Samantha to use the weapon. The ramifications of killing a man would devastate her, and she had a hard enough path set for her after the trauma of dealing with Morgan.
With Dickerson inebriated and a gut the size of a half barrel, Bobby took the chance that the sheriff's reflexes weren't up to par with his own.
Watch him.
One.
Two.
Dickerson's arm bumped into the wall, and he stumbled.
Now!
Bobby leaped across the living room and tackled the sheriff. His hand came up to pin the sheriff’s gun hand to the floor, keeping the end of the barrel out of harm's way.
The sheriff outweighed him by at least sixty pounds, and Bobby fought to subdue him. Dickerson's fist connected with his ribs. He groaned. Sweat rolled off the sheriff's body, loosening Bobby’s hold on the gun hand.
Bang! The blast emitted from behind him.
Both men struggling on the floor froze, but neither one relaxed their hold on each other. Bobby came to his senses faster and, realizing neither one of them had been shot, used both hands to wrestle the gun away from the sheriff.
With the pistol trained on the sheriff, he stood up. He glanced over his shoulder at Samantha and found her standing with his gun clasped in both hands, the barrel aimed at the ceiling.
"Good girl, Sammy. Let me have the gun now, baby." He held his hand out.
"I blew a hole in my ceiling." Samantha wrinkled her nose.
"Yeah. Yeah, you did, Sammy. That was real good."
Samantha laid the gun in the hand he held out to her. She sank down on the couch, covered her face with her hands, and cried.
***
Bobby shut the door after the deputies left with the sheriff in handcuffs. Samantha sniffed and used the blanket on the couch to wipe her face, the sleeves of her shirt soaked from all the tears she'd cried.
Samantha waited for everyone to leave before talking. She needed to tell Bobby what was going through her mind, but found it impossible to know where to start first. So many things needed to be explained, but one thing had to be said immediately.
"I love you." Samantha bunched the blanket in her hands.
Bobby froze with his back to Samantha. His head fell, and he brought his hand up to massage the muscles in his neck. "Sammy, there are some things I need to tell you before you say that to me." He remained across the room.
She nodded and listened to him explain about his real job. She'd pieced together most of it, but hearing it from Bobby forced her to test every opinion she'd formed over the last year. She hated cops with a passion not found in most people.
Bobby showed her that not all officers were bad. He served to protect, and she respected what he did for a living. He cared about people, and he helped make the world better by catching the real bad guys.
She'd listened as he recounted why he came to Skamania. She wanted to go to him and take his pain away, but she stayed on the couch, letting him express the guilt he’d had riding on his shoulders for so long. He became too choked up to continue and buried his face in his hands.
Samantha wasn't shocked at the amount of emotions that poured from him. She figured he'd held back all this time, and now he needed to let it go so that he could start to heal.
Unable to sit still when he was hurting, she moved to him. She stood in front of him and drew his face down, until she could look into his eyes. She smoothed the lines of worry that surrounded his mouth.
"I love you—" She stopped and frowned. Dropping her hand from his face, she stepped back. Here stood the love of her life, and she didn't know how to finish what she needed to tell him.
The laughter came. She reached out to Bobby again.
"I don't even know your real name," she said.
"Bradley Wayne Thornton."
A wonderful warmth filled her. Now that's a name that fit a man his size.
"I love you, Bradley Wayne Thornton." She kissed his lips.
"I love you, Dr. Samantha James," he whispered into her ear.
She clung to him as he picked her up. "Now, let's go to bed. I'm exhausted."
Epilogue
Three months later
Samantha put the last piece of tape on the welcome home sign that hung from the living room wall in the apartment. She sang to herself and smiled at the sight of the banner finally hanging up after all this time.
The oven timer buzzed, and she hurried to the kitchen. She opened the oven to stick a toothpick in the cake she'd baked. When it came away clean, she took the cake out and set it on the stove. Carrot cake, Parker's favorite.
"Hey, you!" Samantha bent down and scooped up the bundle of fur hopping around on the floor. "Is carrot cake your favorite too? Why doesn't that surprise me?"
Brad had left early one morning last week in need of coffee and came back, surprising her with a baby rabbit. She smiled at the memory of how he'd told her about the cutest little girl in town who insisted he take Bonny Junior the Twelfth to Dr. Samantha.
Dear Gabby had become quite the rabbit breeder and supplied most of the farms around the area with offspring from Bonny Lass. It seemed, without a doubt, the talk she'd given Gabby about reproduction had turned into a profitable business plan for the young girl. Gabby earned a nice chunk of change for school clothes and rabbit accessories.
She set the rabbit down and washed her hands, smiling at the thought of how everyone's lives seemed to change in such a short amount of time. Scars healed, broken hearts mended, and trauma faded.
Brad had hired on as Skamania's new sheriff after the corrupt Sheriff Dickerson was sent to prison and the town found themselves without a lawman to serve and protect. She smiled, remembering how he'd discussed his hope to become the town's sheriff and settle down with her and Parker. She encouraged him to follow his dream, and she couldn't be prouder of him. He was her hero.
Her entire attitude toward cops did a 180 the night she realized the truth about Brad, and she'd proudly pinned the star on his chest at the inauguration ceremony when he'd been sworn in as the new sheriff of Skamania. She didn't have far to search these days to find a good cop. She lived with one.
One of the first things he did in his new position was look into Parker's sentencing. With his experience in dealing with corrupt officers, he was able to prove enough probable cause to have the judge reopen the case against Parker. He'd convinced the judge that corruption existed, and his support and help had meant the world to her.
The judge agreed t
o see the evidence Brad had collected, but prior to appearing in court their luck changed. Parker’s friend, Cameron, had stepped up and confessed to being the sole person responsible in the robbery and admitted that Parker had no prior knowledge of his plans that night, and in fact refused to drive away when he realized what had happened. She'd later learned that the guilt and pressure Cameron’s father placed on the boy bordered on abuse and the poor kid had gone through hell.
Samantha retrieved the tub of chocolate frosting from the pantry and checked her watch. She became giddy with excitement. Not long now, and Parker would return to her and everyone she loved would be in the same room.
Brad had volunteered to bring Parker home today. His suggestion of picking up her brother alone so he could have a man-to-man talk with him pleased her. Not once did he doubt Parker's story, and he'd spent every Sunday at the prison, bonding with Parker.
With Brad's help, she planned to find all the available help Parker would need to adjust to life outside prison walls. The trauma he'd experienced during his stay would live with him forever, but she knew with love and support he'd overcome and go on with life. She'd make sure of that.
After her brother became adjusted, she was going to marry Brad. Wanting Parker to attend the wedding and walk her down the aisle meant pushing the date further back than they wanted, but she couldn't imagine becoming Brad's wife without her brother by her side.
Together, Samantha and Brad had chosen the lake he'd showed her many months ago on the night she shared the secret of Parker with him. It seemed sheriffs had the same amount of pull as forest rangers when it came to getting permission granted to use government land.
Late springtime, with all the wild flowers around the lake blooming, would prove a wonderful backdrop for their wedding day. Of course, she had worried about walking down the slight bank to the lake during the third trimester of her pregnancy.
Brad only laughed and said between Parker and himself, they should be able to carry her down the path. She'd fought the urge to grin and smacked him on the shoulder. She wasn't that big...yet.