With hands that trembled slightly, he bent
to lift her cast and put two pillows beneath her leg. "That ought
to help with the swelling," he told her and moved to squeeze her
numb toes. "Your toes are icy and blue darlin', you need to keep
that leg propped up, or we're going to have to go get it checked
out again. I think you've got some swelling going on."
"Thank you...
doctor
," she said
saucily and gave him a heated stare. "That's one of
my
fantasies, you know. So let's throw that in the mix with the
kidnapping."
Luke growled and sat down on the bed then
leaned toward her. "We'll throw in anything you like honey, and a
lot more. We have a lot of catchin' up to do."
Capturing her mouth with his in a heated
kiss, Luke coaxed her lips until they opened for him. Heat poured
through her as his tongue sought hers out. Cassie moved her arms up
around his neck, then sucked his lower lip into her mouth and ran
her tongue across it. With a moan, he sealed his lips to hers and
devoured her mouth.
After a few moments, he pulled back from her
and sat up breathing hard. Her eyes traveled down his chest to his
fly and she noticed his breathing wasn't the only thing that was
hard. She moved her hand to his thigh and then slid it upward. When
she reached her destination, he placed his hand on top of hers,
held it there and groaned. "Not yet, cupcake." His voice was low
and gravelly.
She squeezed his steely length and tried to
move her hand against him, but he pulled it away from him and up to
his mouth where kissed her palm. "We'll get there soon, but you
need to rest now...and I've got to go to town." He stood and gave
her a quick kiss, moving away before she could grab him for more.
"I won't be gone long."
He took his cell phone out of his pocket and
left it on the night stand for her. "Cole is number one on speed
dial. Call him or 911 if you need something."
She smiled at his thoughtfulness. Her cell
phone was in the tote bag she'd had with her yesterday, probably
still down by the lake where they'd been. "I need to go get my tote
bag from our spot at the lake. My phone is in there."
"Cole picked it up and has it in his SUV for
you. I'll get it back from him."
"Thanks," she said and watched his muscular
jean-clad butt as he turned and left her. She sighed dreamily.
***
Luke had dug Cassie's prescriptions out of
the plastic bag she'd left the hospital with and dropped them off
at the Bowie Pharmacy, telling Clyde the pharmacist he'd be back by
in a little while to pick them up.
Clyde had looked at the name on the
prescriptions and asked if they were for Carl's daughter, Cassie,
and he'd said yes. That led to a lengthy conversation about what
had happened to her and then to how Carl was getting along. It had
about taken an Act of Congress for him to get away from the chatty
man.
When Luke got back in the truck, he glanced
at the dash clock and saw he'd already been gone an hour and a
half, and he still hadn't made it to the grocery store. He'd told
Cassie he wasn't going to be gone long, and he didn't like leaving
her out there alone. She was hurt and immobile. He'd be quick at
the grocery and get back to her.
The big pink pig on the sign at the grocery
store waved at him when he pulled into the parking lot. He saw a
parking spot open up near the front door, and gunned the truck to
get there before someone else did. This store stayed pretty busy,
because it was the only one in town, so to get a prime parking spot
usually meant you were living right. He slid out of the truck and
went inside. He grabbed a buggy and headed directly to the produce
section. You couldn't cook without proper seasonings, and a salad
and baked potato with the steaks he planned to grill for them
tonight sounded great.
Luke was perusing the tomatoes, when someone
stepped up beside him. "Hello, asshole," an angry male voice grated
beside him. "Where is Cassie?"
Luke dropped the tomato to turn and face the
name caller, his hand automatically reaching for the butt of the
weapon he wasn't wearing. He dropped it to his side. "I think she
said all she had to say to you the other night, didn't she
asshole
?"
James, Cassie's ex-fiancé, didn't look quite
as slick as he had two nights ago at the restaurant. His khakis
were wrinkled and dirty and had about two inches of dirt up the
bottom hem. His formerly pristine green polo shirt had stains under
the arms and was ripped at the sleeve. The thick brown hair he'd
had perfectly combed and slicked back with gel the other night was
sticking up in every direction, and he had a two-day old growth of
beard on his face. Luke wanted to laugh. If Cassie could see him
now, she probably would too.
"I went by the farm and her old man wouldn't
tell me...I
know
you know where she is. I saw how she stared
you down at the restaurant the other night. And saw you at the lake
with her."
Luke stepped into the man's personal space
and ground out, "Are you stalking her? How the hell would you know
she was at the lake?
The man, who was a couple of inches shorter
than Luke, and about fifty pounds lighter, took a step closer to
him, and put a brazen finger in Luke's chest. "Just tell me where
she is...our business is none of
your
business."
Luke pushed the man with the foul breath
back from him then grated, "You don't
have
business with
Cassie anymore. The best thing you can do is get out of town,
bud."
James snorted then said, "It's a free
country, I'll leave when I damned well please. Who are you anyway
telling me what to do?"
"I'm the Sheriff," Luke informed him then
leaned down to within inches of his face. "And I think you
following Cassie to the lake constitutes stalking, and your visit
to the Double B was trespassing. So if you don't want your ass
thrown in jail, I suggest you get out of my face, and out of Bowie
right now."
The other man's face paled, but he didn't
back down. "I'm not leaving until she talks to me. She
owes
me...and I'm going to get it, one way or
another
. At the
very
least
, she owes me an explanation as to why she broke
up with me." Luke saw a strange glitter in the man's eyes that
bothered him. This guy was one pancake short of a stack.
Luke grabbed him by the shirt collar and
jammed him into the potato bin. "She doesn't owe you a fucking
thing. You want to know why she broke up with you? Because for one
you're a smarmy city-boy asshole. And secondly, she loves
me
--she's
mine--
and you leave her the fuck alone.
Is that clear
?"
A crowd had gathered around them now, and
Luke looked around at the familiar faces, he'd sworn to protect and
swallowed hard. He let James go and took two steps back. James
jerked his collar straight, before he said loudly, pandering to the
crowd, "Why
Sheriff
, I think
that
constitutes
assault, and I wish to press charges."
That's all Luke needed right now. Why did he
let this asshole goad him into grabbing him? Because he was a
threat to the woman Luke loved. Luke would probably lose his job
over this one, the mayor and city council weren't going to be
happy. He saw Cole push through the crowd then come to stand beside
him giving him a lethal stare. Luke didn't say a word to his
friend, he turned his back to him and put his wrists behind him.
The cold metal cuffs snapped shut, and he felt Cole squeeze them
hard to tighten them, before he pushed him up against the apple
display and searched him while he read him his rights.
When he was done, Luke told him loudly.
"Arrest him too, he poked me in the chest and threatened Cassie. He
also trespassed on Carl Bellamy's property."
"They haven't pressed charges, Luke. I can't
arrest him, you know that." He turned to the crowd and asked, "Did
anyone see him poke Luke in the chest?" Luke saw them all shake
their heads negatively and groaned. "Sorry bud, can't do it, but
you can file a complaint if you want when we get to the
station."
The crowd erupted in a flurry of
conversation as Cole grabbed his arm and led him away. He heard
James the asshole snickering, and he wanted to beg Cole to let him
go so he could at least make the assault charge with worth it.
When they walked outside, Cole led him to
the SUV and gave him the full criminal treatment by putting his
hand on top of his head to shove him into the backseat roughly.
Luke couldn't keep his balance and wound up laying across the seat.
He deserved it and more for being so damned stupid. Now, Cassie was
at the lake house alone, and the asshole was on the loose. Panic
surged through him and he sat up and leaned his forehead against
the wire cage in front of him.
"Get someone out to the lake house to keep
an eye on Cassie," Luke demanded. "Call her on my cell and warn her
that James is still in town and may be stalking her."
Cole looked him in the eye in the rearview
mirror, and said. "You're not the Sheriff right now Luke. Sit back
and quit giving me orders."
Luke gritted his teeth. "He fucking
threatened Cassie, Cole. He's been stalking her.
Please
, do
it," he begged.
"She's fine, Luke. He doesn't know where she
is."
Luke slammed himself back against the seat
and growled his frustration.
CHAPTER NINE
Gingerly, Cassie got out of the bed and went
to look for the bathroom. Luke had been gone a long time, much
longer than she'd expected, and her bladder couldn't wait any
longer for him to get back to help her to the bathroom. If he'd
just left her crutches, she'd have been golden, but he'd forgotten
to get them from the back of his truck.
Using one hand on the wall to steady
herself, Cassie picked her way down the hall, then balanced with
her outspread arms across the living room and teetered toward a
door near the kitchen that must be the bath.
In the very quiet house she heard the faint
ring of Luke's cell phone down the hall, and thought about trying
to get back to pick it up, but knew it would go to voicemail before
she got there. Whoever it was, she hoped it was Luke, she'd call
them back when she managed to hobble back to the bedroom.
It took her fifteen minutes to take care of
her business and get back to the bedroom. Being stiff and sore made
every step she took torturous. Her ankle was hurting now, and she
wished Luke would get back with her pain pills. Although she didn't
like taking them, she was going to make an exception this time.
She sat down on the bed with an exhausted
sigh and reached for the cell phone. The only missed call she saw
was from Cole, so that must have been him on the phone. She noticed
that there wasn't much of a charge left on the phone, and wondered
if Luke had left a charger laying around here somewhere. There was
no way she was going to go looking for it though, that much she
knew. She'd wait until he got back and ask him.
Pushing the number one, she brought the
phone to her ear and heard it ringing. It rang five or six times
then she heard Cole's deep-timbered voice on the recording asking
her to leave a message. She disconnected, figuring he'd call her
again when he had time. Luke had been gone a long time, but she
wasn't really worried about him yet, because he'd had a lot of
errands to run. It was almost dusk now, and she'd start worrying if
he wasn't back after dark.
As soon as her head hit the pillow, her
stomach growled noisily, and she realized she was damned hungry.
She hadn't eaten since the bland breakfast she'd had at the
hospital this morning. Dreading it, but knowing she had no choice,
Cassie got to her feet again to go to the kitchen and see if she
could scrounge up something to eat.
She should have gone to the kitchen when she
went to pee, but hindsight was twenty-twenty. Cassie stood and then
leaned back to pick up the cell phone then dropped it in the pocket
of the scrub shirt. At least, she'd remembered to bring
that
with her this time.
As she made her way slowly down the hall,
Cassie flipped on lights, because the interior of the cottage was
getting very dark, and she didn't want to trip over something, and
break her other leg. Cassie chuckled amazed at what a klutz she'd
become lately.
She hadn't had a broken bone in her life,
and now she'd fallen off a horse and almost broken her neck, and
then tripped on a tree root and broken her damned ankle...all
within a couple of weeks.
When she reached the kitchen, she turned on
the light and made her way to the pantry then flung it open. There
was one can of hot dog chili and a box of strawberry toaster
pastries. Other than that, the cupboard was bare. No wonder Luke
was taking so long grocery shopping. She grabbed a silver wrapped
package from the box of pastries and then decided to check the
refrigerator.
The phone in her pocket chimed and vibrated
at the same time, sending strange tingles through her chest. She
giggled and pulled it out then pressed talk. "Hello."
"Cassie?" Cole's voice sounded tired and
agitated.
"Yeah, it's me, Hopalong Bellamy." She heard
him snort on the other end of the line, and chuckled. "What's
up?"