Chapter 27 Safe Harbor
Safe Harbor
“I’m fine,” Amy groused. Her arms were folded over her chest as she huddled beneath a blanket, and she wore a pout—so different from her usual smile—but it was so damn cute Shane wanted to kiss it from her lips.
Reece Hunnicutt lifted her lid and flicked his penlight across her pupil. “You’re as bad as my wife. How about we make this easy on both of us and let me decide if you’re fine?”
She pointed an accusing finger at Shane. “He already checked me out. I don’t need you stabbing my eyes with that obnoxious light.”
Undaunted, Reece lifted her other lid. “Yeah, but he might have missed something. From what I hear, he was a little distracted.”
Shane refrained from raising his hand and admitting that Reece’s assessment was spot-on. “It happens when you’re busy cuffing bad guys.” And being terrified that the woman you love is about to be knifed. And center-punching the motherfucker about to knife her.
Reece and he stood in an exam room in Neve’s vet clinic.
It was nearly three in the morning, and they were here because Amy had refused to go to Urgent Care.
The round trip and the time at the medical center would have meant even more hours awake, and she was drained.
Though he wouldn’t admit it aloud, Shane was relieved she’d held out. He was beyond spent himself.
A door opened, and Neve walked in. “Hey, fellas, how about I take over?”
Reece turned sideways and looked at her. “But you’re a vet … who should be home in bed growing our baby.”
“I’m also a woman.”
He grinned. “I noticed that a while ago.” He eyed the tiny bump that was her belly and waggled his eyebrows.
She rolled her eyes at him. “I’m a medical professional. We ladies sometimes find it easier to talk to each other rather than to one of you Y-chromosome-carrying macho men.”
Reece whacked Shane’s arm. “Hear that, O’Brien? We’re macho.” He puffed out his chest.
Neve flapped both hands at them. “Shoo!”
Chuckling, Reece gathered up his EMT gear.
Watching the easy exchange between husband and wife twanged something deep in Shane’s chest. Even before his night with Amy, he’d been experiencing a powerful pull to find someone to share his life with.
Whether it was his age or the fact that his closest friends had all paired off, he wasn’t sure.
All he knew was that being around them, witnessing the special looks and moments that passed between them, gave him pangs of envy he hadn’t felt before.
And now that he had taken that next step with her, he knew exactly what he’d been missing.
Shane stole a glance at her. “I’ll be waiting out here for you when the doc says you’re good to go.” He wasn’t about to let her out of his sight. The corners of her mouth curved up, and she gave him a subtle nod that made his heart thump a little harder.
Reece swiped a few waters from a small fridge and handed Shane one as they headed to the dimly lit waiting area. They each grabbed a seat on a bench, and Shane cracked his bottle and chugged. God, that water tasted good!
“You staying with Amy tonight?”
Shane wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Absolutely.”
“Good.” Reece pointed at Shane’s bottle. “Make sure she gets plenty of that.”
“You know I will.” He took another thirst-quenching swig. “So you agree she’s going to be okay?”
Reece took a sip of his own water and nodded. “Yeah. I’d just keep an eye on those toes in case of frostbite. And make sure she keeps applying salve to her ankles and wrists. Especially her wrists.”
Shane bristled as he recalled the lacerations on her delicate wrists. What those guys had done to her, tried to do to her—
“You want to punch something right now, don’t you?” Reece prodded.
“I sure as hell do. Can I use your face?”
Reece snorted. Then he tilted his head. “So you and Amy. Are you guys finally together?”
“What do you mean, ‘finally’?”
“Oh, come on! Everybody but you two knew it was inevitable. I think even Micky knew it was going to happen the minute he was out of the picture.”
“Well, he also suspected she was stepping out on him with me when she wasn’t. I don’t think the thought of moving beyond friendship occurred to either of us until we pried her out of Micky’s place the other day.”
Reece nodded. “I can see that. You’re not the type of guy who moves in on someone else’s girl, and she’s too damn loyal to step out. You understand those are observations, not criticisms.” One side of his mouth hitched in a grin. “I’ve got to say you didn’t waste any time, though.”
“Didn’t plan it that way, but I don’t regret it. I’ve wasted too much time already.”
Reece raised his bottle to him. “I hear you, brother.” He drained the water and twirled the bottle between his palms. “What do you think’s going to happen to Micky?”
“He’ll do time, but he’ll probably get a lighter sentence than his buddy Benny since he tried to save Amy. Also because he’s as eager to spill his guts as Dixie is to spread a secret.”
“What the hell happened up there?”
Shane took another sip. “When Holt Gunderson told me about the old Allen cabin, something clicked. I had a hunch they might have been using it, and it made sense that they’d head up there after they put the grab on her and her Explorer.
” The report from the other deputy about the two vehicles turning onto County Road 352 had sealed the deal for him.
“What I didn’t know was whether she was in on it. ”
“Seriously?” Reece scoffed. “You suspected Amy?”
“Yeah, and I’ll have to pay the price for that mistake.” Hopefully, that price wouldn’t be too steep. He shook off the thought.
“Eh, you were doing what you were trained to do, bro.”
“Whatever. Anyway, Gunderson knew where the place was, so we headed up there together. At first, I thought it was a dead end.” A frisson of agitation wended its way through Shane, an echo of the real panic he’d felt when they’d crept up to the cabin’s location and hadn’t detected any sign of life.
“Lucky for us, they were there. I was coming out of the trees when I spotted the vehicles we were looking for. Then I heard someone yell, ‘Run!’ and everything was a blur after that. I was about thirty yards away and saw motion. I raised my rifle. The red dot illuminated one of those lowlifes who turned out to be an ex-con named Dalton Brown. He had Amy by the hair and held a huge-ass KA-BAR fixed blade ready to strike.” Shane paused a beat as bile rose from his stomach and quickly sank back down.
“I acquired the target just as he started to bring that sucker down. I reacted. Took the shot. It was a split-second decision, a reflex.” He hadn’t called out a warning—there hadn’t been time—but in the end, he’d stopped the guy. That’s what mattered.
“You don’t need to justify it to me. You did the right thing, and it was a damn good shot. A clean one too.”
Shane chuffed. “If I hadn’t taken him out, his own brother would have.”
“Say what?”
“Benjamin Brown, Dalton’s brother. The guy panicked when he heard my rifle shot.
It was dark, he saw movement, didn’t realize it was his brother, and like an idiot, he started firing blind.
Emptied the magazine. Three bullets buried themselves in his brother.
One would have been fatal. Friendly fire.
Lucky no one else took those projectiles. ”
“Will they suspend you?”
“Administrative leave with pay. It’s automatic while they conduct their investigation.”
“You’ll come out of this just fine.”
“Probably.” He’d followed his training and pulled the trigger when there was no time for warnings.
But until the investigators signed off, the shooting would hang over him like a noose.
One bad angle on a report, one witness twisting the story, and his badge could be on the line.
Beyond the legalities, though, the fact remained he’d killed a man tonight.
“You’re not feeling remorse about what happened, are you?”
“I’m not sure what I’m feeling right now. I’m … numb. It’s a little surreal.”
“If you’d hesitated, Amy might’ve been the DOA instead of that slimeball,” Reece said quietly.
“That’s what Gunderson said.”
“If Gunderson’s backing you up, you’re golden.”
Fatigue flooded Shane. He rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah.”
Shane had replayed the scene over and over in his head.
Shit had happened so damn fast. He’d never been in that situation before.
Would he do it again, under the same circumstances?
Hell yeah. That scumbag’s life for Amy’s was more than a fair exchange, and he was glad the guy was dead so he couldn’t hurt anyone else. Did that make Shane a bad person?
Reece tapped Shane’s knee with his empty water bottle. “You gonna be okay?”
Shane nodded. “Yeah. They’ll have me go through a psych evaluation before I return to duty, get me counseling if I need it.”
Silence stretched between them. Reece leaned forward, placing his elbows on his thighs.
“What happened to Micky anyway? How did he get involved with those lowlifes?”
Shane matched his friend’s posture. “If the story he’s been spewing since his arrest is true, Micky got into financial trouble.
And it’s not what you think. He got hooked on gambling.
Spent a lot of his time and money at the casino north of Ignacio.
” Shane suspected some of the money Micky threw around went to pay prostitutes too.
“Do you believe him?”
Shane nodded. “Yeah, I think he’s telling the truth. He says he tried getting money from other sources, but when those dried up, he ran into these characters and got pulled into their narcotics ring.