Chapter 18 #2
We stopped and ran toward the house, moving silently, each of us with a weapon. But the house was dark and empty after we swept through it.
“What now?” Colt whispered.
“The only other place could be the orchard cottage. And if not there…” I refused to think about it, praying I’d find her at the cottage, the place where our story really began.
I flew through the trees with the guys behind me, bringing up the rear, navigating by memory toward the warm square of amber light showing through the cottage window.
I stopped at the clearing and used the rifle scope to see inside.
Through the window, I saw movement. I stealthily closed in. From a standing position, I could just peek into the bottom of the window.
Daisy was on her knees in the center of the room, hands bound behind her, chin up with the particular set of her jaw that meant she was terrified and refusing to let it show.
Trevor Brewster stood by her, pointing a gun. I crouched down and whispered into the comm. “Ash. Colt. They’re here at the orchard cottage. Wait for my signal to move in.”
“What cottage?” The sheriff asked on the comm. I sent him a ping from my phone.
“Hold your position until we get there. Five minutes out,” the sheriff commanded.
Too fucking much could happen in five minutes. Trevor could lose control. Daisy could be hurt or worse.
I peeked again in the window. They were having a conversation like it was the most natural thing in the world, except for the madman pointing that weapon at my woman.
I maneuvered around to the front of the building at the door. There were no windows, but I could hear every word better than in my previous position.
Trevor’s voice carried through clearly enough.
“You have no idea what it’s been like for me all this time. After everything I tried to do for you and your family.”
A pause.
“Do you know what it cost me to watch you from a distance because of my father, thanks to that ridiculous threat you made to him?”
Another pause.
Daisy had no response. Good girl. No need to get him riled up and escalate his temper.
“I could have given you everything. I could have given your family everything. And instead you chose—who? A ranch hand? A broken-down veteran who fixes fences and mucks stalls?”
I jolted at a thump, like the sound of a man hitting his knees on a wooden floor. His voice pitched into something uglier. “Why couldn’t you have looked at me the way you look at him? Just once. That’s all I wanted. Just once.”
“Trevor. Please put the gun down.”
Her voice came through, surprisingly calm. It almost broke me wide open, standing in the dark to hear it, not being able to reach for her. Typical Daisy, though, holding strong on the outside. Inside, though, was another matter.
“This is over. Whatever you thought to accomplish, it’s over.”
“It’s not over, Daisy. It’s not over until I decide it is.
” That did it. His voice increased in pitch.
“I’ve been under my father’s thumb for years because of you.
Do you understand that? Years of being managed and contained and told to stay away from you.
The one woman I’ve always wanted. Because noooo, mustn’t disappoint dear old Dad. ”
“Trevor, please.”
“What?”
“Was it you?” she said.
Fuck. I couldn’t believe she went there. Her voice cracked. She was breaking down. How much longer until the sheriff arrived?
“My parents. Was it you who ran them off the road?”
The cottage was quiet for what stretched too long. My ears strained for any noise. A few creaks of floorboards came through. I fucking needed eyes on. Who built a cottage with no windows on three sides? I intended to remedy that when this was all over.
“Well. In my defense…” Trevor’s voice hit low and evil. Your father did say he’d rather be dead than see a Brewster marry one of his daughters.”
An anguished scream from a human in pain split my ears. Movement, crashes… Enough.
“Fuck this. I’m going in.” I broke the door down.
In front of me, Daisy must have plowed into Trevor, knocking him off his feet with the full force and fury of grief from a woman who had been carrying this question far too long.
She was half on top of him, and half trying to crawl for the door with her hands and feet bound with rope.
Trevor grabbed her, but his gun slipped out of his hand. The shot went wide. And then he was on top of her, pinning her down, and I saw red.
I pulled Trevor off her by the back of his collar and hit him with the full weight of everything I had been holding back since the night she opened up and told me everything.
I threw punch after punch and did not stop, not entirely in control of when to stop, until Colt and Ash together got their hands on me and pulled me back.
“We’ve got him. Stand down.” The sheriff and his brothers moved in, cuffing Trevor and taking over.
Daisy was safe. Trevor was caught. It was all over in an instant.
I staggered back a step. Pain radiated out from my shoulder. Blood trickled down my arm. I fell against the wall, scraping down until my ass hit the floor.
Then it registered. The bullet had hit me.
“Well, uh…” I breathed, almost laughing. In all my military years, I’d saved plenty of people. I’d never been shot or wounded.
The cottage floor was cold, and suddenly I was looking at the ceiling. In all the melee going on with people in and out of the cottage, shouting orders, Daisy’s voice was the one I picked out.
“Knox. Knox! Stay with me.” Her hands were still bound. She dropped to her knees beside me anyway, her face above mine. She was upright and breathing, and her eyes were open, and that meant everything.
“Did he hurt you?” I croaked.
“Let me untie you,” Colt came up behind her.
“Look at me, Knox. You’re going to be fine.”
“Did he hurt you?” I repeated.
“No. Stop worrying about me. You need to stay with me.”
“Told you I’d find you.” And for some reason that rang funny to me, only my laugh came out in short breaths.
“You stay right here. You said you’d always be there for me, and I am holding you to that, mister.” At last her hands framed my face. Her touch was all I needed right now… All I needed…
“Ambulance is five minutes out. Hold this towel with full pressure against him, okay?” Liam instructed. Daisy pressed, but I felt nothing.
Weightlessness sent me floating to the ceiling, dizzy. Tired. So tired. My limbs shook, or was that the building?
“He’s going into shock,” Liam shouted.
“Knox!” Her voice broke on my name. “I love you. Do you hear me? Please, I need you to stay with me. I love you.”
I fell to the floor, no longer floating, crashing back into my body. Outside the sound of sirens neared.
“I heard you,” I breathed.
“Thank God.”
“Say it again.”
She chortled. “I love you.”
“Love you too,” I said. “Been waiting to say that.”
“Knox, hey, eyes open soldier. Stay here.”
“Not leaving.” My fingers moved, searching for her, grabbing onto what I hoped was her sweater, and not Liam’s thigh.
Her sobs filled my ears. I could hear but couldn’t see her anymore, my vision having made an executive decision to narrow considerably.
“Ambulance is here,” came Patrick’s voice above me. “You’re going to be fine, Knox. A true hero.”
That word… At some point I’d have to decide if I was worthy of it.
“Looks like a clean wound, in the front of the shoulder, out the back,” Liam reported. Other people worked on me.
Soon they rolled me out of there. Daisy’s hand found mine on the gurney, squeezing tight. The ambulance wailed down the road to the Lewistown medical center.
“When this is all over, marry me.” That wasn’t the delirium of being shot talking. Okay, maybe a little of the pain meds speaking for me.
She snorted. “We just moved our relationship out of the friend zone. We showed everyone publicly tonight that we’re an item. I thought moving in together would be the next natural step eventually, later on down the road.”
“That, too. I want it all with you. Right now.”
“What happened to that patience of yours?” She quipped.
“Life is too short, sweetheart. I see that now.”
“Well, cowboy. If you want forever, you’ll have to put a ring on it.”
“First thing I’ll do when I get out of the hospital. You can count on it.”
I’d waited a long year for her. For us. I wasn’t waiting a second more for forever.