Chapter Forty-Eight
Melissa
Danny pushed me behind him, the detective’s gun in his hand. It didn’t go unnoticed how comfortable he was. Protection was second nature to Danny. It was why he did what he did. Why he left his family.
To protect them.
I didn’t like it. I didn’t agree with it. But I had to respect it.
As the stranger moved closer, the dust and dirt on the ground swirled around, kicked up by the tires. Not tires, I realized. Hooves. Whoever was approaching was moving fast on the back of a horse, and my heart began to race.
Did the detective have someone else with him? But if he did, why would that person shoot him? And what would they do when they got to us?
Danny sighed, his shoulders relaxing as the horse and rider came to a stop, and I recognized the cut on the man sliding off the huge animal. I hadn’t learned everyone’s names, but the Silver Shadows cut told me we weren’t in any danger.
“Did you shoot this fucker?” Danny asked.
“I did,” the man confirmed.
“Where the hell were you? We didn’t see anyone,” Danny asked.
“Pippen radioed when Henderson showed up. I was a little less than half a mile out when I took the shot.”
“You can shoot that far?” I asked.
“They don’t call me Winchester for nothing.” His smile was wide, and I could see the resemblance to Grayson. This must be his brother.
“From the back of the horse?” Danny asked, the admiration apparent in his tone.
Winchester just shrugged.
“My cousin’s a sniper. Don’t think he’s ever done it riding a fucking horse, though.”
“So now what?” I asked, bringing us back to the matter at hand.
“Gotta call it in,” Winchester said.
“But you killed him.” I didn’t want Grayson’s brother getting in trouble because of me.
“Yea, but Nebraska has clear ‘stand your ground’ laws.”
“But you were half a mile away. You weren’t in any danger,” I argued. “Can’t the club just clean it up?”
“Now you trust the club?” Danny asked, turning to give me a look I didn’t appreciate.
“For something like this? Yes! To keep him from getting arrested, yes,” I cried, pointing at Winchester.
“I won’t get arrested. The sheriff ain’t gonna haul me in. Not with this cut on my back.” Winchester walked over toward the body, talking on his radio, telling whoever was on the other end to call in the sheriff.
“So, the sheriff is dirty?”
“Good God, woman, you are fucking exhausting.”
“What?” I asked, my arms spread out at my side.
“Haven’t you lived in a red state for the past ten years?”
“So? What the hell does that have to do with the sheriff being paid off by the MC?”
“The sheriff is King’s brother. He isn’t dirty. And the club isn’t dirty either. King opened this chapter because they didn’t want to be caught up in shit anymore,” Danny explained.
“How’s that working out for him?” I snarked.
Danny just glared at me.
“I don’t wanna bring Dani out here, not with...” He waved toward the body. “But she’s asking for you, Missy.”
I swung a quick glance at the body, then back to Danny.
“Go. When the sheriff gets here, you can give him a statement.”
“Thank you.” I quickly stepped up and squeezed him tight before rushing away, preventing him from making a big deal about my actions. I was thankful for what he did, but we didn’t need to make a production out of it.
When I reached the porch, Dante was beaming at me. “I saw that.”
“It’s not a big deal. He saved my life. I was just thanking him.” I shrugged, hoping Dante would let it go.
“You two will besties before you know it.” He laughed.
“I doubt it.”
I found Dani on the couch; she smiled when I picked her up.
“You want a snack, sweetheart?”
She nodded, and I went to the kitchen. There wasn’t much. But Grayson had a fully stocked pantry, so I set Dani on the counter, and we got started making some cookies.
“What’s the deal with the cookies? She won’t go to bed without them,” Dante asked.
“At first, it was something we could do together. To work on her motor skills. Cracking eggs, stirring, pouring, etc. Then she really liked them and well, she needed to gain weight. So, we ate two cookies and read stories before bed. They were homemade cookies, and I lowered the sugar content so they would be a little healthier. But she was so underweight and there were so many things she hadn’t experienced. Cookies seemed like the best option for pulling together all the things we needed to work on.”
“You’re amazing, you know that?”
Heat creeped up my neck at his words. I wasn’t used to being complimented. Sure, my patient’s parents always gushed about how much I had helped, but from Dante it just meant more. Dani wasn’t just a patient anymore.
We heard more vehicles approach, and I was thankful for the reprieve. I went to the window, looking out as Dante had before. We waited a few minutes until the body had been covered before walking outside and joining everyone else.
“Dr. Jefferson, I presume?”
I shook the sheriff’s hand. He didn’t seem to be bothered by my title, so I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt. Normally I was pretty quick to pass judgment on a person given their body language, and their actual language.
I wouldn’t call it a red flag per se, but it did sometimes make things more difficult than they needed to be.
“Well, Danny and I were out here talking, and Detective Henderson appeared out of nowhere.”
“Out of nowhere?” the sheriff asked.
“Look around, Sheriff. Do you see any vehicles unaccounted for?”
“Melissa, try to be nice,” Danny whispered.
“I’m nice,” I disputed, glaring at Danny.
A throat clearing pulled my attention back to the sheriff.
“Please continue, Dr. Jefferson.”
“Fine. Danny and I were talking and Henderson appeared with a gun pointed at us.”
“Did he say anything?”
Narrowing my eyes at the sheriff, I asked, “Did he say anything? What kind of question is that? Do you think he just pointed a gun and someone shot him without being provoked?”
The rumble of motorcycles filled the air and Danny mumbled beside me, “Thank God.”
“Melissa!” Travis scooped me off the ground, holding me tight against his chest. Setting me back down, his hands went to my face. “Are you ok?” he asked, pulling back and looking me over.
“I’m fine.”
“What about Dani, is she ok?” he asked, looking around. His shoulders relaxed when he caught sight of her in Dante’s arms. The fact that his concern extended to Dani without being reminded warmed my heart.
“What’s going on?” King asked, standing next to the sheriff.
“Winchester shot Detective Henderson,” the sheriff began.
“From half a mile away on the back of a fucking horse,” Danny added. Apparently, he was quite impressed with that.
“Less than a half a mile,” Winchester pointed out.
“Trying to get a statement, but Dr. Jefferson is less than accommodating.”
My mouth hung open as I stared at the sheriff. “I am accommodating. I’m answering your questions, aren’t I?”
“Are you?”
“Princess, tell me what happened.”
“Danny and I were out here talking when Henderson showed up with a gun. He threatened Danny, telling him not to move. Then he pointed it at me, saying he wanted his daughter back and I was going to help him get her.”
“His daughter?” the sheriff asked.
“Apparently Caylee Meadows was his daughter.”
The sheriff turned to Winchester and asked, “Did you hear any of this?”
“No, sir, I was too far away.”
“You just saw him with a gun and decided to shoot?”
“Sheriff—” I began, stepping forward. I wasn’t going to let him railroad Winchester for saving mine and Danny’s lives.
“Not now, Princess,” Ghost whispered in my ear and pulled me back.
“But he—”
“Shhh. Just listen.”
“I got a call on my radio from Pippen. He said there was a man out here with a gun pointed at his husband and his daughter’s mother.”
My heart melted and my eyes filled with tears as I looked over at Dante, who winked at me.
“I rode out here, saw the man in question. I could see that he was yelling and knew I wouldn’t get there in time. I aimed and took my shot, taking the bastard down. It was his one life, or two of theirs.”
Closing his notebook, the sheriff said, “Good enough for me. I’ll take care of things on my end. Have Nav send me over the evidence you have so I can add it to the file. I’ll contact his superiors and let them know he went off the rails.”
“That’s it?” I asked as the sheriff and King turned to walk away.
The sheriff turned back, eyeing me. “That’s it. We have clear self-defense laws in Nebraska and that includes the defense of others, not just yourself.”
“Thank you, Sheriff.”
He nodded and turned back to Winchester. “Blackwater will need help to bring the body in.”
“We got it. Jed’s on his way out with the wagon.”
The sheriff went back to his vehicle, and another horse galloped in, pulling a small wagon behind him. The body was loaded in the back and everyone cleared out but a few of us.
Travis hadn’t let me go since he got back, and being wrapped in his arms helped to ground me now that the adrenaline was wearing off.
“Ghost,” King called. “Talk to her and let me know.”
Travis stiffened, but didn’t say a word. We stood there as everyone rode away leaving me, Travis, Danny, and Dante, who held Danika.
“Talk to me about what?”
“Nothing. I already told him no.”
“What did he ask?”
“It’s not important. I already said no.”
“But what if I would have said yes?”
“Princess,” Travis sighed.
“Dante and I need to get back. It’s been a long day and Danika needs to rest.”
He was right. It had been a long day. A long exhausting day that ended with a man dead. This was club life.
This is your life. The club has nothing to do with it, other than saving your sorry ass!
Ok, that might be true. But so not the point.
“Will you come by the clubhouse tomorrow?” Dante asked.
“We will,” Travis answered for me. When I looked back at him, he shrugged. “I need to start packing up my room. I already talked to Grayson about us staying out here until we work out the details.”
“Ok, I guess we’ll come by the clubhouse tomorrow.”
Dante gave me a hug, and I kissed Danika goodbye. Then Danny stood in front of me. It was awkward waiting for him to say something, and the snarky side of me almost won out and chastised him again. I wasn’t sure what for, but the bitch would have thought of something.
“We have more to talk about.” I nodded, knowing he was right. “I want you to know what happened. Why I left.”
“Danny, that’s not—”
“No, it’s important you have all the information about Danika.”
“Ok, we can talk tomorrow,” I conceded. I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear everything Danny wanted to tell me. Dante had already shared how she came about and what they knew. But I would listen to what Danny had to say.
My head swam when Danny wrapped his arms around me and kissed the top of my head. I clung to him for the briefest of moments. It felt important. Like something had changed between us. I guess a near-death experience had a way of forging a bond.
“Get some rest.”
“You too.”
Travis’ arm wrapped around my shoulder and he held me tight as I fought off the barrage of emotions that were tumbling through me. We walked inside and I sat at the table while Travis went to the refrigerator, pulling out eggs and bacon.
“You hungry?”
“Starving,” I replied. I waited a beat while he got busy making us something to eat. “What did King ask you?
Travis sighed heavily before finally confiding in me.