Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
WEST
A very went limp in my arms, and for a second, my heart stopped.
Her breath against my neck brought me a degree of relief, but not enough.
Ford was on his feet. There was a gash at the side of his head, bleeding freely, but he was steady enough.
His eyes darkened with concern as he saw Avery out cold.
“She hit her head when she fell,” he said in explanation. “Is she still bleeding?”
“Not much. Whoever jumped you, got her with the knife, but she looks better than you,” I said, not liking the blood soaking into his shirt.
“I’m not sure she’ll need stitches, but we need to get you to the ER.
Can you walk to the back of the barn?” I looked past Ford to gauge the distance.
It was dark back here, but I guessed the light on the far corner of the barn was maybe fifty feet away.
Ford lifted a hand to press his shirt into the bloody slash across his chest. “Yeah, but I’m fine. I don’t need to go to the?—”
“I don’t want to hear it,” I said, cutting him off.
Ford opened his mouth to object again. I said the only thing I knew would shut him up.
“Look, Avery needs to get her head checked at a bare minimum. And if you bail on the ER, I’m going to have a fight to get her there.
So could you just do me a favor and let me take both of you in? ”
Ford knew my game, but he also got the logic of it. Avery was sweetly compliant when she was unconscious, but I knew well that when she woke up, compliant wasn’t a word I would use to describe Avery Sawyer. The surprise was how much I liked the way she pushed back at me.
My head had been spinning since I first caught sight of her moving through the crowd in her Halloween costume.
Avery had always been striking. With her dark hair and bold eyebrows, that wide, full mouth, and bitter chocolate eyes.
Even as a child, she’d been compelling. Then she grew from a little girl into a woman, and she’d become more than just striking. Avery was beautiful on a bad day.
Tonight, though. Tonight, she was stunning.
She didn’t put a lot of thought into her looks.
Most of the time, she didn’t bother with makeup or coordinate her clothes.
I was used to seeing her in jeans and a Sawyers Bend Brewing polo shirt, her long hair pulled back into a braid or twisted up and held in place with a chopstick or pencil. I was not used to seeing her like this.
Her hair flowed like a shining curtain over shoulders bared by her black dress, the sleeves hanging past her fingers in ragged points, the skirts swirling around her legs.
Her lips were blood red to go with the fangs in her mouth, her lashes so long I was pretty sure they weren’t real.
The dress dipped to show the slightest curve of cleavage, the skirt revealing only a bare hint of long legs ending in worn black combat boots I remembered from her teenage years.
Her costume was completely appropriate for a family night at the Orchard, and so fucking sexy I’d had trouble thinking clearly every time I’d spotted her in the crowd.
I was off duty, but whenever a lot of people were combined with free-flowing alcohol, anything could happen.
I’d skipped a beer, as good as I knew it was, and went for a soda, watched the kids bobbing for apples, took a few shots with the potato gun, won a prize, so at least I didn’t embarrass myself and tried not to keep an eye on Avery.
I failed miserably at the last part. When Matthew had intercepted her in the crowd, I was headed their way a second later.
Ford must have been watching her, too. We came in from opposite sides, making a beeline for Avery to stop whatever the fuck Matthew was up to.
We’d both watched as Matthew had grabbed her arm, and my gut burned at seeing the way she started to yank her arm free, then stopped, not wanting to cause a scene.
A smirk had twisted Matthew’s mouth as he’d realized he had her trapped.
For the first time in memory, I’d wished I wasn’t the police chief so I could tear him away from her and beat the shit out of him for daring to touch her.
That wince on her face when he squeezed her elbow—he deserved a broken nose just for that.
But not only was I the police chief, beating the shit out of him for touching her was exactly the kind of scene Avery wanted to avoid.
Instead, I’d gotten him out of there, and the next thing I knew, Ford was calling to say he and Avery had been jumped.
The sight of Avery covered in blood was fucking with me. I didn’t like seeing anyone hurt. But Avery...
I had to focus. My deputy pulled around in his department SUV. We traded keys.
“My vehicle’s parked in the lot in front,” I told him, and turned to Ford. “You get in and slide over. I’ll pass her to you.”
Avery’s eyes fluttered open as I placed her gently on the seat, nudging her to lean against her brother. “West? What happened?”
“It’s okay. Ford’s got you. I’m going to take Ford to the ER. We’ll get you checked out while we’re there.”
“I don’t—” she started to protest. Ford wrapped his arm around his sister, pulling her close. “Just close your eyes, Ave. It won’t be a long ride. Everything’s fine now.”
“My head hurts,” she grumbled, her eyes meeting mine just before her lids slowly drifted shut again.
The ER was quiet when we got there, or as quiet as a rural ER ever gets.
I took Avery from Ford, leaving my vehicle out front, and carried her in.
Ford followed behind, still moving under his own steam, but slowly.
He needed some stitches, probably some antibiotics, maybe even a pint of blood or two.
I had to respect the guy, though. The slice across his chest had to hurt, but he didn’t complain, more worried about Avery than himself.
I let the doctor nudge me out of the way after depositing Avery on a hospital bed in a room next to Ford’s. The second my hands were free, I called Hawk, filling him in on what had happened.
“I’m sticking with Avery. At this point, we don’t know which one of them the attacker was after, and I’m not leaving her. I need you to send someone over here to cover Ford. I don’t have the staff to spare,” I said.
I hung up in time to see a nurse cutting open the sleeve of Avery’s vampire costume to reveal a long, thin slice that started at her collarbone and extended down her arm.
Most of it had stopped bleeding. I didn’t like the way Avery lay there, passive and pale.
Shock? Disorientation from hitting her head?
I wasn’t a doctor. I only knew that this wasn’t Avery.
“It’s better than it looks,” the nurse said. “A few deeper spots here and there, but it should heal up just fine.” She looked up at me. “She passed out?”
“Yes,” I confirmed. “Not long after I found them. Her brother said she hit her head on the barn pretty hard when she fell.”
“How does your head feel, honey?” the nurse asked.
Avery lifted her hand towards her forehead and slid it back to graze a spot above her ear. “It hurts the worst right here. When he jumped us, I slammed into the wall.”
The nurse took a closer look and turned worried eyes to me, then made a note on her chart. “We’ll take a look at that,” she said. “You might have a concussion.”
“I don’t want a concussion,” Avery said, startling a laugh out of the nurse.
“Well, you don’t always get what you want, honey.
But at least we can find out what you’re dealing with.
I’m going to get this cut cleaned up, then see about taking a closer look at your head.
” She stood. “I’ll be right back.” The nurse stepped out of the room, I guessed to make arrangements to get Avery an MRI or a CAT scan or whatever they’d use to check out that hard skull of hers.
“You still with us?” I asked. Avery wasn’t back to herself, but her eyes looked clearer than they had a few minutes before.
“Yeah, I’m okay.” She let out a long sigh. “Everything hurts. My arm. My head. It’s annoying. Is Ford okay?”
“He’s probably going to need a few stitches, but otherwise, I think he’s in better shape than you are. Do you know who attacked you?”
Avery started to shake her head and stopped as a wave of pain hit her.
Squeezing her eyes shut, she kept her head very still as she said, “No. It was dark, and it happened so fast. I saw his eyes, but that was it. It wasn’t anybody I knew, not that I could tell.
And then some kids ran by and he disappeared. ”
She sat back into the bed, settling her head into the pillow.
Her eyes drifted closed, but there was nothing restful about her.
After a minute, she said, “He was trying to stab Ford. He knocked us down, and I fell into the barn, then onto Ford, but he was there with the knife, pushing me out of the way, I think, trying to get a better angle on Ford.” She opened her eyes, her dark gaze locking onto mine.
“Are you sure?” I asked. “You said it happened fast. How do you know he was after Ford and not you? He could have been trying to get you into a better position, not Ford.”
Avery opened her mouth, then closed it. Finally, she asked, “Why would they be after me?”
I shook my head as the nurse came back in, a plastic bin filled with supplies in her hands. “I’ve got your scan ordered,” she said cheerily. “While we’re waiting, let’s get you cleaned up.” She looked at me. “You staying?”
I sat on Avery’s good side, taking her hand. “I’m staying,” I said, unable to explain why I wasn’t going anywhere.
I couldn’t get it out of my head. The hint of cleavage I’d admired was stained red to match her lips.
She’d been so vibrantly gorgeous, so alive, and a knife had split her skin while I’d been only feet away.
It was too close. Until I saw all that blood, I’d never considered what I might lose if something happened to her.
I wasn’t leaving until I was sure she was all right. I’d work out the why of it later.
The nurse wiped at the dried blood on her skin, and Avery winced, her face going a little pale.
I wasn’t sure if it was at the sight of her own blood or the pain from the nurse cleaning her up.
Either way, I said, “Hey, don’t watch. Look at me.
” Obedient, for possibly the first time in her life, she rolled her head to the side and met my eyes.
“This was not how the rest of my night was supposed to go,” she said.
“I know,” I said. “You were kicking ass. I think you doubled the crowd size from last year.”
She smiled. “People looked like they were having fun. The music was good, I heard the food was great, everyone loved the beer.”
Her pride was evident, and I grinned back.
“You did good,” I said .
“Yeah,” Avery agreed with a sigh. “Yeah, we did good. For tonight.”
“I know this part’s not great,” the nurse murmured, but I don’t think you’ll need stitches.
” She fastened what looked like a butterfly bandage over the deepest part of the cut, pulling the sides of the torn skin together until the cut almost disappeared.
“We’ll start antibiotics since we don’t know where that blade was, but it’s not too bad.
It should heal up without much of a scar.
We just need to take a look at that head.
” She finished bandaging Avery’s arm. “Hang tight for a few minutes. I’ll be back to bring you up for the scan, okay? ”
“Okay,” Avery said.
The nurse laughed, and her eyes flicked to me. I nodded, understanding. “I’ll make sure she stays put.”
“West,” Avery said, “I’m okay.”
I didn’t know what to say. Technically, she was okay.
I wanted her under guard until we figured out what the fuck was going on, but did she need me sitting next to her bed holding her hand?
Probably not. I could have stood up, untangled my fingers from hers, and stood guard in the hallway. I could have, but I didn’t.
I leaned in close until my forehead rested against hers and murmured, “You scared the shit out of me.”
And then I did the thing I’d wanted to do most.The thing I’d told myself I definitely wasn’t going to do.
All my logic, all my defenses fell apart at the thought of how close she’d come, how much damage that knife could have done.
I tilted my head and pressed my lips to hers, wondering what she would do.
Pull back ?
Slap me?
Ask me what the hell I thought I was doing?
She didn’t do any of that. Instead, she lifted her mouth to mine, her lips warm, giving. I cupped her face in my hands, feeling the throb of her pulse under my fingertips as I parted my lips and kissed her again, longer, deeper, my tongue sliding against hers, tasting Avery.
And I was lost.The soft rush of her breath, her lips curious and eager against mine.
I didn’t want to stop kissing her. I couldn’t remember why I should.
Shifting, I slid my hand to cup the back of her head, lifting her mouth to mine, my other arm wrapping around her waist, easing her closer.
Her good hand came up, her fingers wrapping around the back of my neck, pulling me in, a low moan vibrating in her throat.
Fuck, I was in trouble. So much trouble, I didn’t hear the beeping. Not until the footsteps squeaked behind me and Avery went still against me.
Then the shrill, urgent alarm cut through the haze in my brain, right along with the glare of Avery’s nurse. “Behave yourselves and stop messing with my sensors,” she ordered. I thought there was a glint of amusement in her eyes, but that might have been wishful thinking.
“Yes, ma’am,” I said, settling Avery back against the pillow, my hand finding hers and giving it a squeeze. Her eyes, when they met mine, were wide with panic. Over getting caught or from kissing me? If it was from the kiss, she wasn’t the only one.
Part of my brain was going off with clanging alarms that matched those coming from her heart rate sensor.
I’d kissed her because I wanted to. Needed to.
Even though it was the last thing I should do.
She was lying in a hospital bed, possibly with a head injury, for fuck’s sake.
I was the police chief and her brother’s best friend.
So many fucking reasons I shouldn’t have kissed her.
Reality was, I didn’t give a shit about any of the reasons I shouldn’t have kissed her.
Something had happened inside me when I’d seen her on the ground by the barn.
Maybe I could have put aside the vision of her in her vampire costume.
Maybe. That hint of cleavage would have tortured me.
But everything had changed at the prospect of losing her.
I wasn’t going to turn away from Avery Sawyer. I wasn’t going to forget our kiss. And neither was she.