Chapter Twenty-two
Lying in bed in the quiet of her
hospital room, Delaney released a shaky breath, unsure why she had
an overwhelming urge to cry. It was over. She’d gotten out of that
awful mine, Jerod Fetterly was in custody, and she and Walker had
survived. A tap sounded at her door and Keeley walked in, Clara
with her.
Emotion flooded through her and
Delaney gave a hiccoughing sob, and whoosh, her best friend and her
grandmother were at her side, arms around her, stroking her hair
while she cried out the misery of the last twenty-four
hours.
When sobs reduced to sniffles, Keeley
held her at arm’s length to give her a thorough once-over while
Clara kept a tight grip on her hand.
Keeley brushed her hair back from the
bandage at Delaney’s temple. “You look like you’ve been through a
war, friend.”
“I feel like I’ve been
through a war. Do you know what happened to Walker?”
“He’s at this hospital.
According to Sawyer, he took a bullet that lodged under the skin on
his shoulder. Word is he hasn’t been exactly cooperative. He
refused to be put under general anesthesia when they took out the
bullet.”
He was here and he was alive. That was
a start.
“Did they get the bullet
out?”
“They did and he’s fine.”
Keeley’s expression lightened. “You want to know his reason for
refusing to be knocked out?”
Delaney nodded.
“He didn’t want to be
unconscious if you needed him.”
“He told the doctors
that?”
“He did
indeed.”
She wished she could see
him, talk to him, be with him.
If she could do that, everything would
be okay.
They had issues to work
out, but hope glimmered that maybe, just maybe, they
could be worked
out.
“You’re both fortunate to
be alive,” Clara murmured.
Her grandmother had always looked so
strong, but today she seemed frail.
“Do you want to talk about
it, to tell us what happened?” Keeley asked.
“I will, but later.
Doctor’s instructions are that I need to rest so the police aren’t
allowed to ask what happened until tomorrow at the earliest. A
deputy was assigned to me today and gave orders that I’m not to
talk about what happened with anyone until they can talk to me.
Something about preserving my memory without outside
influences.”
Keeley nodded. “That’s
understandable.”
“We should go,” Clara
said. “We promised the nurse not to stay long so we don’t tire you
out.”
Keeley gave Delaney a hug. “Your gran
and I drove together so don’t worry about her driving back to
Sisters by herself. We’re watching out for each other.”
“You guys are the
best.”
Clara wrapped her granddaughter in a
hug and murmured, “I was so scared. I thought I’d lost you
too.”
“I’m okay, Gran.” Clara
drew back, worry making the fine lines of her face deeper. Delaney
rushed to assure her. “Really. I have a minor gunshot wound and a
concussion, but other than being told to take it easy for a few
days, I’m fine. I plan to be ready to open the farm as
planned.”
“We’ll see about that.”
She kissed each of Delaney’s cheeks. “Rest and heal, and we’ll be
back tomorrow. I’ll bring a change of clothes for when they’re
ready to release you.”
Keeley gathered up her purse. “All of
Sisters is worried about you. Word got out you could be somewhere
in the mountains. Owen organized a search party that left at first
light.
“They were called back
when word came you were found. Add that Jerod Fetterly has come
back from the dead and kidnapped you, there was a huge sigh of
relief to learn you were safe.”
Her head cocked and she asked, “Do you
want me to stay with you tonight? I can drive your gran home and
come back. I’d be happy to if you’d rather not be alone.” She
indicated a vinyl covered chair against the wall. “I could curl up
there and I’d be fine.”
Delaney would rather not be alone, but
she wasn’t sentencing anyone to spending the night sleeping on a
chair. She shook her head, wincing a bit in discomfort. “I’m okay,
just exhausted. I don’t think I’ll have trouble sleeping
tonight.”
***
Delaney wasn’t sure what woke her.
She’d gotten pain meds and her headache had eased, and she still
had an IV in her arm dripping fluid from a bag on a stand. The
lights were dimmed, leaving the room in shadows. The clock high on
the wall said it was nearly two in the morning. The chair that’d
been against the wall was now beside her bed where a dark shape
sprawled. A sudden fear had her sitting up. Had Jerod Fetterly
somehow gotten free and made his way to her room?
“Laney.”
One word in that voice and her anxiety
eased. “Walker? What are you doing here?”
He rose slowly to his feet to stand
beside the bed. “Shh. They find out I’m here, I’m busted. They’ll
kick me out.”
“You just had
surgery. You should be
resting.”
“It was minor surgery, and
resting wasn’t an option until I saw you for myself.”
He was a dark shadow, but she didn’t
need light to raise a hand and touch his face, trailing her fingers
over his cheek. He felt solid, real, and made the terror of the
night before recede.
“I was so scared.” She
hated the quaver in her voice.
He brought her hand to his lips. “You
may’ve been scared, but you kept your head.” He leaned forward, his
forehead touching hers, his breath warm on her cheek.
“Is it over?”
“Fetterly and Neil Grafton
have both been arrested.” His voice roughened. “Fetterly will never
hurt you again, and Grafton admitted to putting my name on the
DNA.”
Delaney felt the tension she’d been
carrying inside unwind. She gripped his hand tighter. “Oh my god,
Walker. Then it really is over. You’re free.”
“I liked ‘Oh my god,
Walker’ better when you said it before.”
“This isn’t a
joke.”
“Believe me, it’s
definitely not a joke.” When she yawned, he kissed her briefly on
the lips. “You need to sleep.”
She gripped his hand tighter. After
all she’d been through, she felt like a wimp, but said the words
anyway. “Don’t leave.”
“I won’t. You’re safe,
sweetheart.”
True to his word, Walker
stayed.
Delaney opened her eyes hours later to
find the room washed in morning light. Her head felt significantly
clearer, and the wound above her hip had settled to a low-level
discomfort.
She turned her head to study Walker,
sleeping in the chair beside her bed. He’d moved another chair to
prop up his feet, and slouched with his head at an angle. That
couldn’t be comfortable.
Even sleeping he looked dangerous.
Like a whisper of alarm could have the latent strength in his tough
body springing into action. Instead of a hospital gown, he wore
loose athletic pants and a zip-up hoodie, one side draped over his
arm held in a sling, his shoulder heavily bandaged.
His chest was bare and she wished they
were in his bed where she could burrow into his warm body and
assure herself they were both truly safe.
A nurse bustled in, her tag
identifying her as Viola Perdue, RN. She raised an arched brow when
she saw Walker. “Night shift nurse said we’d find him in here. Not
surprised given what I heard about his stubbornness last
night.”
“What did he
do?”
“He wanted to come
downstairs to visit you.” She eyed Walker, who was beginning to
stir. “He was quite insistent about it. When we couldn’t make that
happen for him, he checked himself out, against doctor’s advice, I
might add. Very polite about it, thanked us all for his care, and
could hardly wait to get the discharge papers before he was heading
out.”
Walker shifted to sit up. “I needed to
see Laney.” His voice was morning gruff.
“And now that you’ve seen
your girl, I’m kicking you out.”
He opened his mouth, Delaney was sure
to protest, but Nurse Viola held up a finger. “Before you get your
dander up, let me tell you something. Delaney here needs to be
cleaned up, and she needs some medical care. This room’s not big
enough to do what I need to be doing without tripping over those
long legs of yours. If everything checks out, she’ll be released
around eleven. You’ll last without seeing her for that long, big
boy.”
Not many people could order Walker
around, but Nurse Viola was apparently one who could. He rose to
his feet, stooped to brush his lips over Delaney’s, then exited the
room.
***
By early evening, Walker was ready to
punch someone. Laney had been released from the hospital, but he
hadn’t been able to pick her up. A police detective wanted to
question him over his knife being found at the scene of the attack
in Pine Cove.
Okay, he got that the guy needed to
cover all his bases, but he didn’t need to be a dick about it. He’d
brought Walker into an interrogation room—bad memories there—and
when Walker had said Jerod Fetterly had stolen it from his truck,
the detective had been an even bigger dick. He’d suggested it was
mighty convenient the man Walker was blaming had been badly injured
in the mine and was now hospitalized in critical condition and
might not survive. Since Walker wasn’t an idiot, he’d refused to
say anything more until he had a lawyer. Then—no surprise—the
interview was over and he was free to go.
He walked out to the parking lot of
the sheriff’s office to find Sawyer leaning against Walker’s truck
sipping from a go-cup, the sky to the west purple with
dusk.
Walker was bone tired, hadn’t eaten
since the egg sandwich he’d grabbed at the hospital cafeteria that
morning, and would cheerfully commit murder for a cup of fresh
coffee.
He eyed his brother. “What are you
drinking?”
“Coffee.”
“Give me some of
that.”
“Get your own.”
“You want to live to see
the sun come up again?”
Sawyer didn’t look worried. “That
bad?”
“Yeah, that
bad.”
Sawyer handed over the cup. “My
truck’s at the farm. Give me a ride and I’ll fill you in on what’s
happened.”
“Is Laney at the big
house?”
“Yeah. Detectives
interviewed her this afternoon but kept it short. Keeley and Cam
are with her, plus Clara, Oscar, and Franny. Good luck seeing Laney
without a crowd around.”
Walker got behind the wheel of his