Page 39 of Save Me

Lainie flinched. He’d never said he’d been shot!

Hunt looked up and out the window again. “I watched him die in front of me. The last thing I saw before I passed out was Rat running for a weapon. Preacher died and I didn’t, and guilt set in. I didn’t want to get close to anyone like that again. I’d lost you and then him, so I shut down emotionally and focused on nothing but what I’d signed up to do. Even after we were stateside again, and then deployed in different places during the ensuing years, I began to burn out. Ultimately, I left because I was tired of running away from the past. Then I saw your story on the evening news, and the rest you know.”

TEARS WERE RUNNING down her face. “Oh, Hunt... I need to hug the hurt out of you so bad I can’t stand it, and they’ve hooked me up to everything in this hospital except WiFi. Come lie down beside me. You’ve stayed awake for days because of me. Let me hold you now while you sleep.”

He damn sure wasn’t leaving her and didn’t have it in him to refuse that offer. And, since she hadn’t thrown up her hands in shock at what he’d told her, he guessed she’d decided to keep him.

“You know it’s against the rules?”

“You leave the demons and the rules to me,” she said, and scooted over until her back was against the bed rail.

Hunt kicked off his boots, lay down beside her and pulled up the bed rail, then turned to face her with the railing at his back. He searched her face for doubt and saw none. All he felt was love. He’d bared his soul, and now his heart was in her hands.

“I love you, Lainie.”

She sighed. “I love you, more.”

“We’re breaking all kinds of hospital protocol,” he said.

“I am a dear and beloved employee here, and you’re already everybody’s hero because you found me, so, in their eyes, you can do no wrong. I love you. Close your eyes.”

So, he did.

CHAPTER SEVEN

It was time for evening meds.

Lainie’s assigned nurse, Maggie Rae, was making her rounds when she entered Lainie’s room, then came to a full stop. There was a grown-ass man in bed with her patient, sound asleep and stretched out beside her with his feet hanging off the side. Then she realized it must be Hunter Gray, the man who’d found her.

Gossip was they’d known each other before, and it must have been something special for him to come from so far away to search. Even now, he’d put himself between Lainie and the door, with his arm across her waist in a gesture of protection.

Lainie heard footsteps approaching her bed and opened her eyes, then put a finger to her lips and whispered, “He never slept until he found me.”

Maggie lowered her voice as she began checking Lainie’s stats. “Bless him. He’s quite the hero. How are you feeling?”

Lainie sighed. “Everything hurts.”

“This should help,” Maggie said as she injected the syringe full of pain meds into Lainie’s IV port. “There you go, honey. You’ll get easy soon. Do you need anything?”

Lainie looked down at the man beside her. “Not anymore.” Then closed her eyes.

JUSTIN RANDALL HAD been taken in handcuffs from his jail cell to an interrogation room. The guards seated him at a table, then one stayed on guard with him. All Justin knew was that his lawyer was coming, so he settled in to wait, but not for long.

Minutes later, the door opened, and Richard Stovall, his court-appointed lawyer, entered the room.

“I’ll need some time alone with my client,” Richard said.

The guard left the room as Richard sat down and flipped open a file.

“I’ll get right to it. You have problems,” Richard said. “Lainie Mayes was found alive this morning. She has a large number of injuries, some of which back up the police’s theory that you attacked her, and she had plenty to say about that. The lab reports came back regarding DNA found on evidence from the scene of the attack, as well as DNA taken from her backpack they found in the canyon. It’s yours.”

“Okay, so there wasn’t any bear attack, but I didn’t try to kill her,” Justin said. “She got herself lost.”

“Running away in fear for her life after you assaulted her,” Richard said. “I’m told the cops were at the emergency room when they brought her in. They took scraping from beneath her fingernails to test for DNA.” Then he looked straight at the scratches on his client’s face. “We both know how that’s going to turn out. And that’s not all. About twenty-four hours after your name was mentioned as a suspect of interest in the local and national news, four other women have come forward, claiming you both raped and assaulted them, and threatened to kill them if they talked.”

Justin blinked. “They can’t prove any of that. It will be my word against theirs.”

“So, it’s true?” Richard asked.

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