Page 53 of Protecting the Newborn

And Ruston had seen the blood on the road.

Gracelyn had seen it as well. No way to avoid it since Duncan, Ruston and she had left the ranch in a cruiser to come to the hospital, and they’d had to drive right past the spot where Allie had been hit.

Ruston had dreaded that drive for a lot of reasons, but it hadn’t been optional. Not after the hospital had called Gracelyn to ask her to come in and donate the rare AB negative blood that Allie and she shared. Gracelyn had done that, and now, ten hours later, they were waiting to see if it would save her sister’s life.

Even though Allie’s last words to Gracelyn had been to wish her dead, Gracelyn clearly didn’t feel the same way about Allie. No way was she pleased with pretty much anything Allie had done, but Ruston understood her need to be here. Her need to do whatever she could to keep Allie alive.

Later, if Allie made it, she’d have to answer for the horrible crimes she’d committed. Butlaterwould have to wait.

Eileen looked over at him when Ruston put his phone away and made his way back toward Gracelyn and her. Not that he had gone far. For one thing, he wouldn’t have let Gracelyn out of his sight, and for another, this particular waiting room was small, not much larger than a normal-sized kitchen.

Not many places to have a private conversation.

It was at the other end of the hospital from the much larger ER waiting room, which not only had way too many windows for Ruston’s liking but also multiple points of entry. That was why Duncan and he had insisted on using this area, which had been set up for families to wait for surgical patients. No windows. Only one way in and out, and Duncan was guarding that.

Literally.

Duncan was pacing up and down the hall in front of the open archway entrance while he was on the phone, dealing with all the various moving parts of multiple investigations. That included making sure the hospital itself was secure. Duncan had brought in reserve deputies for that as well, but there was always the concern that someone could slip in.

Or had already slipped in.

There had been well over a two-hour gap between the time that Gracelyn had gotten the call to ask if she’d donate blood and their arrival here at the hospital. There’d been no reserve deputies on the doors during that gap, so someone could have gotten in then.

“Any news about Allie?” Ruston asked Eileen.

The nurse had come in just as Ruston had gotten the call from Slater, so he hadn’t heard anything of what she’d come to tell Gracelyn. But Ruston figured Eileen wasn’t there to deliver the news that Allie was dead. That would almost certainly come from a doctor.

Eileen nodded. “They had to take her back into surgery to try to stop some internal bleeding. We’re not sure how long the procedure will take.” She sighed, checked her watch. “You guys have been here a long time, and I just wanted to check on the two of you and see if you needed anything.”

Yeah, he needed a safe place for Gracelyn. Safer than here, anyway. But that wasn’t something Eileen could fix.

Ruston looked at Gracelyn to see if she intended to take Eileen up on her offer, but she shook her head. “We’re fine for now, but thanks,” Ruston told the nurse, and he went to Gracelyn to pull her into his arms.

“What did Slater tell you?” she immediately asked. “Is Abigail all right?”

“She’s fine. All the security measures are still in place.”

Allwas a lot. Joelle, Slater and Luca were inside the locked-down ranch house with Abigail, and Slater had brought in his ranch hands to patrol the grounds with the other hands already keeping watch. A reserve deputy was at the end of the road to stop anyone from driving up to the house.

That included Tony or Devin. Ruston hadn’t wanted them hanging around, so he’d sent them both on their way, though Devin would have to come in and give a statement about why he’d brought Allie to the ranch in the first place. But that would have to wait.

Part of Ruston had wanted to haul Devin in if only so he could keep him under a careful watch for a while, but the deputies and Duncan were already stretched thin. Added to that, the sheriff’s office was still shut down, and with Duncan on guard duty, it would have meant bringing Devin to the hospital. Since that wouldn’t have pleased anyone, Duncan had sent Devin home.

Hopefully that wouldn’t turn out to be a fatal mistake.

“Slater said no one has gotten onto the ranch,” Ruston emphasized before he told her the rest. “But one of the hands did see a vehicle driving slowly on the road that leads to the turnoff to the ranch. He didn’t recognize the car, so he got the license plate and phoned Slater. When Slater ran it, he learned the vehicle belongs to Charla.”

Gracelyn huffed. “What was she doing there?”

“I’m not sure. And it might not have been her behind the wheel. The hand thought the driver was a man.”

“A hired gun?” But she immediately dismissed that with a head shake. “No, Charla wouldn’t have let a hired gun use her car.”

“Probably not,” he agreed. “If she’s not behind the attacks, someone could have stolen her car to make it look as if she was in the area.”

He thought of another possibility, though. That Charla had hoped this mystery driver would be mistaken for her and therefore give her some kind of alibi.

“Slater did try to call her,” Ruston added, “but it went straight to voicemail, so he left a message for Charla to contact either him or me.”

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