Page 2 of Tracking Down the Lawman's Son

The door to the exam room opened, and Dr. Nathan Bagley stepped out. Another familiar face but not an especially friendly one. Well, not friendly toward Luca anyway. Luca knew Nathan had always seen him as a romantic rival. During Bree and Luca’s off-again phases, Nathan and she had dated.

“How is she?” Luca immediately asked.

The doctor didn’t get a chance to answer though. “I’m fine,” Luca heard Bree say.

Nathan’s sigh indicated he didn’t quite agree with his patient, but he stepped back out of the doorway, and Luca saw another nurse who was in the process of washing her hands.

And Bree.

Her short dark brown hair was tangled and flecked with powder from the airbag. And she was pale. So pale. She was also getting up from the exam table. Not easily. She was wobbling a little, and Luca immediately went to her, took hold of her arm and steadied her.

There was blood on her cream-colored shirt. A few flecks of dried blood, too, on her right cheek by her ear. That had no doubt come from the cut on her head that was now stitched up.

Bree dodged his gaze, but that was the norm for them these days. “Thanks,” she muttered, and stepped out of his grip. “I’m fine,” she repeated, her gaze pinned to Slater.

“You’re sure about that?” Slater questioned. He went to her, gently cupped her chin, lifting it while he examined her.

“Sure,” she insisted at the same moment that Nathan added his own comment.

“She doesn’t appear to have a concussion, but I’d like to run some tests,” the doctor said. “I’d also like to admit her for observation for the head injury.”

All of that sounded reasonable to Luca, but Bree clearly wasn’t on board with it. “I’m fine. I want to go home and check on Gabriel.”

“Gabriel’s okay,” Slater assured her. “I called the nanny just a couple of minutes ago.”

Now it was Bree’s turn to study her brother’s face, and it seemed to Luca that she was making sure he was telling her the truth.

What the heck was going on?

Slater and Bree were close, and Slater wouldn’t have lied to her. Well, not under these circumstances anyway. And not about Gabriel. Slater might have downplayed the truth though if Bree had been in serious condition, but that wasn’t the case.

“I need to go home,” Bree repeated. “Can you give me a ride?” she asked, and then moved away from Slater. She went to the small counter where the nurse was now standing and picked up her purse.

“Hold on a second.” Slater stepped in front of her to stop her from heading for the door. “What happened? Why did you wreck?”

Her pause only lasted a couple of seconds, but it was enough to make Luca even more concerned about her. “A deer ran out on the road in front of me,” Bree said. “I swerved to miss it and lost control.”

There were indeed plenty of deer and other wildlife in the woods around the creek, and drivers did hit them from time to time. But something about this still felt, well, off.

“Why were you on that road?” Luca asked. It wasn’t anywhere near Bree’s place. Her house was one she’d inherited from her grandparents when she’d turned twenty-one, and it was on the outskirts of the other side of town.

“I was going to Austin for a business meeting,” she said.

That didn’t seem off. Bree was a lawyer who did legal consultations for the Texas Rangers and some state agencies. Most days, she worked from home, but she sometimes had meetings in nearby San Antonio or Austin.

“I thought I was going to end up in the creek,” she added in a mutter.

Now she looked at Luca. Or rather glanced at him, and he saw the apology in her eyes. She no doubt knew it always hit him hard to be reminded of his parents’ deaths.

“A deer,” Slater muttered, a question in his tone.

“Yes,” she verified, and Bree suddenly sounded a whole lot stronger. She didn’t look it though. She still seemed plenty unsteady to Luca. “And now I need to go home and see my baby.”

This time, it was Nathan who maneuvered in front of her. “You hit your head. You really should stay here for observation. You need to have medical supervision.”

“I can get someone in my family to stay with me,” Bree insisted right back. “I need to check on Gabriel.”

Nathan huffed and turned to Slater to plead his case. “Head injuries can be dangerous. She shouldn’t be alone.”

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