Page 61 of Sadie's Guarded Harbor

She hooked her fingers under the handle and pulled, opening the door. She jumped inside, staying so low he couldn’t see her once she was in.

A sigh of relief escaped his lips. She was safe. Now he needed to get his own ass inside.

He glanced in the direction of the shot. A shadow shifted on the end of the building to his left. He lifted his gun and pulled the trigger. The shadow skittered away. Tommy leapt toward the open door.

Sadie thrust her keys at him. “Take the keys.”

He grabbed them and shoved the key into the ignition while he scanned in all directions.

“I think your shot scared whoever it was off.” Sadie sank against the seat, her gun at the ready.

An engine revved to life. A truck shot out from behind the building at the end of the lane and toward the gated entrance.

Tommy pressed his foot against the gas pedal. Gravel flew up and pinged the side of the door.

The truck drew closer. This was their chance to catch the sonofabitch. Adrenalinewhooshedin his ears.

Sadie took aim and shot out her open window, the sound splitting his ear drums. “I don’t think I hit anything.”

After a moment of silence, a sudden pop had him reflexively hunching his shoulders. The front window exploded. Bits and pieces of glass nicked his exposed skin. He kept his gaze locked forward as he took a sharp turn toward the entrance, trying to see through the shot-out windshield. “Shit. Can you get off another shot? Aim for his tire.”

Nothing but the sound of racing wheels on a bumpy country road answered him.

He flicked his glance toward Sadie. His heart lodged in his throat, and he fought the urge to stop the car.

Sadie sat slumped against the seatback, eyes closed. Blood trickled from the side of her head.

23

Mumbled curses penetrated the thick fog of unconsciousness that had turned Sadie’s world to black. Weights held her eyelids in place. Movement jostled her body, causing spikes of pain to spear her head. She moaned, but the dry cotton of her mouth trapped the sound. Air rushed at her as if she was caught in a wind tunnel.

Willing her eyes open, she winced as sharp beams of light attacked her retinas. She lowered her eyes to narrowed slits. Pain slammed like a sledgehammer against the side of her head. Stinging bites throbbed around her face.

Tommy sat beside her. His hands gripped the steering wheel. Cold air whipped through the open window beside her…and in front of her. Glass sprinkled the dashboard.

She bent at the waist, curling forward with her head in her hands. Warm liquid slid over her fingers. She reared back and nausea pitched in her stomach. Blood covered her trembling hand. Images of bloody soldiers and dying civilians invaded her thoughts, making her limbs quake, quickly replaced by the smiling face of her daughter.

No, she couldn’t be hurt. Couldn’tnotgo home to her daughter tonight.

She swallowed the bile that rose to her throat with each bump in the road. She kept her focus on the worried lines indented in Tommy’s handsome face. “Tommy?” The sound of her hoarse voice was unfamiliar to her own ears.

Tommy whipped his head to the side, his eyes wide and mouth pressed in a tight line. Raw fear dilated his pupils. “Don’t move. You’ve been shot. The bullet grazed the side of your head. We’re almost to the hospital.” Emotion made his words come out thick.

“The truck…. where’s the person who shot at us?” She tried to crane her neck to glance behind them, but her head screamed in protest.

“I called dispatch.” He returned his focus to the road as they drove through Litchman. “A patrolman was close by. When I took off for town, the truck went in the opposite direction. No idea if they’ll catch the bastard or not.”

Tommy’s gentle touch caressed her arm. “Lean back. We’re almost there. Just stay still. Everything’s going to be fine.” His touch might be soothing, but he couldn’t hide the worry that clipped his words.

She collapsed against the seat. The siren on top of the cruiser wailed as they raced through the quiet streets. Head wounds bled heavily, regardless of how bad the blow. The sharp pricks of pain on her face told her the blown-out window had pelted her pretty bad. But it was the throbbing agony on the side of her head that demanded attention.

Unwrapping the scarf from around her neck, she pressed the material to the oozing gash at the side of her head. She needed to be smart, not succumb to the panic clawing at her psyche, which meant stopping as much of the bleeding as possible.

Tommy moved his fingers along her arm until he peeled into the emergency room entrance of the hospital and screeched to a halt. He shut off the engine and jumped out of the car, racing around to her side.

Two doctors dressed in green scrubs raced out the emergency room doors with a gurney between them.

Tommy opened her door. “She was grazed by a bullet on the left side of her head. Lost consciousness for a few minutes. The marks on her face are from the glass.” He tossed his statements over his shoulder, keeping his gaze trained on her.

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