Page 50 of For the Birds

I pushed the button, and James’ voice was amplified. “Reynolds, you listen to me and you listen good. If she comes back with so much as a paper cut, you’re a goddamned deadman.”

Buck’s gaze lifted to me, and I could see he was about to back out of the deal. James was going to flip his lid when he sawme.

“James,” I said, putting a lot of force into my tone. “I have a few scrapes and bruises. He can’t be held accountable for those.”

“I’ll deliver her nearly the way we found her.” Then Buck snagged the phone from my hand and ended the call. “Let’sgo.”

Dermot headed for the car and grabbed a bag off the hood. “Before we go anywhere, I need to clean that wound up,” hesaid.

We all knewwhy.

“Gary,” Buck shouted to the third guy, who’d been leaning against the car and cradling his injured arm. “Stay with Tim and clean up themess.”

“What?” I said. “It’s just gonna be you andme?”

Buck wrapped my arm around his neck, offering no preliminaries, then half-dragged and half-carried me to his car. “Open the backdoor.”

I wasn’t sure who he was talking to, but Dermot opened the door. Buck practically dumped me onto the seat. “Dermot. Take care ofit.”

“Let me look,” Dermot said as he dropped to his knees in front ofme.

I pulled up my skirt, exposing my upper thigh. Dermot grabbed a flashlight and shone it on myleg.

He studied it for a moment with a serious expression. “It looks like a flesh wound—the bullet grazed you—but you’re gonna need antibiotics all thesame.”

Dermot opened the bag and grabbed a towel, doused it with water from a bottle, then patted the area around the wound. I tried not to flinch, but it hurt like Hades.

“It looks like it’s nearly stopped bleeding. I can stitch it if youwant.”

I shot him a look of surprise.

Buck started pacing. “Tim was a nurse before he came to work for me. He’sgood.”

That was shocking. Nurses were supposed to be nurturing people, not killing men in gunfights, but the careful way Dermot wiped my leg told me that deep down he was a healer.

“Okay,” I said. Better to get as patched up as possible before I showed up on James’ doorstep.

Ten minutes later, Dermot had given me two stitches and cleaned the wound as much as possible given our situation. Buck had gone back into the warehouse, leaving Dermot and me alone together. He taped some gauze over my stitches and said, “What are you gonna tell Malcolm?”

“Honestly, I don’t know.” Part of me wanted to tell James everything, but if I did, all hell would break loose.

Dermot frowned. “Look, I know that Buck did this to you, but he’s freakin’ out. He knows he’s number one on the suspect list, and we have no idea where Scooter could be. You are literally his lasthope.”

My back stiffened. “Why should I give two figs about Buck Reynolds? He is not a nice person, so what in the Sam Hill are you doing hangin’ out with the likes ofhim?”

He gave me a wry grin. “Maybe I’m not a nice person either.”

“You’re bein’ nice to menow.”

“And you’re smart enough to know that part of me is doin’ it in the hopes of savin’ our skins.”

I held his gaze. “But part of you is doin’ it because that’s who you are deep down,” I said softly. “You’re a healer. So how did you get mixed up inthis?”

He was quiet for a moment, in a way that told me he was thinking it through. “Sometimes you make a simple choice that starts you down a path you hadn’t planned on takin’ . . . and then you find there’s no turnin’ back.” He put on the last piece of tape and looked up at me. “How’d you get mixed up with Skeeter Malcolm?”

I glanced down at my leg. “That was one of those paths I’d never intended totake.”

“It might not be too late to get out of it, Rose,” he said gently. “Buck was willing to take a chance that you might be neutral, but if you keep turnin’ to Malcolm to bail you out, that won’t hold water forlong.”

I could see the truth in what he said, but I wasn’t sure where that left me. I suspected I’d already fallen down the rabbit hole. The question was if I wanted to crawlout.

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