Page 20 of Accidentally Kidnapping the Cowboy

“We dropped the charges,” my mother says desperately. “Leave him alone!”

Zane sends her a murderous glare. “Do you think I was fucking worried about your trumped up bullshit charges? Not for a second. But grabbing Daisy? That’s assault. Trying to shove her into the truck and take off? That’s kidnapping.”

“You’re hurting him! That’s…that’s the real assault!”

“I’m defending mywife.” Zane shoots me another desperate look. “Daisy. Now. Go.”

I sprint inside and grab my phone. My fingers shake as I call 911.

“9-1-1, what’s your emergency?”

“I was attacked by my step-father and my fiancé is currently holding him back.”

“Is this at the motel just north of Poker Lane?”

“Yes.”

“We’ve already had a report. Deputies are on their way. Would you like to stay on the line?”

I move to the open doorway and see Zane standing between my mother, who is still shrieking at him, and my step-father, who he has handily pinned to the front of the truck, even one-handed.

Because his other hand is holding on tight to the towel around his waist.

“No, I’m okay. My fiancé has it under control. Um… can you tell the deputies that he’s only wearing a towel, so he can’t like, get on the ground or anything?”

“Ma’am, that’s for them to decide when they arrive on the scene.”

Okay, well then I better quickly get what I need from the truck.

I hang up and dash back to the scene of the crime.

“The police are on their way,” I say to Zane from across the truck as I go around to the passenger side.

I open the door, planning to hop up and grab the baseball card from across the cab. But as I put my foot on the running board, I see something I didn’t notice when I was hauling Zane’s unconscious body out of this seat a day ago—his phone, wedged under the passenger seat.

Grabbing it, I quickly climb up and get the baseball card. I don’t think my mother notices, and Neil’s head is twisted in the other direction.

Hopping out again, I hold up the phone, keeping the baseball card tucked against the skirt with my other hand. “Found your phone, Zane.”

He flashes me a grin just as the blue and red lights come around the corner. “Good girl.”

It’s the same deputy who was called out yesterday, so he recognizes us all, and he thankfully doesn’t make Zane get on the ground in his towel.

The first time I see my husband naked, I don’t want witnesses. And I want to be able to touch what I see.

“What’s going on, folks?”

Voice trembling, I explain that I was just coming out to retrieve a personal belonging from the truck before we went to see the judge, and how Neil attacked me and my mother helped him by distracting me.

After I give my statement, Zane gives his, which is brief and to the point.

My mother shrieks and yells, and Neil denies everything, but this time, it’s their turn to be handcuffed and hauled away in the back of a cop car.

We’re reminded that we still need to see the judge at ten o’clock, and then we’re left alone in the parking lot.

“Inside, Daisy,” Zane growls.

I run inside. That’s the same tone he used on me yesterday when we were in the jail cell together.

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