Page 80 of Sheltered by the Lawman

Chapter 27

SALLY WASN’T SURE what woke her, but she fluttered her eyes open to the bright sunshine coming through the window. She had fallen asleep on the bath rug. Burke still hadn’t unlocked the door for her.

Sitting up, she was curious what time it was when she heard muffled sounds coming from outside of the room. Getting up, she crossed the room and pressed her ear to the door, listening. Voices! Her heart sped up. Could it be possible that Cull had shown up?

Lifting her hand, ready to pound hard on the wood, she heard yelling, followed by two loud cracks that sounded like gunfire.

She jerked back from the door and covered her mouth, shock barreling through her as fear trickled down her spine. She took three steps back, hitting the edge of the sink and staying focused on the door. Thudding of footsteps on the hardwood sounded just outside the door, then the jiggling of the knob.

Crouching down by the wall, she tucked her knees to her chest. Everything became eerily quiet.

Bang!

The door slammed hard against the wall.

“Who are you?” she sputtered. “Where is Burke?”

****

Cull heard the ringing of his phone. He squinted against the bright light and glanced at the clock. Way too early to be up when he’d drank himself into oblivion last night. Clumsily, he grabbed his phone from the nightstand and clicked ‘talk’, “This better be good,” he mumbled.

“Whitlock here. Sounds like you had a rough one.”

“You could say that again.” Cull sat up and a pain shot through his temples. Why the hell had he done this to himself?

“I hate to bother you so early, but I have some news I thought you might like to be aware of. It’s concerning the woman you spoke to me about. Sally Holloway. You wanted me to let you know if I heard any news, and I have.”

At the mention of her, Cull suddenly became very alert. “What is it?”

“I had an elderly man come into the precinct last night wanting to report a missing person. He owns some flower shop here in Cheyenne and was worried about his friend, Sally. He said he hadn’t seen her in a while and that wasn’t like her.”

Cull’s heart skipped a beat. “Okay?”

“He said her ex is an asshole and she’d been in hiding.”

Stomping over to the dresser, Cull pulled out a pair of jeans. “An ex you say?” His throat tightened.

“Yeah, the owner couldn’t remember the name, but he did say that the boyfriend had a violent history with Ms. Holloway. She’d left him six months ago.”

Not waiting for the conversation to finish, Cull clicked off and was calling Sally on the number she’d called him from yesterday. When he didn’t get an answer, he tossed his phone onto the bed, grabbing a T-shirt from his closet. He had it on, as well as his boots, in record time.

He knew exactly where he was headed.

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