Page 6 of Break My Fall

“Please.” Meredith pointed a finger at his chest. “You’ve been trying to scare me off for months. This is the moment you’ve been waiting for. Why aren’t you jumping at it?”

“Because this is different.”

“How?”

Gray walked toward his car. “Not now.” He reached inside and used the radio. “Tell Donovan I need him here with a gas can. But it needs to be diesel. Yeah. At least ten gallons.” He rattled off a few more things that he wanted and signed off.

She had walked to his door. “Thank you. My phone doesn’t have a signal.”

“Want me to get a message to Mo?”

“No.” She dropped her head in defeat. “But yes. They’ll freak out if they can’t reach me. Although by now someone in my family has probably already started a phone tree.”

“How would they even know?”

“Police scanner. Someone will have heard it and called my parents, or Papa, or Mo directly. Poor Donovan. He’ll probably be leading a caravan of Quinns here.”

“Let them come.” Gray didn’t seem to think this was as serious a situation as he should have.

“I don’t need to be rescued.”

Gray quirked an eyebrow.

“Yes. Ididneed to be rescued. But you’ve already rescued me admirably, so now I’m fine. Perfectly safe. I don’t need a parade.”

Gray studied her for a moment, then returned to the radio, where he made it clear to Donovan that he should risk the wrath of his soon-to-be in-laws and make sure most of them stayed home. “Mo can come if he wants. Or Douglas. But we don’t need the whole family.”

Donovan said he understood and he’d do his best.

“Happy now?” Gray asked Meredith.

“Yes. Thank you.”

Gray went to the back of his car. “I’m going to see if I can wrap that up enough to at least slow the leak until we can get you to a service station.”

For the next ten minutes, Meredith sat on the ground beside Gray’s legs and handed him the various items he requested. When he shimmied back out, she went to the front of her van and retrieved her stash of baby wipes. She returned after he’d gotten to his feet.

He wiped his hands clean and glared at her van. “Meredith?”

“Gray?”

“I know I don’t have any authority, any right, any ... well, anything to ask this. But I’m going to ask it anyway. Please don’t leave the county by yourself. Not just for clinics. For any reason. I—” He ran a hand over his close-cropped head. “There’s something going on and you’re involved. I don’t know how. I don’t know why. I don’t know what the end game is. I don’t want to scare you or make you jump at shadows. But I need you to be careful.”

He took her hands in his and squeezed. “Please. I’m ... I’m begging you. Please.”

She stared at their hands and tried to keep her face from showing her shock. He’d never touched her before. Never. His hands were so big, so warm, so firm and sure. But there was so much pain in his gaze. So much fear. For her. She wanted to explore the emotion. Wanted to understand where his intensity came from.Wanted to have permission to slide her hand into his anytime she wanted.

But now wasn’t the time or place. So she nodded and said the only thing she could that would alleviate some of Gray’s distress. “I promise.”

Donovan arrived with Mo’s Jeep close behind him. Mo hopped out and ran to Meredith. “What on earth have you gotten yourself into now, baby sister?”

Anyone hearing just the words would have thought Mo rough and angry. But Gray could see the emotion, feel the tension, and more importantly, watch the way this often-taciturn man grabbed his sister in his arms and squeezed her close.

The sight rubbed at the place in his heart that would never heal. He envied them this moment in a way neither of them knew. He left them to their conversation and walked over to Donovan.

“She was at Mrs. Frost’s house for approximately two hours.” While Mrs. Frost didn’t live in their jurisdiction, she did drive into Gossamer Falls. And Meredith was right. The woman was a menace behind the wheel. All of Gray’s officers knew Mrs. Frost. “She had a toothache, so Meredith came up here and took care of it rather than turn Mrs. Frost loose on the unsuspecting citizens.”

Donovan chuckled. “Wise woman.”

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