Page 46 of Longest Ride

Travis gave her all he had, and he’d had better days in the perfect lover department. Olivia never complained and she seemed happy enough.

Sheriff’s Office. Coyote Creek.

When Dad got to the station, easy to see he’d stopped off at the Inn and screwed around with Olivia. He was a mess, his long hair tangled, his shirt untucked, and he didn’t seem to care.

The dogs barked when the nurse from the Coyote Creek Medical Center came in the front door to change the bandage on Archie Twig’s knee.

I got the keys from the rack in the office to let her into the run and Virge went with me. Dad liked two of us with the nurse when the cell door was open.

Archie was locked in the first cell by the door. I unlocked the cell, held the door open for Mrs. Paderno, and she walked over to the bunk with her medical bag in her hand.

She knelt down on the floor to take the old bandage off and Twig moaned and groaned and did a lot of cursing while she did it.

When the fresh bandage was on Twig’s leg and she was done, Mrs. Paderno packed up her bag and got to her feet.

“Would you help me up, nurse?” asked Twig.

“Of course.” She gave him a hand to stand up and gave him his crutch to lean on.

Watching them out of the corner of my eye while I lit up a smoke, I jumped when Twig wrapped his forearm around her throat and pushed forward using Mrs. Paderno as a hostage.

“Let her go, Twig,” I hollered at him, but he kept coming towards the open door of the cell.

Virgie opened the cell next to Twig’s, ran in and shot himfrom behind, putting a bullet in Archie Twig’s ass. Down he went screaming, and the crutch clattered to the floor.

Nurse Paderno screamed too as she ran past me to the door of the run. I called an ambulance for Twig and locked him in his cell until it arrived.

“What’s going on in here?” Travis came running in with Billy behind him.

“Archie tried to use Nurse Paderno as a hostage,” said Virgie. “I got behind him, Dad.” Virge pointed to the open door of the neighboring cell. “Only had one shot. Couldn’t hit Mrs. Paderno. Shot him in the ass.”

Travis smiled at my brother—his protégé.

“I called an ambulance, Dad. I’ll go out front and watch for them.”

“Nice work, boys.”

Ten minutes later the paramedics ran in the front door, and I unlocked the cell to give them access to Archie Twig with a bullet up his ass.

“Ted, follow the ambulance to the hospital and secure the prisoner,” hollered Travis.

“Copy that, Sheriff.”

“Virge, you’re with me. We’ll question Stacey Croft.”

“Copy.”

“Harlan, take the first shift on Paula Fleming.”

“Yep. Copy that.”

“Billy, catch Molly up on everything she needs from yesterday.”

“Copy, boss.”

Stacey Croft’s Residence. Cut Bank.

“This suspect is yours, son. You got the tag, and you can question her if you want to.”

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