Page 95 of Deadly Attraction
Chapter Twenty
The coast was clear.
Emma flew out the kitchen door, the dogs following.
“Mitch!” she yelled as she ran past the juvenile detention van and out toward the driveway. Mitch was cinching a plastic tie around the man’s wrists. Her rifle lay nearby.
As she got close, Mitch stood and faced her. He was a total mess—blood, rain, dirt and ash. It didn’t matter. She threw herself into his arms.
“You did it,” she said, hugging him tight with her bandaged hands. She’d gotten most of the glass fragments out of her palms and wrapped them in gauze.
The dogs were happy to see him, too, Salt and Pepper jumping on him and dancing around. Lady sat in a mud puddle, panting. “You were supposed to wait in the bathroom until I came and got you.”
He smelled like smoke and rain andMitch. “You saved me and the horses,” she said, nuzzling her face into his wet neck and ignoring his chastising. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”
His body was solid and he held her close. Close enough she could hear the wheeze coming from his lungs.
“You need a doctor,” she said.
One hand stroked her back. “I have you.”
Yes, he did. “A medical doctor, Mitch. You have smoke inhalation symptoms.”
She tried to break their embrace and step back so she could look him over properly, but he didn’t let her. He just kept hanging on to her and she didn’t resist. It felt too damn good to be inside his arms, to know he was alive.
Will appeared in her peripheral vision, carrying a blowtorch and some large, insulated gloves. Welder’s protective goggles rested on his forehead. He’d wrapped his injured arm with burlap.
He was grinning.
Grinning? Emma shook her head as she and Mitch disengaged. “What are you doing with that?” she asked, pointing to the contraption in his hands.
“Cutting down the gate,” he said, his eyes like a kid’s on Christmas morning.
“That should do it,” Mitch agreed. He wiped his forehead on one sleeve. “Emma, get back inside until my teammates arrive. They’ll be here any minute and then we can get you to the safe house. Grab your bag, and yes, the dogs can go too. I’ll snag their food once I’m done here.”
He needled the unconscious man with a boot toe. “Once this asshole regains consciousness, I’ll interrogate him to find out what he knows about Goodsman’s whereabouts.”
The man’s skin under his beard had a grayish tint. Blood from his wound soaked the ground. “Are you sure he’s alive?” she asked.
Mitch let go of a sigh that suggested he wished the man weren’t. “I hit him in the shoulder blade and he hit his head when he fell. Probably has a concussion, but he’s alive.”
Emma wiped wet hair from her face. “Will, are you okay?”
“Actually,” he said, “I’m better than okay, Doc. This is the most alive I’ve felt since I set foot on American soil again.”
“Then this must be why you made it back home.” She saw understanding light in his eyes. “You’re good to have around, I’d say.”
“Ditto,” Mitch agreed and Will’s neck flushed red.
“What about your arm?” Emma asked her hired man.
“This?” He waved the bandaged arm around. “This is nothing. Barely grazed me.”
She’d never seen Will smile this much. The psychologist in her wondered if his being so happy at getting shot and taking down a couple of criminals was a good thing, but the other part of her felt pretty darn good herself, so she let it go. “What should we do about the horses?”
The equines in question were slowly making their way toward the pasture. Hope had caught up with her mother and Second Chance was head-butting the foal in a happy hello. None of them seemed too upset anymore about their barn home, now smoldering in the rain.
“I’ll get them inside the fenced area in a minute,” Will said, flipping down the welding goggles and heading for the gate. “Tomorrow, I’ll draw up plans for a new barn. We needed one anyway.”
