Page 83 of The Last Love Song
“Are you okay?” Heather pulled her eyes off Zach to check over Megan, scared for what might have happened before she arrived. Looking for signs of trauma, she realized the girl’s wrists were taped together behind her back. “Did they hurt you?”
She tore at the tape and freed Megan’s wrists.
“No.” Her lips trembled. “There was no time. They grabbed me just a minute before they got you. I thought I was supposed to meet you here. I got a message?—”
Clapping erupted. A group of diners had gathered to watch Zach and Sam save the day. Zach’s Porsche sat in the middle of the action, a red-and-blue light flashing in the windshield.
Jeremy wore handcuffs now, his face pressed against the gravel parking lot and the coffee Heather had spilled. Sam ordered the appreciative crowd to stand back, but a short, curvy woman with pink-and-blue-plaid nursing scrubs ignored him and ran for the van.
“I’m a nurse,” she called, waving a stethoscope from her pocket as if it was an ID badge. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” Heather insisted, and gestured to Megan. “She might be in shock, though.”
Then again, maybe she was, too.
Everything around her seemed to move in slow motion. She should be helping somehow. Calling Megan’s father. Reassuring the girl. But she was too stunned and shook up. Where was Sylvia? Was her friend okay?
But no sooner had she remembered her friend than she spotted Zachary Chance sprinting her way. His shirt was torn. His lip cut. Every knuckle on his right hand torn open and bleeding.
He was the most welcome sight ever, and it felt like decades since she’d seen him, instead of hours. She wanted to throw herself at him and weep with gratitude—for this and about a thousand other things.
“Did they hurt you?” Zach’s eyes missed nothing as he slowed his step and tipped up her face to examine her. “Are you okay?”
“Never better.” The words were true. Her heart was so full it nearly burst her chest open wide.
His relief was palpable. Wiry tension hissed out of him with a deep sigh, and he pulled her into his arms for a hug that was way too fast. Maybe it was because of the crowd around them that he set her aside awkwardly.
“How on earth did you know where to find me?” She couldn’t imagine what would have tipped them off to her whereabouts, much less that she was in trouble. “I was supposed to meet my friend Sylvia. I’m worried they hurt her.”
“Sylvia’s fine. I spoke with her on the phone on the way here. She never contacted you. We’ll get ahold of the Covingtons’ computers and we’ll find evidence they hacked Sylvia’s online credentials to impersonate her.”
Heather tried to follow what he was saying, but she was still so rattled. They stayed close to Megan in the back of the van while the timely Good Samaritan checked her over and spoke to her quietly. Heather wasn’t letting the girl out of her sight until she was back with her father.
Zach stroked her hair. “We called for helicopter support when we started putting some pieces together. But Harlan Brady has a CB radio on the farm, and when he heard the call, he fired up the crop duster and started searching on his own.”
Heather shook her head. “I believe it. There are some pretty amazing people in Heartache. And it’s going to be better now that we’ve weeded out these two.” She frowned, her brain fuzzy. “I don’t understand why Jeremy Covington would target me.”
“Opportunity, maybe?” Zach shrugged. “Sam will investigate. We’ll learn more now that we have enough reason to gather evidence from the quarry and his house. But we’re guessing he’s been increasing his activity over the years and getting sloppier at it.”
“Hey.” Megan scooted closer to them, a bit less shaky. Her voice was steadier as she interjected.
“How are you doing?” Heather asked. “Hanging in there?” She scrubbed a comforting hand along the girl’s arm.
“I should have known it wasn’t Sylvia.” Megan angled her shoulders around the nurse who was wrapping a second blanket about the teen’s shoulders. “She hardly ever plays mutant zombies, but when a chat window opened after the game, she—well, someone—invited me here. She said we were going to jam for a little while and give you a proper send-off for the audition.”
“I would have liked that,” Heather admitted, shuddering with how close they’d come to…so much worse. “But from now on, I’m arranging all meetings with human beings I speak to.”
Another police siren wailed in the distance, growing louder as it neared them.
“Excuse me, sir,” the nurse said. “I can clean up your fingers for you so they don’t get infected.”
“I’ll wrap them at home, but thank you.” He pointed to Heather. “Does she look okay to you?”
The nurse studied her, eyes lingering on Heather’s forehead. “Looks like she might have a bruise. But other than that, I’d say she’s in good shape. I think the girl is okay, too. Lucky for them you were here.” She smiled at Zach.
Heather grinned at the flirtatious tone in the woman’s voice. Who wouldn’t want Heartache’s mayor?
“Well, thank you.” He nodded politely at the woman and then slid an arm around Heather. “I’d better get her home to her mother. I promised I’d return her in one piece.”
