Page 67 of Beehives and Broken Heroes

And that was it. The fight was over.

Deputy Danny ran in, his gun still aloft, and kicked Mr. Scowl’s gun away from the men.

Andy scooped it up. “Got it.”

Brandon backed up, panting hard. Deputy Danny rushed over to the unconscious man. Andy got there a second later and helped Danny turn him over and handcuff him.

Danny grabbed the police radio and called it in. “Sheriff, where are you? I’ve just apprehended Tobias Grant.”

The sheriff’s voice crackled through the line. “Tobias? The man Brandon Carroll warned us about?”

“That’s the one.”

“What is with tonight?” Sheriff Chris asked. “We broke up a fight backstage and arrested … ahem . . . someone.” In a small town, you had to be discreet. “I’ll have Deputy Lewis take our guy in and come find you. Where are you?”

Danny gave him the location.

“All right, don’t let anyone leave,” Chris said. “We’ll need to question them.”

“Copy that,” Danny said. “Oh, and Swayzie, Lucky, Wyatt, and Judd roped a guy and are taking him to the station with Deputy Morrison.”

“Of course they did,” Chris said.

From somewhere behind her, one of the Slade twins called out, “Firecracker, how many times you gonna get kidnapped?”

She turned to see Nash laughing.

Porter stuck out his chest. “If you go one more, I win the pot. It’s up to a hundred bucks now.”

She swiped a hand at them, and they burst out laughing again. She turned back and sucked in a breath, and then another. She hadn’t even realized that she was digging her fingers into Jo’s arm or that Jo was doing the same to her. He was okay. Brandon was okay. Still standing over Tobias. But dadgummit! He might have died running in like that at a man holding a gun. Oooh, she was mad at him. She was going to wipe the floor with his reckless behind.

“You could’ve died,” Jo whispered.

Allie glanced at her sister—her face flush with terror.

“He might’ve shot you,” Jo said. She wrapped an arm around Allie, and they huddled together.

Allie blinked. She was right: she could’ve died. He’d been holding a freakin’ gun to her head. Well, crap, she’d almost just died! She started to shake. Then Brandon, still breathing hard, turned his gaze on her and Jo, looking them over.

A moment later, he locked gazes with her, turned, and marched toward her with such determination that she almost fell back. Jo did fall back. But Allie wasn’t having it. She was going to him. Not waiting for him to come to her! Without thinking, she went into a dead sprint. He opened his arms for her, and she jumped into them, wrapping her legs around his waist.

His hold on her bordered on painful, but she didn’t care as she dropped her lips to his and kissed the life out of him over a several day-old beard. Just like she’d desperately wanted to do back in February. She spoke between kisses. “I’m so sorry . . . I got mad . . . I didn’t know.”

“Sunshine.” He breathed her name out against her lips like it had come from somewhere deep inside his soul, and at that moment, she could hear everything he felt for her in those two syllables. It was how it always sounded when he said it, only tinged with his fear. How had she missed it? How had she missed that he’d been declaring his feelings every time he’d called her that?

After a minute, they came up for air, and he set her down and looked her over. “Are you hurt?” His gaze stopped on her foot. She couldn’t imagine why. “Why didn’t you call 911?”

She blinked. “I didn’t think of 911. I only thought of you.”

His eyes went wide in surprise. He knew what she was saying—that she trusted him. She just wished it hadn’t taken all this for her to figure that out.

She grinned at him and shook her head, then saw Titan. “I can’t believe you rode Titan here.”

He nodded. “I’ve been working with him. He’s a good horse.”

Warmth spread through her. Of course Brandon would be the one man that would be able to get her dad’s stubborn horse riding again. That couldn’t be any more perfect.

“I swear, woman.” He dropped his head, focusing hard on something on the pavement, trying to compose himself. “Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”

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