Page 16 of Her Baby, Her Badge

The woman truly did appear to be injured, but that could all be a facade meant to draw them out. In fact, this could be the killer, someone who hadn’t even been a suspect in the investigation.

“Help me,” Grace heard the woman yell as she neared the house.

“Don’t open the door yet,” Grace instructed Dutton, even though he didn’t look anywhere ready to do that. No doubt because he, too, was concerned this might be some kind of ploy to kill them.

Grace took out her phone to call for both backup and an ambulance. If the woman was truly hurt, then she would need help. And if she was the killer, then Grace wanted at least one of her deputies here to assist with the takedown and the arrest. Also, in case this turned into a full-fledged attack.

They watched as the woman made it to the porch steps. She didn’t look in the window, where she might have spotted Dutton and Grace. Her eyes seemed unfocused, but her attention remained on the door.

She didn’t make it.

The woman stumbled and fell face-first onto the porch. Her head hit hard, loud enough for the sound of the thud to carry into the house, and she didn’t move. She just lay there, sprawled out over the steps.

“Backup and the ambulance are ten minutes out,” Grace reported when she got the text of the update. Considering she lived six miles out of town and on a rural road, that was fast.

But maybe not fast enough.

Grace felt an overwhelming sense of dread as she stood there and saw the blood begin to pool around the woman’s head. “I have to go out there,” she said.

“I’ll go,” Dutton quickly volunteered. “I can carry her inside—”

She was shaking her head before he finished. “And while you’re carrying her, you wouldn’t be able to return fire if someone tries to kill you. There’s a real possibility of that,” she added. “The killer could have drugged the woman and pointed her here toward my house just to get us to open the door.”

In a perfect scenario, Grace would be able to handle this on her own. But this wasn’t perfect. She couldn’t lift the woman by herself. So she either had to wait the fifteen minutes for the ambulance and backup…

Or she had to accept Dutton’s help.

She glanced at the bleeding, unconscious woman again and knew what she had to do. “Please feel free to say no to any part of this rescue plan,” she stated.

“Depends on the plan,” he replied right back. “If it involves putting the baby at risk, then the plan isn’t going to happen.”

Grace figured he’d said “the baby” instead of “you” on purpose, to remind her of just how dangerous this could be. “I can’t make this risk-free,” she argued. She tapped her badge. “But I can’t stand by and not offer someone assistance when she could be out there dying.”

Dutton stared at her. And then he cursed. His groan told her what she already knew. Even without a badge, Dutton would help someone in need, and at the moment, the need was there. If it turned out the woman was the killer, then an arrest could put an end to the danger. No more female cops would die, and she and Dutton could get back to their normal lives.

Well, as normal as things could be for them, anyway.

“We need to do this fast,” Grace said, hoping that by spelling it out, she would figure out a way to make this safer for both of them. “We both stay down and go out on the porch. We’ll check to make sure she isn’t armed. If she is, I disarm her. If she isn’t, you can bring her inside while I cover you.”

She could tell Dutton wasn’t a fan of what she was proposing, but he nodded. “Any chance you have a Kevlar vest around you can use?”

“There’s one in the trunk of the cruiser.” Which meant trying to get it was out of the question since it would mean going outside to retrieve it. It would be faster just to rescue the woman.

Dutton cursed again and met her gaze head-on for a couple of seconds before he headed toward the door. “Stay down, and on the count of three…”

Grace nodded and temporarily disarmed her security system while she went to the door. Dutton didn’t hesitate on doing the countdown. Nor did he wait once he’d reached three. He unlocked the door and threw it open.

The night air rushed in. It was damp and earthy from the storm. But there was also the smell of blood. Grace prayed the woman wasn’t already dead. Even if she was the killer, Grace wanted her alive so she could answer so many questions.

Grace glanced around the yard and the road. No sign of anyone. Of course, that didn’t mean someone wasn’t there, waiting to try to get the best shot possible at Dutton and her.

Together, they rushed onto the porch, and both of them kept watch while Dutton frisked the woman as best he could. “I can’t find a weapon,” he said, scooping her up into his arms.

The woman moaned, the sound of someone in pain. Or perhaps someone pretending to be. But one thing was for certain—the blood was real. So was the injury on her head, probably from where she’d fallen.

Moving the woman was risky. However, staying put was riskier. If the murderer was indeed out there, the woman could be killed.

“In the house,” Dutton insisted, firing a quick glance at Grace.

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