Page 17 of Her Baby, Her Badge

But Grace held her ground and waited so she could continue to cover him until he was inside. Grace’s lungs were aching, but she finally released the breath she’d been holding once she was in the foyer and had locked the door.

“Search her again for weapons,” she instructed once Dutton had laid the woman on the floor. Grace watched him do that while she rearmed the security system.

Dutton patted her down, and then Grace repeated the procedure once she’d put away her phone. Not just a pat-down, but she also checked to see the source of the bleeding. The woman wasn’t armed. And those injuries were very much real. Not just the fresh one on her head, but now that Grace had gotten a closer look, she could see the cuts in the fabric on the front of the woman’s dress.

She’d been stabbed.

Grace handed Dutton her phone. “Check on the status of the ambulance.” Now that her hands were free, she balled up the front of the woman’s dress and used it to apply pressure to the wounds. There were at least two cuts, maybe more. It didn’t appear she was on the verge of bleeding out, but there could be serious or even fatal internal injuries.

Beside her, Dutton called Dispatch, and he’d just gotten through when a crashing sound tore through the house. Breaking glass.

Mercy. The noise caused Grace’s heart to drop to her knees. What had happened? It sounded like a window had been broken, which meant that someone could be trying to break in.

Before Grace could try to pinpoint the location of the sound, the alarm kicked on. Not a warning beep, either. This was a full-blown blaring that drowned out all other sounds.

And then, Grace caught a whiff of something in the air.

A whiff that caused her eyes and throat to burn like fire. She couldn’t breathe, and her instinct was to run. She didn’t. Instead, she somehow managed to take her phone from Dutton and disable the alarm. A necessity to be able to hear someone approaching.

“Pepper spray,” Dutton said, and he began to cough. So did Grace, and the woman on the floor was gasping for air as well.

Yes, this was most likely pepper spray, and while Grace had never been personally exposed to it, she had gone through training on how to deal with it. The spray hadn’t actually come in contact with their skin, but it was obviously airborne, which meant it had likely been tossed or shot through the window.

It was next to impossible for Grace to see with her eyes watering and burning, but she tried to think of what to do. Opening the door would allow in some fresh air. It could also allow the killer easy access.

“The bathroom,” she blurted in between the coughs that were robbing her of every bit of her breath.

The door to that particular room was closed, and while it didn’t have an exterior window, it did have a shower, and right now, she thought that was their best bet in washing the pepper spray from their eyes.

Despite the coughing, Dutton managed to pick up the woman, and they stumbled their way to the bathroom. They got inside as fast as they could and locked the door.

Grace tried to drag in as much of the fresh air as she could while groping toward the shower. She tried not to think of what this might be doing to her baby. Or if the killer was about tobreak down the door and come after them. She just focused on turning on the shower.

Dutton lay the woman on the floor and shoved the bath mat against the bottom of the door to stop the pepper spray from seeping in. He also wet the hand towel in the sink and placed it over the woman’s eyes.

Grace dropped her phone and her gun on the closed toilet lid, where they would hopefully be easy to reach if someone did try to knock down the door, and she stepped into the shower. Dutton didn’t follow her, maybe because he wanted to be able to hold on to his gun. Instead, he ducked his head beneath the running faucet in the sink. Hopefully, they’d be able to get their vision cleared before the killer could come after them.

Well, maybe that was the killer’s plan.

Grace didn’t know if that was it, or if this wounded woman somehow played into things. She hoped she got the chance to find out before any more damage was done.

She kept her eyes closed but held her face up to the spray of water. Within seconds, Grace felt some relief, though her eyes weren’t anywhere near normal just yet. So she stayed under the water, blinking hard, trying to wash away the burning sensations caused by the pepper spray.

Outside, Grace heard the welcome sound of sirens, and she prayed the EMTs and her deputies weren’t walking into a trap. Dutton must have considered the same thing because he came out from beneath the running water long enough to call Dispatch.

“This is Dutton McClennan,” he said. “Alert the responders to the sheriff’s house that there could be an attacker lying in wait.”

Grace immediately had a sickening thought. She had two female deputies, and if one of them was a responder, then she could be the target. This could have all been set up to kill another cop.

She came out of the shower, the water still sliding down her face and the rest of her. She was soaked to the bone, but she took her phone from Dutton and ended the call with the dispatcher, then called Rory, since she knew he was on duty and would no doubt be in the cruiser that was approaching her house.

“What happened?” Rory asked the moment he was on the line, and Grace put the call on speaker so Dutton could hear what was being said.

“An injured woman came to the house, and then someone fired pepper spray through the window,” Grace explained. “Who’s with you?” she quickly asked.

Rory was equally quick with his answer. “Livvy.”

Grace groaned. No. Not this. Not one of her own. “Livvy stays in the cruiser, understand?”

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