Page 34 of Deputies Under Fire
It was a war zone. Parts of the truck and the cruiser were everywhere. The cab of the truck was still intact, though, thrownyards away from the collision, and she could see the driver, bleeding but still held in place by his seat belt.
He’d need medical attention right away, but Livvy and Bennie would be calling for an ambulance. They could deal with the driver. She had to get to Rory.
“Rory?” she called out, silently cursing when she realized her voice had almost no sound. Not enough breath.
Dodging the debris and hoping she didn’t step on another IED, she made her way across to the other side of the road. Eden was about to make another attempt to call out to him…
But then she saw him.
There was blood on his head. On his arm, too. But he was alive and moving up the slope toward her.
Eden went to him, and she let relief claim every part of her body and soul. She pulled Rory into her arms and held on tight.
Chapter Ten
Rory sat in the back of the cruiser with Eden while Livvy drove them to his family’s ranch. He figured it was going to be a long time before the tension in his muscles eased up. And it was going to be a hell of a lot longer than that before he’d feel comfortable letting Eden out of his sight.
Thankfully, she seemed to feel the same way, and once they’d been checked out at the hospital and done the nightmare of paperwork that came with something like this, she hadn’t put up any argument about going to Dutton’s with him.
Part of that was no doubt because she wanted to see Tyler. So did he. He desperately needed to be with their little boy and make sure for himself that he was okay. Again, Eden had to be of a like mind. But no matter what her reasoning, Rory would be able to keep an eye on both her and their son.
Even though it was already getting dark, there was enough dim light coming from the dash for him to see the fresh bruise on her chin. No stitches this time, but he’d heard the nurse say that Eden had bruises on her right arm and leg. He had some scrapes and bruises as well, but they were blessedly minor for both of them. It could have been much, much worse.
They’d come damn close to dying.
Again.
And once again the killer hadn’t cared squat about their lives or any collateral damage from that IED blast. No one had died this time with this attack, but the driver of that Mack truck, Arlo Jenkins, had serious enough injuries that he’d had to bemedevacked to a hospital in San Antonio. Arlo had simply been trying to do his job and make a delivery to a store in town when he’d driven over that IED.
Livvy pulled to a stop in front of Dutton’s, and Rory spotted two ranch hands in a truck on the other side of the driveway. They were probably armed and ready in case the killer showed up here.
Dutton had taken other precautions, too. There had been two more hands in another truck positioned by the gated entrance, and two others were patrolling the grounds. The external security system was on as well, and while it wouldn’t be impossible for someone to sneak onto the ranch, the sensors and motion-activated cameras would make it a little harder to approach undetected.
Livvy turned toward them, resting her left arm on top of the steering wheel, and she looked back at them through the metal grating that separated the front and back seats. “Damn,” she muttered. “You two look like you lost a fight with a couple of heavyweight champions.”
Close. They’d lost a fight with a killer. A killer who possibly had been long gone even before the cruiser ran over those spike strips. Added to that, they couldn’t rule out any of their suspects as being responsible.
Livvy added a sigh. “Get some rest,” she said as he and Eden got out of the cruiser.
Muscles that he didn’t even know he had protested the simple movement. Not a searing pain, thank goodness, but both of them would likely have to deal with the soreness for a while. The impact of hitting those spike strips had been the equivalent of a collision. And then there’d been the falls down the slopes.
Yeah, there’d be lots and lots of discomfort.
Muttering their thanks and goodbyes to Livvy, they walked up the porch steps to Dutton’s massive house, where seeminglyevery light was on. Dutton let them in, and the moment they stepped inside, they saw Grace standing to the side.
With Tyler.
Since it was past his bedtime, his son had sleepy eyes, but Rory was glad Grace and Dutton had kept him awake.
“Mama, Dada,” Tyler babbled, lunging for Rory, who caught him and immediately adjusted his position so he could get hugs from both parents.
Just that hug eased a whole lot of the aches in his body. Relieved plenty of stress, too. Things had been touch and go during the attack, but Eden and he had had a lot to fight for. This. Their precious little boy.
“I’ve been reading the reports of what happened,” Grace said. “But we can get into all of that in the morning. We can get into a lot of things tomorrow,” she added. “There’s lasagna in the fridge if you haven’t had dinner.”
“Thanks, but Livvy had some burgers brought from the diner while we were writing up our statements,” Rory explained.
Not that Eden had eaten much. And he hadn’t pressed her on that, either, since he figured her stomach was just as unsettled as his was.
