Page 88 of Deputy Brand Gets Her Man
“Get off!” She shoved at him when she could get her breath again.
He moved, rolling onto his back.
Willow sprang upright and climbed back up onto the vehicle, hurting all over. The flame from the engine was bigger now. She heard sirens, but she didn’t think they were close enough to make it. There was no time to make a decision, no time to think it over. She slid headfirst through the open window, hooking one leg over truck roof to keep from falling.
Tuck was unconscious. He had a cut on his head that was bleeding. His seatbelt was not fastened. There was a loud pop, and she looked left, to see the flames in the engine burning frighteningly high. She grabbed Tuck’s shirt, and pulled him toward her enough get a grip on him, then pulled him further until she could hook both her arms under his, and then she pulled some more. She barely moved him at all. The flames burned higher, and she could feel their heat now.
“Hang onto him! I’ve got you!”
That was Jeremiah’s voice!
Then his arms were closing around her legs and pulling her out. She linked her fingers behind Tuck’s back, under his arms, and he came with her. Jeremiah got hold of her waist and pulled even faster, as she in turn, pulled Tuck.
The three of them tumbled to the ground together and she looked up to see Uncle Garrett putting handcuffs on Tank farther away, and EMTs running toward them with a stretcher.
She scrambled to her feet and said, “Come on, get him, get him, hurry.”
Jeremiah already had Tuck over his shoulder. He put an arm around her, and they ran back across the meadow toward the road. When the truck exploded, the blast knocked them both face-first to the ground.
Chapter Fifteen
Everyone came running toward them after debris stopped raining down from the explosion. EMTs loaded Tuck onto a stretcher and double-timed it back to the road, while Willow was still pushing herself up off the ground.
Jeremiah, already upright, reached down a hand. She looked up at him and ignored it, getting up on her own, brushing off her jeans.
“Thanks. I’d have got him out, though.” She started for the road and the others, who’d slowed their approach now that they saw them both upright and walking toward them.
“Willow—”
“I’m workin’.”
“You’re two days out of the hospital yourself.”
“And one day out of bein’ called a liar and dumped. I think I’m doin’ pretty well, all things considered.”
“I didn’t call you a liar.”
“You didn’t believe me, either. Which means you don’t trust me.”
“And you trust me? You can’t see past my time served.”
“That’s not true!” She whirled as she said it, then stood there facing him. She was out of breath and her heart was pounding. Their backdrop was the Barker boys’ burning yellow truck.
He said, “I’m sorry.”
And she said, “I’m workin’.” Then pivoted and stomped the rest of the way to the road.
Now, Willow was sitting beside Tuck Barker’s hospital bed waiting for him to come to. They’d crashed in Quinn County, so she didn’t need to worry about stepping on some other department’s sensitive boots. The docs told her there was no reason Tuck shouldn’t come around soon.
Uncle Garrett was questioning his brothers, of course, but he wasn’t getting anywhere. She hadn’t read them their rights before they’d blurted their confessions, so the department was gonna need fresh ones.
As she sat there beside the bed, she wondered how the hell Jeremiah had shown up when he had, and why he’d risked his life just because she was risking hers. She was the law. It was her job. It wasn’t his.
Tuck had leads taped to his head and his chest. They’d shaved parts of both. There were monitors showing his brainwaves, heart rate, temperature and a bunch of stuff she didn’t know about. The beeps were overlapping and incessant.
There was a tap on the door. She turned to see Jeremiah standing there. He said, “He talking yet?”
“Still unconscious. So I’m still workin’.”
