Alli slept soundly in my arms, the weight of her comforting despite the fact that my arm had gone to sleep a while ago. My side ached, my back hurt, and my body was sore as all hell. Carson came in silently and injected something into my IV that took the edge off the pain. She was an angel, that woman.

I found myself drifting in and out, but when I was awake, my thoughts kept worrying at the knot that was this situation I found myself in. Willis had stabbed me. Wrapping my thoughts around that was difficult enough. Realizing I was going to have to find a way to take down a comrade, a man I once considered a friend, was more difficult.

Despite the corruption that had invaded the sheriff’s office the last three years of my career there, I still believed in what we’d been doing, still believed in the purity of the law. And I still believed in the brotherhood of the job.

It was easy to take down Sheriff Donally. His crimes were an affront to all I believed in. It was different with Willis.

He’d stood by me at my wife’s funeral. I was at the hospital the night his son was born.

He was my brother.

He’d pulled a knife on Alli. That was unforgiveable.

I ran my hand down Alli’s arm, caressing her bare skin. She shivered in her sleep, slipping tighter against my shoulder.

“You okay?” she mumbled.

“Fine.”

“Do you want me to move?”

“Never.”

She grunted. “You might regret that someday.”

“I doubt it.”

She pulled back, her hair a little mussed, her eyes dark with sleep. “Gotta pee,” she said as she climbed off the bed and disappeared into the bathroom tucked into the far wall. I watched her go, admiring the movement of her body, particularly her tiny ass. She had the body of a woman half her age. It made me a little more conscious of the slight paunch I was beginning to develop around my middle-aged belly.

“Crispin?”

The door opened, and Carson popped her head in, a slight smile on her lips. When she saw that Alli was gone from the bed, she let herself in, coming over to check the IV line. The bag was nearly empty, so she went to the heavy duffel she’d left on a chair and took out a new one, moving around with grace and purpose as she changed it out, adding the smaller bag that contained the antibiotic.

“Where do you get all these supplies?”

“Jack buys supplies for the bunker from a medical supply place across town.”

“You can buy that stuff?”

“Most of it, with the right paperwork.”

“You coming back to Ellaville with us? We could probably use your expertise out there, too.”

“Expecting trouble?”

I shrugged. “It followed me here, didn’t it?”

“True enough.” She sat on the edge of the bed, her fingers once again palpating the spot on my side where she suspected I’d broken a rib. “It’s a dangerous business you guys are in.”

“That includes your man.”

“It does.” Her eyes cut to my face briefly. “He saved my life, so I guess it comes in handy.”

“But it worries you.”

“Every day. It’s kind of like being married to a cop or a soldier. Which is funny because he was a soldier before this.”

“These Stones are pretty impressive people.”

“They are. Generous, but scary if you cross them.”

I nodded. “Remind me to never get on their bad side.”

A slow smile touched her lips. “They saved me from a bad situation. All of them. And they allowed me to reconnect with a part of my family I’d never known. I owe them more than I could ever repay.”

“It looks to me like you’re working on it, though. Free medical services.”

“It comes in handy when one of them is on a case and can’t go to a hospital for some reason.” Another smile. “Happens more than you’d think.”

She stood and removed the gloves she’d been wearing. “I don’t think the rib is broken. You’re a lucky guy.”

“I’ve heard that a lot lately.”

“How bad is it, really?” Alli asked from across the room, where she’d been watching us from the bathroom door.

Carson’s eyes moved clinically over me. “He’s got a bruised rib, multiple contusions. His knuckles are pretty chewed up, but none of the cuts are particularly deep. The biggest concern is the stab wound on his back, but as long as he doesn’t tear his stitches again, he should heal in a couple of weeks.”

Alli’s eyes jumped to mine. “We’ll make sure he doesn’t.”

Carson touched my shoulder lightly. “How’s the pain?”

“Bearable.”

“If it gets worse, let me know. I’ll give you something for it.”

She nodded to Alli, then made her way out of the room.

“Stabbed?”

I’d known this was coming. I sat up a little straighter against the wall of pillows and patted the mattress beside me. Once she was settled, I brushed the back of my fingers over her face and told her everything that had happened, beginning with the notes on my truck and ending with the fight behind the restaurant.

She was quiet for a long moment once I was done.

“You’re going to make him pay for this, right?”

“Yes.”

“Good.”

There were clouds in her eyes, the kind that spoke of stormy emotions. I took her hand and held it close to me. “What?”

“He did this at my girl’s high school graduation.”

“He did.”

“And then he sat in a restaurant close enough to my kids to hurt them.”

“Yes.”

She nodded slowly. “This same cop who was supposedly helping Jack protect my shop? The same guy who was supposed to be investigating Harry’s accident? He was threatening me in front of my kids?”

“Yeah.”

“I’d like to have a few minutes alone with him.” Her hands tightened into fists. “I’d kill him myself.”

There was real fire in those words. It caused a rush of pride to blow through me. I leaned close and kissed her.

“You’re my kind of girl!”

She laughed despite everything, so caught off guard by my words. But then she grew serious again, her fingers touching the edges of my bandage again. “He could have killed you,” she said softly. “And I didn’t even notice.”

“I was standing out of your line of sight.”

“But I didn’t even notice you were gone until we got to the party at Remy’s! I should have noticed.”

“It’s all right.”

“You could have been lying dead somewhere, and I didn’t know.”

“But I wasn’t.” I touched her face, drawing her into me. We kissed softly. “I wasn’t.”

“I’m not a good person, Crispin. You deserve someone who would have noticed.”

“And if you had? What would you have done?”

“I don’t know. I would have come looking for you.”

“Putting yourself in danger, too? No, thank you.”

She sighed. “I don’t like this. It was bad enough when all they were doing was destroying my merchandise. But now? This? People could die!”

“People have already died.”

She grunted. “Poor Harry. It’s not right, what these people are doing.”

“It’s not. And we’re going to stop them.”

“But how many times will you get stabbed in the process?”

“Just the one,” a voice said from the doorway.

We both glanced that way. Alli bounced off the bed and jumped into his arms, making him laugh as he swung her around.

It was Jack Stone.

“I wanted to be home in time for Tommy’s graduation, but we ran into some bad weather in Europe.”

“You’re here now,” she said, stepping back and shooting me a cautious look like she thought I might be upset about her reaction to his arrival. But, hell, I was as glad to see him as she was. Finally, a familiar face.

“Brent’s been keeping me up to date on what’s happening,” he said, pulling a chair up to the side of the bed. He watched as Alli settled on the bed beside me again, resting her hand on my bare chest. “It’s really John Willis?”

“It is.”

Jack shook his head. “I knew he’d been lying to me all that time, but I didn’t think he was capable of this sort of thing.”

“His wife’s in the church. I guess he feels he’s being loyal to her and her people.”

Jack nodded as Alli scoffed.

“Bullshit,” she whispered under her breath.

Jack smiled, his eyes moving over her with affection. “I missed you, Alli.”

She tilted her head slightly. “What are we going to do about this mess?”

“We’re going to let this man get healed up first,” he said, gesturing to my many bruises. “And then we’re going to lure John Willis into a trap. Once he’s caught, maybe he’ll give us a few answers about what’s going on with the Guardians.”

“What does that mean?”

Jack tilted his head slightly. “They have a new leader.”

“No shit!”

Alli crossed her arms over her chest. “Who?”

Jack shrugged. “Some guy from up in Colorado. Came down on the first of the month. There’s rumors that he’s pulling the old group back together, recruiting new members during church services, telling everyone that me and my people”—again, he gestured toward me—“are the devil incarnate, and it’s their sworn mission on earth to rid their righteous city of us.”

Alli shook her head, the anger coming off of her in waves. I laid my hand on her thigh with the intention of calming her, but it only seemed to make her angrier. Maybe because the movement of my arm exposed more of the bandage on my side.

“They haven’t done anything yet,” Jack said. “But they’re going to be trouble at some point. We need to be prepared.”

“I’m getting tired of this crap,” Alli announced. “We have a right to live our lives quietly and in peace. I’ve lived side by side with those church people for twenty years! Why do they feel the need to do this now?”

Jack shrugged. “Maybe it’s the changing political climate in the country. Or the way the moon sits in the sky? Who can predict the way people will behave?”

She just continued to shake her head.

“I’m up for whatever you need, Jack.”

He touched my arm, compassion written all over his face. “You stay here and rest for a while. Let those stitches heal. And then we’ll decide what our next move should be.” He stood and headed for the door. “We’re having a party at my place this weekend, kind of a wedding reception slash graduation celebration. If you’re up for it, I’d like you both to be there.”

“Yeah, I never told you congratulations,” Alli said, a strange note to her tone. “You and Ruth, huh? I knew she had you wrapped around her finger, but I didn’t see this coming.”

“Yeah, me neither.” He laughed a little, looking down at the gold ring on his finger. “Funny thing, love. It grabs you when you least expect it.”

“It does,” I agreed, my eyes moving from him to Alli. She was watching him, though, her expression thoughtful. It made me wonder if I had something to worry about. But then Jack left, and she curled up against me, her head on my shoulder.

“He’s a strange guy,” she said softly. “I thought I understood who he was, that he was a lot like me. But maybe I was wrong.”

“Or maybe neither of you was who you thought you were.”

She turned her head, her green eyes sparkling like jewels in the dim light. “You might be right about that,” she said softly.