Chapter 12
Penny slumped against the poor man she’d been propped on. She’d been awake since the vehicle had stopped moving. When she’d been hauled out unceremoniously, packed like a two-year-old and taken across green grass, she had deliberately pretended to be unconscious. She needed every opportunity she could find to get free.
They were in something like a park. She could hear voices, but, for the most part, the area was silent. When she was propped up on the bench, leaning against somebody, she couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on.
But any change was good as far as she was concerned, and anybody else in the world, hopefully, would be better than the assholes who had thrown her into the back of the truck and kept hitting her head. She didn’t remember getting transferred from a truck to a car. Her head even now was pounding. She tried hard to stop her face from scrunching up in pain or gasping.
It was important for them to think she was unconscious. The element of surprise was the only benefit she had right now. Voices rolled around her. The man she’d been propped against was angry, talking about her condition, worried that maybe she was dead. But when a gun was prodded into her waist, she realized her situation was still no better.
A briefcase and money, as per the discussion going on around her, was handed over. These were hard voices, ugly talk she had trouble discerning.
And then the man beside her held up his hand and said, “Go. Take your money. Just go.”
The men snorted, turned and walked away. Peering through her lashes, she was shocked as one of the men turned, raising his gun and pointing it at the man beside her. She froze in a panic.
When the gunman’s head exploded, and his body crumpled to the ground, she gasped in shock, struggling to sit back up again. The man beside her reached around and held her in place.
“Don’t move,” he said. “One gunman took off with the briefcase.”
But the man who’d been ready to shoot them was down, dead on the ground. There were shouts in the area, screams and yells as everyone chased after the man with the money. She looked up. “Who are you?”
“I’m a police officer,” he said quietly, giving her a wry smile. “Almost a dead one apparently.”
“Two of those assholes took me out of my car and hit me over the head. I woke up in a basement. I escaped, but I couldn’t find any way to get help, and they caught me again, threw me in the back of a pickup, slammed my head down so hard I lost track of everything until I just woke up in the parking lot a few minutes ago.”
“No need to worry,” he said with a smile. “We’ve all been fighting to get a hold of you.”
She sighed. “I never even heard what happened to Nina.”
Helping her stand, he said, “George is back in jail, and Nina is fine. Well, not fine exactly,” he corrected. “She’s back in the hospital.”
Penny stared up at him in a haze. Now that she was on her feet, the world spun around her. She sat back down abruptly. “I don’t think I can stand, much less walk.”
He nodded. “We’ll just sit here until help comes.”
She shook her head, then cried out. She gasped several times, waiting for the booming agony in her head to calm down. “Are we safe here?”
He frowned and looked around. “I presume everybody is after the other gunman. As long as they keep him away from us, we’re as safe as we can be.”
“I don’t know about that. There was somebody else in the car.” She looked up to see Tanner walking toward her. But no sign of Warrick. “Is it safe?” she asked.
Tanner nodded. “We still haven’t caught the two men trying to get away with the money, but both vehicles have been disabled.”
She wasn’t exactly sure what he meant and needed it spelled out. “Did you kill them?”
The cop beside her stiffened.
Tanner chuckled. “I don’t need to kill anyone these days. I just knocked him out,” he said carelessly. “We needed the numbers back down for our benefit.”
She asked, “Warrick?”
“He’s after the gunman. We figured he’s one of the two assholes who kidnapped you. Warrick is planning on getting to him, making him pay for what he did to you.”
She thought about that. “I hope he gets him too.”
Tanner’s grin widened. “Look how bloodthirsty you can be.”
“They hurt me,” she said plaintively. “They didn’t need to do that.”
“No, they certainly didn’t.” Tanner nodded solemnly. He crouched in front of her, holding up two fingers. “Tell me how many fingers I’m holding up.”
She glared at him. “Two.”
He moved his hand around, making her track his fingers so he could see if she had a concussion.
“I don’t know what I have,” she said, “but I think I’ll need stitches. My head is killing me.”
“We’ll get an ambulance to you,” the officer said.
She slumped against the bench. “God, I hope they get him. I want this over with.”
“Nina is in the hospital, getting looked after. Maybe we can get you in the same room with her.”
“Will she be okay?” She looked up, searching Tanner’s face. “How did she end up hurt again?”
As she listened to Tanner explain what he knew, she raised her hand to her throat. “It’s scary to think they’d both been inside the house the whole time we were there. He could have killed us anytime.”
“Absolutely. But you were supposed to be safe in the car.”
“And I thought I was. I was sitting in the front seat, looking at all the cops at Nina’s house, when somebody opened the door, slammed me in the head.”
“Did you feel them doing that?”
“I don’t remember. I just went numb.”
“How did they get the vehicle door open?” Tanner asked in exasperation. “You were supposed to have locked it.”
She looked at him and scrunched up her face. “All the cops had arrived, so I figured I was safe. It was hot in the car. I didn’t even think about it. I had the window open to watch.”
Both men stared at her. Tanner palmed his face, then dropped his hands and said, “You should come up with a better excuse before Warrick finds out what you did.” He just laughed.
She frowned. “He won’t yell at me, will he? Because he’ll just make my head hurt more.”
“He won’t deliberately hurt you. But you’re due for a good telling off for not following orders.”
She shot him a look. “He better not. He’s supposed to be nice to me.”
“Why is that?” Tanner asked, barely holding in his laughter.
She glared at him. “Are you laughing at me?”
He shook his head. “Of course not.”
She sniffed. “Of course you are. It’s either laughing at me or prodding my temper. That’s what the two of you do.”
“No, that’s Warrick. I laugh at both of you. As for Warrick, he doesn’t have much of a temper to prick. So no point in trying there. Unless it has to do with filing medical forms.”
She nodded painfully. “It’s only me with the temper. And he does like to make me blow.”
“Only because he loves you,” Tanner said lightly.
She turned and looked up at him. “Promise?”
He remained crouched in front of her. He gently stroked her muddy cheek. “Absolutely I promise.”
She beamed. “Then you better go get that sorry ass of his right back here so he can take me to the hospital because I’m not feeling very good.” She looked at him, and the world started to go crazy funny. “I’m really not feeeeeling …” She pitched forward into his arms and knew no more.
*
Warrick dodged to the left, hoping to cut off the asshole as he ripped around the parking lot. They were several blocks away from the park entrance. Four cops were running after him, and he wouldn’t let up his chase either. He wanted to pound this asshole’s face into the ground and keep stomping so he’d never get back up again. He’d put his injured foot firmly into the back of his mind, but he knew he’d pay for this later.
When his phone rang, he ignored it. But it was persistent. He pulled it out to see it was Tanner. “What the hell?” he roared. “I’m in pursuit.”
“It’s Penny. She collapsed again. I’m taking her to the emergency room right now. We don’t have time to wait for an ambulance.”
Warrick came to a screeching halt. He stared ahead at the man he wanted to pound into the ground, then at the four cops behind Warrick. “We’re really close to catching him.”
Tanner hesitated. “Dude, I don’t know what’s wrong with her. She looked funny, and her eyes rolled up into her head, and she pitched forward. She’s got several head wounds from when they banged her up.”
Warrick had already turned around and raced toward the park. “I’m coming. I’m at the corner of Match and Warden. I’ll be there in about three minutes. I’m heading toward the main intersection off Plymouth. Pick me up there.”
He put away his phone, then pulled it back out again and called the detective, still running. “You got four cops in pursuit. Make sure you catch that asshole. I’ve got to get Penny to the hospital.”
“We’ve got several blockades in the direction he’s heading. We’ll get him.”
“Make sure you do,” Warrick said in a dark tone. “There’s no contest between grabbing that guy or getting Penny safely to medical attention. But I don’t want to turn around and find out you guys lost him.” He hung up, stuffed the phone back in his pocket and picked up his pace.
He was flat-out pounding the pavement. He knew there would be hell to pay because the walking cast was already splintered around his leg. He knew the damage on his ankle would be just as bad. A vehicle blew its horn right behind him. He came to a stop to see Penny layed out in the back seat of her car. Tanner was driving.
Warrick hopped inside, closing the door. Tanner immediately drove off. Warrick leaned over the seat and checked Penny’s pulse. Blood still seeped from one of her head wounds. He could see her chest rising and falling, but it was shallow. “What the hell?” he roared.
“I know,” Tanner said. “We’ll get her there. We’ll get her some help.”
Warrick didn’t want to turn around, but, with the corners Tanner took at top speed, Warrick was flung around. Finally he turned around and buckled up.
There was a hard silence, and then Tanner said, “From the looks of it, we’ll have to get a room for the three of you, damn it.”
Warrick looked at Tanner in confusion. “What are you talking about?”
“Nina, Penny and you.” He motioned at Warrick’s foot.
Warrick stared down at his ankle and the shattered walking cast. He groaned. “I know the doctor will take one look at that and give me no end of hell. So will Penny.”
“You better know what happened before she wakes up, so you can deal with it and not ream her out before she has a chance to recover.”
He listened in disbelief as he heard what Tanner had to say. “She was sitting there in a locked vehicle with the window wide open, watching everything happening at Nina’s house?”
“She said she didn’t even think about it. She was just waiting for you and me to come back to the car.”
Warrick groaned, falling against the back of the seat. “It’s so like her. Way too damn trusting.”
Tanner chuckled. “I don’t know. She figures you’ll tell her off, and she says it’s not fair.”
“Hell, yeah, I’ll give her a telling off. And it might not be fair, but it won’t stop me,” he said in an ominous tone.
At that, Tanner chuckled out loud.
Warrick glared at him. “You don’t believe me?”
“Nope. You’ll get started, take one look at her, fall down beside her and apologize yourself silly because you don’t want to upset her.”
“Hell,” Warrick said in disgust. He turned to stare out the window moodily. “I’ve got it bad, don’t I?”
“You do,” Tanner said cheerfully. “The good thing is, she does too.”
Warrick turned to face his buddy.
Tanner nodded. “Yes, I’m serious.”
Warrick once again twisted in his seat to see how she was doing. She didn’t even appear to have moved. “She sure as hell better make it through this,” he said, “or I’ll reach into the other side and pull her back so she stays with me until we’re old and gray.”
“That’s one of the nicest things I’ve heard from you in a long time,” Tanner said.
“Then help me make it happen,” Warrick snarled.
“I’m doing it. I’m doing it.” He pushed the gas pedal even harder. The car shot forward, cutting through an intersection, just making another green light. Several turns later, he headed for the hospital, pulling up outside the emergency entrance.
Warrick was already unbuckled, getting out. He opened the back door, took one look at Penny and sighed. Very gently he bent and struggled to lift her in his arms. He carried her into the hospital, ignoring all the protests of the other people waiting, nurses and doctors intervening, going straight into the emergency room, laying her down on one of the beds. Then he gasped for breath as his foot pounded with pain.
A doctor came around and took one look at him. “Are you the patient, or is she?”
He glared at the doctor, seeing somebody with salt-and-pepper hair. He had age and a lot of experience on his face, which calmed Warrick some. “Her first. And then I guess maybe me.”
“You must be Warrick,” the doctor said.
“The detective must have called you.”
“Yes. Besides we all know your face. You’re the one who saved the hospital staff. So you definitely get treated. And this young lady was with you. What the hell happened to her?” The doc was busy checking things over as he spoke to Warrick. “We’ll talk as soon as I get her run through an MRI. I don’t like those head wounds at all. We’re gonna get a CT scan too.”
The next thing Warrick knew, Penny was wheeled out of the room. He sagged down in a chair.
The doctor took one look at his leg and said, “Please tell me you didn’t run on that?”
“Somebody hit her in the head, locked her up in a basement. Then, when she escapes, the same asshole comes along, picks her up, and throws her into the back of a pickup bed and slams her head yet again. And, if that’s not enough, then he packs her to the park and uses her as bait for money.” Warrick’s voice snapped hard and ugly. “Damn right I chased him down.”
The doc stared, jaw open. When he finally recovered, he said, “Then at least please tell me that you got him?”
Warrick’s phone rang. He pulled it out, checked the text and grinned fiercely. “Yeah, he’s in custody.”
The doctor nodded. “In that case you’re next.”
A nurse came around the corner with a wheelchair. She smiled and said, “Hop on, big guy. Time to get that leg X-rayed again.”
He groaned. “Maybe we’ll be lucky and the cast was ready to come off anyway. I can’t say I felt any pain when I was running.”
The doc chuckled. “Nope, you wouldn’t have. You’re blockheaded at both ends.”
The next thing he knew, Warrick was wheeled down to X-ray. He had to wait in line. Finally he was led into another room, assisted onto the table where his leg was stretched out. The tattered remains of his cast were cut off, and then X-rays of his ankle were completed. He was sent back to the emergency room.
He was still sitting on the chair next to the bed where Penny would be upon her return when Tanner came in. Warrick looked up and frowned. “Where the hell have you been?”
Tanner sighed and held out a cup of coffee for him. “I thought I’d tell you the officers picked up the guy, and he’s down at the jail.”
Warrick nodded. “Yeah, I got a text from the detective. They’ve X-rayed my leg, and they’re running tests on Penny’s head right now.”
Just then Penny was wheeled back into the small room. She was still unconscious. Warrick stared at her and wanted to cry. “She is so damn small,” he whispered.
“She’s also a fighting terrier, so don’t you worry. If anybody’s beating this back, it’ll be her.”
They waited and waited. Not only did the test results have to be typed up but the doctor had to read them.
Finally the doctor came in and said, “She’s got a skull fracture on the left side and a couple lumps on the right side. We’ll keep her overnight because we want to make sure there’s no bleeding on the brain. She’ll be checked into the hospital. You can stay with her once we get her into a room. But she needs to stay calm, so we’re giving her a light sedative to keep her under while we keep a close watch on her brain.”
Warrick’s heart stopped as soon as he heard brain bleed. He nodded mutely. After that was controlled chaos until she was settled in a room in Intensive Care. He was allowed to sit beside her.
At least until a nurse came and said, “Time for you to get a new cast.”
He looked at the nurse in dismay. “Maybe check the X-rays again?” he asked hopefully. “Maybe the bone has healed by now.”
Her grin was wide and fat. “Running on an injured ankle is not good for it. And it’s guaranteed not to heal if you don’t get it casted again. So buckle up, big guy, and let’s go.”
He groaned.
Tanner took his spot and waved goodbye. “I’ll let you know when she wakes up.”
Warrick muttered to the nurse, “You could’ve let me wait until she wakes up. I really don’t want her to see his face first.”
“Sweetie, if you don’t know it by now, that girl is supersick in love with you already. I was here when the two of you came to deal with the gunman. I can see the signs. She watched every move you made and hung on every word you said. In fact, I’d say she sees you as her hero. At least as keeper material.” The nurse chuckled. “Besides she won’t be waking up until tomorrow morning, guaranteed.”
“Seriously?” he asked.
“Seriously.”
In fact, she was dead serious because Penny didn’t open her eyes until well after seven the next morning. His own eyes were gritty from sleeping in the chair, waking every time a nurse came in to check on Penny. He stared at her open eyes for a long moment before he realized she was looking at him.
“How are you feeling?” he asked as he hopped to his feet, shuddered and then hobbled over to her.
Her gaze shot downward, studying his foot. “You hurt yourself,” she said. “Why? You were supposed to be getting better.”
“Chasing bad guys on a walking cast is not a good idea apparently,” he said cheerfully. “Don’t worry. I’ve already been lashed out at by the doctor for having done something so stupid.”
She smiled. “So then you can’t get upset at me for having done something stupid either, can you?” she said triumphantly. She winced as she shifted in bed. “I can’t say I feel very good.”
“You’ve got a skull fracture, so move gently.”
Her gaze widened. “What else did they say?”
“Oh, nothing much,” he said cheerfully. “Except the nurse said you think I’m a keeper.”
“I never said anything like that,” she cried out, then shuddered at the pain. “You just made that up.”
“Nope.” He paused. “Does that mean you don’t think I’m a keeper?”
She snorted. “You protected me, kept watch over me when I was in danger, tracked me down after I was kidnapped and then went after the asshole who did it, and you made it to my hospital bed before I woke up—all on an injured ankle.” She smiled up at him, her fingers gently stroking his cheek. “Definitely a keeper.”
He grinned and kissed her fingers. “I would suggest that, as soon as you get released from the hospital, maybe we go home to my place and stay in bed for at least a week,” he said.
She froze in the act of shifting her position and looked up at him. “Can we?” she asked hopefully.
He chuckled. “Well, if we want to work it that way, we probably can.”
She nodded. “I so want that.” She raised her arms, and he leaned down to hug her. “Especially if we get to stay in bed together.”
He leaned closer. “You still have a head injury. You’ve got to take it easy.”
“You still have a foot injury,” she whispered. “You’ve got to take it easy.”
They looked at each other and beamed.
“In bed is perfect,” they both said, and he kissed her gently. She wrapped her arms tighter around him and kissed him as passionately as she had before. And Warrick knew he was the luckiest man alive.