Joseph hadn’t had a seat belt on. That and one too many Jason Statham movies had given me the idea to drive the car off the road. I figured if either of us was going to survive I was the one with a better shot since I’d buckled up. It sounded like my instinct had proven to be correct. Not that surviving felt all that awesome at the moment.
“Hurts.” The word wheezed out as I lifted the hand that wasn’t pinned to the crushed seat behind me towards my shoulder.
Church caught the unnaturally pale and weak appendage in his own hand and gently pulled it away from the razor-sharp glass that was imbedded in my flesh. “I know it does but you can’t touch it.” He curled his fingers around mine and gave them a little squeeze. “You stole about a hundred years off my life, you know that?” He shook his head and leaned forward so that he could touch his lips to mine. It was upside down and too brief but I swore the touch of his lips against mine stole away some of the pain that was making it hard to think. “I already lost ten years, I don’t want to lose any more.”
That was good, but I was having a really difficult time keeping my eyes open. I was seeing three of him and all of those versions were fuzzy around the edges.
I heard voices, all talking fast and loud. I heard Church grumbling when I tried to protest when his face was replaced by one I didn’t recognize. But I was too tired to argue and the pain was getting to be too much to fight. I could feel oblivion trying to suck me under and its embrace was warm and welcoming.
“Her foot is caught under the dash. It’s probably got some significant damage. We need a machine in here to cut her loose.”
I heard Church order them to be careful with me. But one of the paramedics jostled my side as he tried to make room for himself next to me so that he could get to my captured foot. It wasn’t a big bump but it was enough to make me scream like I’d never screamed before. I felt like lightning was ripping through every limb. I saw stars but they were blinking rapidly in a field of black and that darkness was calling to me, promising me relief from the searing agony that was pulling my body apart. I heard other voices yell. I heard a loud pop and smelled gunpowder as well as the blood and gasoline that I was choking on . . . then everything went black and I finally stopped hurting.
Chapter 20
Church
I was going to pull the paramedic that made Dixie scream out of the crumpled wreckage of the SUV by the back of his neck and shake the ever-living shit out of him for causing her more pain. She looked like she was barely holding on. Her face was as white as chalk and there was blood covering most of her skin. The crimson droplets were dripping from her curls at an alarming rate, and I could barely stomach looking at the way her shoulder was cleaved open by that piece of glass. I’d seen battlefield triage up close and personal, but none of that prepared me for seeing the woman I dared to love clinging to life as everything vital and necessary drained out of her.
The little fool had risked everything to save everyone but herself.
“Step back, son. Let them do their job. The quicker they get her out the quicker we can get her the help she needs.”
I let my dad pull me away but I couldn’t take my eyes off the smashed vehicle where her small body was trapped. The sense of helplessness, of not being able to do anything to help her, had all those old feelings of inferiority and unfairness rearing their ugly little heads. I wanted to help her, but I couldn’t and if she died . . . I didn’t want to think about what that would do to me, but it was almost impossible to keep the stark and dreary thoughts at bay. I’d just found my way home, but I knew if Dixie didn’t make it there was a really good chance that I would end up lost and adrift once again, no matter how sturdy and strong my roots were.
“This is all your fault!” I heard the accusation screamed at me, but I was so lost in thought and tied up in my concern for the woman stuck in the wreckage that it took a minute for me to realize that the words were being hurled wildly at me from a hundred yards away.
I turned to look at Joseph Erikson, bloodied, listing to one side, but still able to stand under his own power with that gun he’d used to terrorize Dixie clutched in his shaking hand. He had police on either side of him, moving slowly towards him with their weapons drawn. Once again he was surrounded with nowhere to go but he refused to give up.
“How did he manage to keep hold of the gun when he was thrown?” I asked the question under my breath and saw Jules shake his head in response.
“No clue, but his luck ends right here.” He unsnapped the holster that held his service weapon and smoothly pulled the gun out. “Joseph Erikson, you are under arrest for the murder of Marie Erikson and the kidnapping and false imprisonment of Dixie Carmichael. Put the weapon down.”
The man laughed hysterically and wavered on his feet. One half of his face was covered in blood and I couldn’t be certain but it looked like he was missing a couple of his teeth. He hadn’t escaped unscathed but I wanted him in as much pain and suffering as Dixie was fighting her way through.
“She could have loved me. She should have loved me. I did everything right.” His words were garbled and he started to cough, which made the gun wobble in his hands. The deputies that were closest to him started to move in closer but stopped when he snapped the weapon back up and pointed right at me. I heard Jules swear under his breath but my attention was stolen as Dixie’s pale and fragile form was finally freed from the twisted metal that had kept it captive. They maneuvered her onto a stretcher but she wasn’t moving and I couldn’t tell if she was still breathing or not. It was every fear I’d spent a lifetime running from chasing me down and forcing me to face it head-on. I’d done everything in my power to avoid this very situation, a woman I loved hovering on the brink of death with my heart in her hands, but there was no denying this was where I was meant to be.
“She was never going to love you because she loved me. I didn’t want her to, but she never does what’s best for her, because she’s always doing what’s best for everyone else.” I turned to walk towards the ambulance not caring what happened behind me because I was only moving towards what waited in front of me . . . the best thing that ever happened to me. I wasn’t going to let the bad that was threatening take any more of it away. I trusted Jules to watch not only my back, but to keep Dixie safe as well.
There was screaming, some obligatory ugly words, and then the sound of gunfire. I didn’t know who pulled the trigger but the crazy talk stopped, so I figured it was one of the good guys and I selfishly hoped it was my dad because that was almost as good as me getting to pull the trigger.
“How is she?” I asked the paramedic that was closest to me as they loaded Dixie into the back of the ambulance.
“Better than she looks. That slice in her shoulder is ugly and deep. I won’t be shocked if she needs surgery. She’s lost a lot of blood, which is why she blacked out, but she’s coming around. Her ankle was stuck pretty good, but by some miracle I think it’s only a bad sprain. She’s incredibly lucky. I’ve seen crashes less severe than this one where I still had to use the Jaws of Life to get bodies out instead of patients. The debris from the fence they went through did a number on her clavicle and I would place good money on her having a couple busted ribs. She’s having some trouble breathing, so we’re watching for a collapsed lung, but right now there’s no need for a tube. We’re taking her to Tupelo but they might need to airlift her to somewhere more well equipped to handle her injuries.”
I nodded and stepped around him to climb into the back of the ambulance. None of the first responders tried to argue with me as I took a seat on one of the narrow benches and picked up the limp hand that was closest to me. Her doe eyes flicked open and locked on mine as the guys rushed around her and tried to get an IV line in her arm.
Her droopy gaze drifted over me and landed on the point where her hand was trapped in mine. Scarlet red coated our fingers and stained the backs of our hands. Her eyebrows pinched together and her mouth pulled into a little pout that I wanted to kiss.
?
??You’re bleeding.” Her voice was ragged and I could tell every word was a struggle to get out.
I looked down at our joined hands and couldn’t stop the dry bark of laughter that escaped my chest. The wound from my shoulder and the gash across my arm were indeed leaking drops of blood onto the back of her hand where I was holding it. The minute I knew she was okay I forgot all about my own injuries. “You were just pulled from one of the worst accidents these guys have seen and you’re worried about me?” I sighed and lifted her hand to my lips so that I could put a kiss on the back of it. “It’s my turn to take care of you, pretty girl. You’ve done all you can do for me, now it’s up to me to show you that I was worth every sacrifice you made to make me see that love wasn’t something to run from. I don’t want to be a coward. I want to be the man that’s brave enough to love a woman like you.”
Her eyes blinked rapidly and I could see moisture gather behind her lashes. They put an oxygen mask over her mouth, so she couldn’t respond, but I didn’t need her to tell me what she was feeling, she’d been giving it to me from the start without a single word spoken. She never had to tell me she loved me because everything she’d done since agreeing to get on the back of my bike showed me she did. She loved because her heart was strong and she was the bravest person I had ever met. They said that love was war and if that was the case Dixie was winning and well on her way to being undefeated.
Chapter 21
Dixie
I was in the hospital for a little over a week. My shoulder and the damaged muscle and tendons underneath were in bad shape and needed surgery, but all the doctors and surgeons I saw were cautiously optimistic that I would regain full range of motion once it healed and I did some physical therapy to regain strength. Surprisingly it was my sprained ankle that proved to be the biggest hindrance. It was swollen and bruised a grotesque shade of blackish green. I couldn’t put any weight on it and there was no balancing myself with one of my arms out of commission and strapped across my chest in a sling. The stupid thing screamed at me whenever I tried to move it, so I spent a week immobile and antsy as Church barely left my side complete with a matching sling that he promptly discarded as soon as his own wound started to feel better. He acted like catching a bullet was no big deal, which I found totally aggravating. He kept saying that the gun was a small-caliber weapon, so the shot to his shoulder was far less involved compared with the way mine was mangled. Like that was supposed to make the situation better. Begrudgingly I told him I thought it was cute that we were going to have matching scars.
I wasn’t used to being the one that was fussed over, so it took some getting used to. I didn’t want to be a bother but eventually it was obvious I was limited in what I could do for myself, so I settled in and let everyone around me fret and fuss. Church and I didn’t talk about the future, the fact that he admitted that we were going to have one was enough for me. He wasn’t running away from me and the way I loved him anymore, in fact he was sprinting towards it and chasing me with his own chaotic, wild kind of affection. Frankly I thought our story was going to kick my parents’ story’s ass!
Currently his booted feet were propped up on the edge of the hospital bed and he was scrolling through something on my phone. He’s been tasked with explaining to my family why I was a leading story on the national news and with convincing half of Denver to stay put until I was up to seeing visitors, so he’d had my cell in hand pretty much twenty-four/seven since I got out of surgery. I was getting my walking papers in an hour and I couldn’t wait to get out of the hospital and back to some semblance of reality.
My parents had arrived the day after the crash and were currently staying with Elma Mae. They hovered but quickly realized Church wasn’t leaving my side and had spent most of their time in Mississippi falling in love with Lowry and Church’s family the same way I had. I was going back to Denver with them at the end of the week.
I still had an entire life in Colorado I needed to situate before Church and I could make some decisions about what was next for us. I missed my dog, and I didn’t want to push Church when I finally had him where I so desperately wanted him to be. He loved me. He wanted me. He needed me but I didn’t know if he was planning on doing all of that here or if he was going to come back to the Mile High. I couldn’t imagine him leaving his family when he’d spent so long hiding from them, but he hadn’t said anything one way or the other.
I nudged his boot with my good foot until he looked up at me. “What are you doing on my phone?” There was nothing incriminating on the thing unless he’d managed to get onto Pinterest and found my wedding boards, that might be embarrassing but he had to know that’s where all of this was heading for me regardless of what state we called home.
“I’m looking through that dating app.” He looked up from my phone and lifted his eyebrows at me. “I’m reading all the things you filled in to find your perfect guy.”
I groaned and held out my good hand. “Stop that. I still need to delete the dumb thing. Hand it over.” I wiggled my fingers and was promptly ignored.
A grin tugged at his mouth and his eyes danced with a million colors as humor lit them up from the inside out. “Over six feet.” He held up a finger. “Check.” I groaned and demanded the device again. “Though why that’s a must when you’re barely five-foot is beyond me.”
“I’m five-five, jackass. Can you stop?”
“Open to all ethnicities.” He wiggled his eyebrows up and down and I felt myself blush. “That’s good to know.” I slapped a hand over my eyes and sighed in defeat. He wasn’t going to stop until he got all the way through my list of must-haves.
“Fit, some formal education, gainfully employed, kids okay. Man, you weren’t being very picky here, Dixie.” He was laughing at me, so I closed my eyes and tried to block him out. “Where’s the box for no murdering psychopaths with mommy issues?”
I groaned again and turned to look at him through narrowed eyes. “I must have missed that one.”
He chuckled again but then his expression turned serious and his eyebrows dipped in a V over his colorful eyes as he dropped his feet off the edge of the bed and leaned over the phone, reading intently. “Prefers the strong, silent type because when he has something to say it’s always worth listening to. Looking for a man that is chivalrous, adventurous, and has a sense of pride and duty.” His eyes flicked up to mine and I would have shrugged if I was able. Instead I bit down on my lip as he continued to read. “Loyalty is a must. You can tell a lot about a man by the company he keeps. Searching for someone that knows the importance of family and home, that is willing to go above and beyond for the people he cares about. Looking for love and forever.”
I gulped a little as he tapped the screen, shutting the app down and turning the phone off before setting it on the bed next to me. He rose to his feet and made his way over to the side of the bed. The mattress sank under his weight as he propped his hip next to mine.
“You described me.”
I looked up at him from under my lashes. “Well yeah. You’re supposed to describe your perfect man, and even when you were driving me crazy and making me chase my heart around in circles you were still my perfect guy. You’re the only one.”
He reached out a hand and moved some of my hair away from my face so I couldn’t use it to hide behind. “How can you be so sure?”
I blew out a breath and reached up to catch his hand in mine. “I just knew. There was no explaining it. There was no denying it. My heart picked you.”
His lips twitched and it happened.
He smiled.
I knew it was going to be my undoing.
That mouth was made to be happy. That face was created to have joy and delight stamped across it. He was so much more than beautiful with that smile. He was stunning. He stole my breath and made it hard for me to think.
“You’re smiling.” I reached out and touched the indent in his cheek that wasn’t quite a dimple but was close.
“I guess I am.” He ca
ught my hand in his and kissed the backs of my fingers. “I have a lot to be happy about lately.”
I smiled back at him. “I’m glad.”
“I’ve got an errand I need to run real quick and then I’ll come pick you up when it’s time to take you home. I’ve only got you for a little bit before your folks whisk you back home.” He hadn’t left my side in days, so I was surprised that he was doing so now when I was so close to freedom.
“Uh . . . okay.” I frowned at him but he bent over and placed a hard kiss on my lips.
“I’ll be back, pretty girl, and I know we need to talk about what’s next. I’m not running. I’m right here in front of you even when you can’t see me. Trust me.” It was hard not to give him everything he asked for when he was smiling at me.
“All right, soldier.” He nodded and slipped quietly out of the room.
I had no clue where he was going, but I knew with everything inside of me that he would be back.
Chapter 22
Church
I knew I had to take the good with the bad from here on out, but there was some bad that needed a reminder that I could and would fight back. There was some bad that needed to know there was no place for it in my life or the lives of the people I loved. There was some bad that needed to learn I was bigger and badder than it could ever be.
Plus I’d made a promise to my little brother that I would show the fuck up and I wasn’t going to renege on it. In fact it was a promise I was more than looking forward to keeping.
I heard the rusted door to the trailer rattle and leaned forward on the ugly couch that was cream and brown with pheasants all over it. It was straight out of the ’80s and smelled like it. I rested my hands on my knees and didn’t take my eyes off the doorway as the door swung open and a burly man in dirty jeans and a torn white T-shirt stumbled in. It was the middle of the day but he smelled like cheap booze and there was no missing his blurry-eyed surprise when his gaze landed on me.