Page 39 of Maverick Detective Dad
She sucked in a hard breath, and that caused some movement around her. Footsteps that made her heart race. Sweet heaven. Had the killer come for her here? Whereverherewas.
“Everly,” someone said. Noah.
She latched on to the sound of his voice and opened her eyes. Not easily. She had to force it, and things didn’t immediately come into focus. It took several moments and some fast blinking before she finally managed to see his face.
Hisvery worriedface.
And it all came back to her. The feel of the dart slamming into her neck. The drug almost immediately starting to slide through her. The memory of watching Noah run in pursuit of the killer.
“You’re okay,” she managed to say, and even though she couldn’t show a lot of relief about that, Everly felt it bone deep. Noah was all right. He hadn’t been hurt. The killer hadn’t gotten to him.
He nodded. “How do you feel?”
Not great, her head was still spinning, and her throat was as dry as dust, but she was alive. So was Noah. Considering the killer had gotten close enough to fire that dart, it also meant he’d been close enough to gun them both down.
“Did you catch him?” she asked though she could already see the answer in his weary, troubled eyes.
“No,” he said. The guilt coated that single word, and she reached out for his hand. That took some effort as well, but Everly was finally able to clutch it.
The feel of him jolted back more memories. More realizations. Of being put in an ambulance, and now she was in a hospital bed. Not an actual hospital room though. This was the ER, and she was in one of the exam rooms.
“Ainsley,” she said, trying to get up. She had to get to her daughter.
But Noah eased her back down onto the bed. “She’s fine. I’ve been getting regular texts from my mom, and she says that Ainsley is playing with some of her new toys.” He looked her straight in the eyes. “Ainsley is safe. My parents won’t let anyone get near her.”
She searched his eyes to see if Noah was trying to minimize any possible threat to her child. He wasn’t. He was telling her the truth, and that made her breathe a whole lot easier. She obviously had plenty to worry about, but Ainsley was at the top of the list of her worries.
“What happened?” Everly asked, and that would be the first of many questions. “What drug did the killer shoot into me?”
The muscles in his jaw were as hard as iron. “We’ll have to wait for tox results, but the doctor who examined you thinks it was some kind of strong pain medication meant to knock you out. Your vitals are good,” he quickly added. “And you’re awake a lot sooner than he thought you would be. He thought you might be out for another hour or so.”
Maybe that meant the killer had given her a small dose. One not meant to kill her but rather incapacitate her enough so he could... What?
Grab her and run?
That likely wouldn’t have happened with Noah and Hudson right there so maybe the killer had intended to drug them, too, and something had gone wrong. Then again, this could have been meant just to scare her. A reminder that he could get to her whenever he wanted.
That tightened every muscle in her body.
“If Ainsley had been with me today at the house, she could have been hurt,” Everly muttered.
“She wasn’t with you,” Noah quickly pointed out, and when Everly sat up again, he didn’t stop her. Instead, he pulled her into his arms. “She wasn’t with you,” he repeated.
Everly took comfort from his hug. Took more comfort, too, with his words and the soft kiss he brushed on her cheek. But the comfort couldn’t last. Not when she had to ask him one very hard question.
“Do you know who the killer is?” She met Noah’s gaze. Waited.
He shook his head. “I’m sorry about that. I went after him, but I didn’t catch him. He got away.”
The guilt had gone up some considerable notches, and Everly put a stop to it by kissing him. Obviously, Noah needed some comforting, too, because he groaned and sank into the kiss for some too-short pleasurable moments. When he eased back, he pressed his forehead to hers.
“River never showed at the sheriff’s office, and he’s not answering his phone,” he said, his voice a low murmur now. “I have an APB out on him. Both Jared and Bobby are coming in tomorrow morning for interviews.”
That was a necessary step in the investigation, but she doubted either of them would just up and confess to being a killer.
“I did find a phone in the greenbelt behind your house,” Noah went on. He finally pulled back but stayed close. “The killer might have dropped it, and if so, the lab might be able to get something from it.”
That was good. Maybe a critical mistake that would help them catch this monster before he struck again.
