Page 51 of Lay Down the Law

Dropping to his knees outside the driver’s side door, Nick leaned forward, peered inside, and his heart simply stopped. Erin’s lifeless form hung suspended, held in place by her safety belt. Her face was deathly pale, her eyes open and staring. Nick’s first thought was that she was dead.

“McNeal!” Panic knifed through him. Without thinking, he reached for her. Her flesh was cold to the touch. She didn’t stir. “Erin! Honey, can you hear me?”

Her answer came in the form of an elongated groan. She blinked at Nick. “Oh, Nick. I think I screwed up.”

The sound of her voice nearly undid him. His emotions rose dangerously to the surface. Relief. Thankfulness. A hundred others he didn’t want to name. For a moment he couldn’t speak, could do nothing but sit back and thank God she was alive.

“Do you hurt anywhere?” he managed to ask after a moment.

She shifted, her brows knitting. “That’s a really dumb question at this point, Chief.”

He stared at her, choking back emotions that were trying to strangle him. He was losing it, and she was cracking jokes. “Where do you hurt?” he croaked. “Your neck? Your back?”

“Everywhere except the soles of my feet.”

A tension-breaking laugh squeezed from his throat. “You scared the dickens out of me.”

Closing her eyes, she smiled faintly. “Me, too.”

“I smell gas. Honey, I’ve got to get you out of the car. Can you move?”

Both of her hands opened and closed. “Yeah.”

“What about your legs?”

Her face screwed up with the effort, but Nick saw her ankles flex. “I can move. Let’s do it. I don’t want to take a chance on becoming a s’more.”

Praying he wouldn’t cause additional damage in the event that she had a spinal or neck injury, Nick crawled halfway through the window, then reached up to release her safety belt. “I’m going to unsnap your belt. Just relax and fall against me, okay?”

She nodded.

Holding her in place with one arm, he released the belt and felt her sag against him. “Feel okay?”

“Doesn’t even hurt.”

Nick closed his eyes as another wave of emotion pushed through him. “I’m going to set you down and pull you out of the car. Don’t move. Just let me take care of you, okay?”

He should have known she wouldn’t obey. By the time he’d backed out of the overturned car, Erin was crawling on all fours. “Nick—”

“I told you to lie still,” he growled.

“There was another vehicle. A Lincoln. There was a gun—”

The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. “Whoever it was, they’re gone.” Rising, he looked over his shoulder and thumbed off the strap of his holster. “I’ll ask you about the car in a moment, okay? Right now I want you to lie down. I’ve got a cervical collar and blanket in my truck—”

When she started to stand, he merely swept her into his arms. “When are you going to learn to follow orders?”

“Maybe my next life.” She looked toward the road. “The other car. Are you sure it’s gone?”

“There was nobody here when I drove up. Hector’s on his way. An ambulance is en route—”

“They tried to kill me, Nick. Shot out the windshield. I couldn’t see. The bridge came out of nowhere….”

“Shh.” The need to protect her made him grind his teeth. “I’m armed. No one’s going to hurt you.”

She felt delicate cradled in his arms. Even through the stench of gasoline, her tantalizing scent floated around his brain. He resisted the urge to put his face against hers and close his eyes just to feel her warmth, just to make sure she was really there.

Grunting with the effort, he ascended the ravine with her in his arms, then settled her onto the grass. A sound from the ravine arrested Nick’s attention. They both looked over in time to see fire engulf the cruiser.