Brick opened his eyes. “Angus?” he whispered.
“He’s fine,” she said, even though she didn’t know that for sure. As Jinx was being loaded into the second helicopter, Max had told Ella that Angus had gone after T.D., who’d been wounded. Max said Angus had saved Jinx’s life. Then he had climbed in with her and the helicopter had taken off.
Just as Ella’s chopper with Brick was about to take off, a man had come running out of the woods saying his arm was broken. The EMTs seemed to know him and called him by name—Travis. They’d let him climb in. Ella knew he was a friend of T.D.’s. He sat away from her, looking scared and avoiding eye contact as if he also knew he had more trouble than a broken arm.
Ella squeezed Brick’s hand and prayed for him and Angus. It was just like him to go after T.D. Jinx had been hit but was going to make it, the EMTs had said. Angus had saved Jinx, according to Max. So why hadn’t he waited and let the sheriff handle T.D.?
Because he was worried the man would get away and go after Jinx yet again, she thought. He was probably right.
JINX DIDN’T REMEMBER much of the helicopter ride to the hospital. Max had been there, telling her everything was going to be all right. She knew better than that.
Now she watched the nurse and doctor moving around the ER as she lay on a gurney in a daze. Max said Angus had saved her. She just remembered T.D., his arm around her neck, stars dancing before her eyes as he cut off her oxygen, and a gun to her temple. He’d said he was going to kill her, and she hadn’t doubted that he would before Angus had appeared on the mountainside above them.
She’d thought at first that Angus had fired the shot. But she swore it had come from another direction. She’d felt the bullet graze her temple and hit T.D. He’d shuddered behind her, loosening his hold on her throat and then letting her go.
Close to blacking out, she’d dropped to her knees, gasping for breath. As Angus had rushed to her, she’d seen Wyatt Hanson in the trees. He was holding a rifle, the barrel pointed right at them and then, as if realizing he’d been seen, he’d taken off on his horse.
The rest was a blur except for Angus’s handsome face above her, his look of concern in those blue eyes and then his smile when he realized she was going to be all right.
She’d looked down to see the blood, unsure how much of it was hers and how much of it was T.D.’s. And then Max was there, telling Angus to go after T.D. She’d wanted to stop him, but everything seemed to be happening too fast.
Now her heart ached with worry for Angus. He’d gone after T.D. and as far as she knew, no one had seen him since.
When the elderly doctor she’d known her whole life came into her ER room, she asked him if anyone else had been admitted. He shook his head as he checked her pulse. “Angus Savage?”
“Brick Savage is on his way to surgery. I don’t believe Angus Savage has been brought in.”
“T. D. Sharp?” she asked.
The doctor shook his head. “The sheriff is here, though. Are you up to answering a few questions?”
She nodded. She kept remembering being shot up on the mountain and Max saying, “The helicopters are here. They’re setting down in the meadow now. It’s going to be all right.”
But Jinx had known that nothing was going to be all right. Angus was still up in the mountains chasing T.D. and she was here. She mouthed a silent prayer for both Brick and Angus.
The sheriff was beside her bed, holding her hand, and she was crying hard. “It’s all my fault,” she kept saying in between her racking sobs. “All my fault.”
Harvey tried to tell her that it wasn’t, that he had to check on the others and would be back.
As he started to leave, she grabbed his hand again. “T.D. is still up there. Angus Savage went after him. You have to find them.”
“We will,” he promised.
“Please don’t let anything happen to Angus.”
The sheriff smiled and squeezed her hand. “Don’t worry.”
But all she could do was worry, head pounding. She thought of that young cowboy whom she’d shoved out that barn loft window. She’d almost gotten him killed that day on the Cardwell Ranch when they were little more than kids and here she was again jeopardizing his life. She thought of Angus, his handsome face glowing in the campfire light. The man was like granite, solid and strong.
She clung to that. She had to believe that no matter what happened up on the mountain, Angus would survive. He had to, she thought, her heart aching.
ANGUS MOVED CAUTIOUSLY through the pines, scanning the terrain ahead for movement. He’d seen the red marks on Jinx’s throat along with the tiny specks of blood splattered there so he’d known what had happened, even if he hadn’t seen T.D. holding her in a headlock, a pistol to her head.
What he didn’t know is who had taken such a dangerous shot. Jinx could have been killed. As it was, the bullet had only grazed her temple. But just one wrong move by her or her shooter...
But that hadn’t happened, he reminded himself, pushing away the image that lodged in his brain. Instead, Jinx had gotten lucky. She was alive. T.D. had taken the bullet and once Angus found the man, he’d put an end to this.
That was if T.D. was still alive. His hope was that he would come upon the man’s body lying in the dried pine needles. He didn’t want to kill him, but he would if it came to that.
Ahead, he saw movement and quickly stepped behind a tree. He could
