Page 92 of Deathmarch

“I wasn’t here. My mother knocked him out.”

Chase laughed. “I can see Rose knocking a guy out if he stepped out of line. All right. I just finished breaking up a dirt bike race out by the county dump. Couple of freaking ten-year-olds. They’re lucky neither of them has a broken neck. Parents just picked them up. I can leave for the hospital right now.”

“Thanks. I owe you a beer at Finnegan’s.”

“And the full story. I also think you should let me watch the security footage.”

“Deal.”

The ambulance was pulling in, so Harper hung up. He talked to the EMTs, this time two guys he didn’t know, handcuffed Zane to the stretcher once the men had him up there, then sent them off to meet Chase.

The ambulance wasn’t even out of the parking lot yet when he was running up the stairs.

“That was fast,” his mother remarked from the couch where she was sitting next to Allie. “I haven’t even had a chance to fix Allie up yet. We’ve just been talking.”

Harper snatched the first aid kit from the coffee table. “I’ll take care of her.”

His mother patted Allie’s knee, then stood up. “If you need any food or drink, just call down, and Kennan will send up a tray. If you’d like something not on the menu, I’ll make it. If this one”—she gestured toward Harper with her head—“gives you trouble, you let me know. I’ll keep my frying pan handy.”

“Thank you,” Allie said with a wobbly smile, lying on the couch with two throw pillows under her ankle. “For everything.”

Never comfortable with gratitude, Rose Finnegan waved away the words as she bustled toward the door. When she reached it, she stopped and turned. “If you two feel up to it in the morning, come over to the farmhouse for breakfast.”

Harper walked to the sink to wash his hands, while Allie said, “Sorry you had to leave work because of this.”

He strode back to her and popped the first aid kit open. “I was just waiting for the captain to get me a couple of warrants.”

“I thought he was at Quantico.”

“He has his laptop with him. He’s keeping an eye on the case. I’ll be making an arrest on the Lamm case as soon as the judge gets back to us.”

“Was the killer one of the old guy’s friends?”

Harper nodded, tugging on a pair of nitrile gloves, then he grabbed the packet of gauze and brown bottle of peroxide. “Try to stay still.”

“Thank you for riding to the rescue, but you don’t have to do this.” She lifted her head from the sofa’s arm. “I can just do it in the bathroom mirror.”

“I know you can. But I want you to let me, because I need to do something since I wasn’t here when you needed me.”

She laid her head back. “Is my face swollen?”

“Think Shrek in purple. If it was Halloween, you wouldn’t need a mask.” He drew back, shuddered. “I might have nightmares.”

She punched him in the arm but laughed. “And people wonder why you’re still single.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Maybe because the first girl I ever loved skipped out on me in the middle of the night. Scarred me for life.”

“Get over it.”

“Make me.”

Heat flared between them without warning, as if it had been there the whole time, just locked behind doors on both sides, and now the locks could take no more strain, so those doors were bursting open.

Truth was, he’d never found a replacement, because no replacement existed for Allie. He wanted her. He’d never stopped wanting her.

Not the time to tell her. She was barely back, and she’d just been attacked. He’d waited a decade for a second chance with her. He could wait another day.

He applied antibiotic cream to her lip and then pulled back. “Done.”