AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Kendall,” he said in a hushed whisper, looking around for the perpetrator. Kendall groaned, and moved. The good news was he wasn’t dead. The bad news was Gabriel didn’t see anyone lurking around that might be responsible. One of the main park entrance doors was ajar. Did someone have access to the park?
Grabbing his cell phone, he dialed 9-1-1, and asked for help and an ambulance. The operator probably would have asked him to stay on the line, but he hung up before she could. He called Nathan’s cell phone.
“Pick up, pick up,” he murmured under his breath as it rang and rang and rang. Not wanting to leave Kendall in the dirt, he dialed again and moved a few steps toward the open door. He hated to leave Kendall behind, but the parking lot gate was already unchained to let the police in, and the fact that Nathan wasn’t answering disturbed him more.
While it was possible he was sexually occupied with Suzanna, and decided not to interrupt by taking a phone call, Nathan rarely let his phone go to voice mail. More likely he’d keep fucking her and simply answer his cellular with heavy breaths between words so Gabriel could listen in.
The wail of sirens on the wind gaining volume was the only thing that got his legs moving toward the Old West Town sheriff’s office. A last glance down at Kendall and he headed straight for the open door to the park leading toward main street.
The trip on foot seemed to take twice as long as when he’d headed to the front of the park. Instead of coming down the main street of the park, Gabriel made his way along the backside of the town’s businesses until he got close to the sheriff’s office. He heard voices, and was fairly certain that one voice on the wind was a woman’s. Relief poured through him.
He found the sheriff’s back door unlocked and ajar. Troubling, but the possibility that Nathan and Suzanna had come in this way was probable.
“I just wanted him to love me, Nathan. I’m not ashamed of that,” Gabriel heard a woman say in a loud voice.
It wasn’t Suzanna. The familiarity of the voice confused him. What was she doing here?
He rounded the corner to the hallway where the jail cells were. Two out of the three were closed, and locked with occupants. Nathan was hunkered down on the floor of the first cell. The woman in the next cell was not Suzanna, and Gabriel got a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach when he confirmed the identity of the voice.
Cindy, sporting a swelling eye, a bloody lip, and a very frightened look, was in the jail cell next to Nathan.
* * * *
Suzanna was taken completely off guard when Nathan collapsed behind her. At first, she thought the groan and his pushing her against the bars was a part of his seduction plan. Until she heard a muffled noise above her head and he’d fallen to the floor behind her, she hadn’t realized they weren’t alone anymore.
She saw Cindy first, but soon Marcus stepped into view. With a shovel grasped in one fist, wearing a fury-filled expression, he sneered. “One down, one to go.”
Her first reaction was one of fear, but on the heels of that came wrath. She gave Marcus a dirty look and squatted down next to Nathan, calling his name softly. He didn’t respond. He didn’t move. She bent her head closer, discovering that he was, at least, breathing. Her most ardent fear now realized, Suzanna knew she should have more emotion than simple rage coursing through her veins, but she was so angry that Nathan had gotten hurt because of her.
“You didn’t have to hit him.”
Marcus stood over her, ignoring her remark. “I’ve been looking for you, Suzanna. We need to have a talk. It’s long overdue.”
She sprung up to her feet, unwilling to let him tower over her or think she was afraid. But she was fearful of Nathan’s head injury. She had felt a sizeable lump on the back of his head after carefully exploring his scalp. “Let me call someone to help him. And then we can talk all you want.”
Cindy spoke for the first time. Her anxious expression was unexpected. “Why did you have to knock him out?”
“He stood in my way of me getting to my wife.”
Her gaze cast to Cindy when she said, “Except that I’m not your wife.”
“A trifling detail,” he said with a shrug of one shoulder. “And one that was necessary to enact my plan.”
