Page 76 of Read With Your Heart

Leon drops Trent and slowly lifts his hands.

I don’t understand.

I look from Trent, swollen and bleeding as he lays on his back, to Leon, who stands taller, arms spread wider. Voices call out something.

What’s happening?

Slowly, Leon turns like the calculated twist of a dial. His eyes quickly pass over mine, and then he looks away, still measuring his movements as he spins.

My head turns in the direction of the too-bright lights and overly loud siren, and I push off the side of the truck.

“No,” I call out. “No,” I repeat, stepping forward.

Someone shouts my name, but I’m not certain from which direction it comes. My eyes focus on the men standing behind open car doors, guns poised and aimed at Leon.

“No,” I scream, stepping before him, lifting my arms like his, shielding his body.

I don’t register anything other than those swirling lights and the deafening siren. Then I’m falling to my front, a body over mine as another sound rips through the night.

A shot from a gun.

Lesson 24

A promise is a promise.

[Leon]

I don’t know what the hell she was thinking.

The sheriff was shouting words I’d heard too many times in my past. My hands dripped with the evidence I’d wanted to kill that son of a bitch.

He’d almost had her.

Then she was in front of me, her body like a shield against mine. Her cries of ‘no’ echoed through the air but were still hardly heard above the siren’s blare.

A gun went off, and I wasn’t certain if it was behind me or in front of her. I twisted her, taking her down in hopes it hadn’t hit her.

Trigger finger, we later learned. The adrenaline of the small-town deputy mixed with his shouts for her to move, and his finger pulled the trigger.

We’re both lucky he’s a poor shot.

Guns still came to my back, including threats to roll off her. Following their commands, I flipped to my back, arms out. I did as I was told until she rolled with me, covering me.

“He was trying to save me!” she yelled. “He was saving me!” Her voice struggled through the shock while her body blanketed me. Her sudden movement could have triggered another shot, but thankfully, it did not.

More deputies arrived on the scene, and Tricia kept up the same string of words.

“He was saving me.”

I’d still been cuffed and pushed toward a vehicle until Tricia got in the way once again.

“Listen to me, Derek,” she called out to the deputy at my back. Her hands pressed into my chest. “You know Trent Walker is my husband. I filed divorce, and he was . . . he was trying to kidnap me. Leon Ramirez was rescuing me.”

Our eyes met, and there was so much said between them.

“Tricia?” The deputy finally recognized her through the knit cap on her head and thick scarf at her neck.

“I’ll make a statement. I’m pressing charges against Trent Walker.” She spoke to the man behind me who begrudgingly removed my cuffs.