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The other two guys laugh and then one of them hollers as Booker jogs out with me. “Hey, is this our bad guy?”
“Yeah, grab him! I don’t actually care if he burns or not but I suppose we should go ahead and have him stand trial. That way Hartley gets to see his ass locked up.”
“You don’t sound much like a law man, Booker.” He swats me on the ass and I yelp.
“Hey! Rude!”
“Just making sure that your ass is alright, Red.”
“My ass was fine until you hit it, mister,” I mutter under my breath.
We get the hell out of the building and Booker hauls me over to his car and sets me on the bumper. Then he pulls a utility knife out and cuts the rope off.
Dan and the chief come out and grunt, carrying the still form of Gary between them by his shoulders and feet. Then, as soon as they can, they drop him to the ground.
Both of them are sweating and puffing. The chief sighs in relief as the fire engine and EMT truck pull in.
“The guys are here.” Right behind them, comes a police car screaming around the corner.
“Yep. And here’s my guys.” Booker turns back to me and squats down to where I’m sitting. His eyes run up and down my body. “Are you alright, Red?”
I nod and cough. “I really have to stay out of fires for awhile. My throat hurts.”
He pats my hand and then he moves in to hug me. “I can’t believe that I almost lost you. I am not letting you out of my sight from now on.”
I choke, leaning into his hug, closing my eyes and just breathing in. His now-familiar scent has me buzzing with happiness.
“Yeah. I don’t think you can come to work with me everyday.”
“We’ll see. We’ll work it out. After you go get checked out.” He touches my shoulder gently and I suck in a sharp breath, squinting at the pain. His finger lightly traces the wound and his eyes blaze with anger and fear.
“Thank god I found you, Red. Because if I hadn’t….that bastard and half the bad guys around here would be dead and buried. Just because.”
“I love you too, Booker.”
He smiles, cocky and sure. “I know.”
I roll my eyes. “You know. Sometimes you can be a real jerk.”
“But I’m your jerk, Red. And I’ll always be your jerk.”
He leans over and kisses my lips, gently, tugging with his teeth at my bottom lip. “When you finally get all healed up, I’m gonna mark the shit out of you. Every damn gossip in town will be talking about how the Sheriff is pussy-whipped for the sexy librarian, with her cat-eye glasses and pink skirts and sweaters. They’re all gonna be so damn jealous. The men are gonna wish they were me when you’re covered in marks from our crazy lovemaking. And the women will be wishing that they were you too. Because you’re gonna be smiling all the time because you’re gonna be so sexed up that you can’t fucking walk.”
I pant and groan. “You are a damn dirty boy, Sheriff. And I love it.”
He laughs and then picks me up to carry me over to the EMT. “Of course you do. You’ve got all these people fooled. You’re not an uptight good girl. You’re a bad girl that’s hiding in plain sight. Waiting for her bad boy to have a little fun.”
The EMT snorts out a laugh but clears the smile off his face when Booker glares at him. “Sorry, Booker.”
“Yeah. You will be if you say one damn word.”
He mimes locking his lips and throwing away the key. I chuckle and then my heart jumps into my throat when I see them working on Gary. He’s sitting up so I know he’s not dead.
I growl and glare over at him. “I want to say something to that…jerk.”
Booker rolls his green eyes. “Baby, really. You can swear. He’s not a jerk. He’s an asshole.”
“I have my own way of saying things, Booker. I choose not to swear.” Although Booker is already starting to rub off on me. Another couple of hours with him and I’ll probably be swearing like a sailor.
