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Marie nodded, looking him straight in the eye. “We’ve got Dr. Lucero on call and I’ll get him on the line as soon as she’s in the squad car.
Hunter huffed out a breath, but letting her go with Marie was probably the quickest way to get her medical attention.
As soon as Nicholas let go of Isobel, it was like she came back to life. She flew at Hunter, grabbing his face in her hands. “I would have loved you. But you’re not real. Just my beautiful might have been.” She looked so devastated as she said it.
Hunter grabbed her around the waist. “I’m here. Bel, I’m right here and I’m not going anywhere.”
But she just shook her head, a tear sliding down her cheek.
And then Marie was pulling her hands behind her back to put the cuffs on.
“I’ll get to the bottom of this,” Hunter said fiercely. “I swear.” He kissed her even as Marie finished latching the cuffs and started pulling Isobel away.
“I swear I’ll fix this!”
Isobel kept looking back at him as Marie led her out of the bar, hand on her shoulder.
He wanted to run after them. But what would that accomplish? He’d promised Isobel he’d fix this and he could do more here. Isobel would be safe at the sheriff’s office and the doctor would see to her.
The reporters and cameramen tried to follow Isobel out the door but Marie barked at them. She handed Isobel off to one of her officers at the door and blocked the rest of the squawking reporters.
Damn it, he had to fix this. Fast.
Hunter looked around, then jogged over toward where Liam and Mack were questioning a young guy in a white button up shirt and black slacks. The waiter.
“Talk or I’ll smash your fucking face in,” Mack said right as Hunter got to them.
The kid’s face went white.
Liam rolled his eyes. “Ignore this slap-happy bastard.” He pulled out his wallet. “We can be civilized here.” He took five one-hundred dollar bills out of his wallet and handed them over to the waiter.
The kid took the money with wide eyes. “That’s way more than she gave me.”
“Who?” Hunter and the other two asked at the same time.
“Her.” The waiter pointed at Catrina. “She just said she wanted everything to be special for the lady’s birthday. So I should make sure to give her the piece of pie as soon as she came in the door. Then she gave me the plate of pie and a hundred bucks.” He held up his hands. “And she said it was a surprise so not to say who it was from.”
“You fucking idiot,” Mack muttered.
“The pie was dosed with something,” Hunter said. “You helped drug that woman.”
The waiter’s eyes went wide as saucer’s. “I didn’t have anything to do with that.”
“Then you better go tell the sheriff everything you just told us,” Jeremiah said, leading the guy by the arm toward Marie, who was still fending off reporters at the door.
“Sheriff!” the radio at Marie’s hip erupted loud enough to be heard across the bar. “Suspect is out of her cuffs. Attempting to apprehend now.”
The bar went completely silent for a second.
And then Marie bolted for the door, the reporters and cameramen right on her tail. Hunter was right behind them.
“Get out of my way.” He shoved at the people bottlenecked at the door. Shit. He yanked a skinny guy with a huge camera around his neck out of the way and finally made it outside.
Just in time to see Isobel sprinting down the center of Main Street. A fat deputy trailed her, huffing and losing distance with every step. Isobel was screaming words he couldn’t make out. He immediately took off after her, noting with disgust that the fucking cameraman had set up his tripod and was recording the whole thing.
Isobel was more than half a block ahead of him and his heart all but stopped when she ran straight to her car.
“No!” he shouted. “No. Bel. Isobel!”
