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“But, sir—” Colin protested, like Handley knew he would. Colin took protecting Handley seriously. And always had.
“Now.” Bodies wouldn’t be out this far from town without good reason. Someone was in trouble. And he wasn’t about to just drive on by.
Colin turned the car around, just like he’d been ordered. Handley saw something he didn’t believe at first, there in the headlights.
“It’s two girls or women, I think. One’s hurt,” Colin said. “Stay here. I’ll see what they need.”
“Hurry. They look very young. They might be teenagers.” Nothing angered Handley more than a child hurt. Nothing. He watched Colin open the door and run to the shorter young woman’s side. She took a step back. Afraid.
He would never forget the fear on her face, accented by the headlights she was just staring at.
Handley acted before he thought about the consequences.
The only way he was staying hidden in Finley Creek was by keeping himself out of sight. By using different leased cars registered in fictious names. But he couldn’t in all good conscience sit back and do nothing. Not while two young women were hurt.
He opened the rear door and stepped out. Approached the two young women cautiously. He didn’t want to frighten them.
“Let’s get them in the car. We’re going to turn around. Take them back to Finley Creek.”
“This woman has been shot. They are TSP. I don’t think we should get involved. We can call 911. But we need to get you out of the city tonight. Or at least switch vehicles.”
Handley considered his options quickly. They were much closer to Finley Creek than Value. And leaving an injured young woman alongside the highway wasn’t going to be something he would ever do. He was a better man than that. Despite what others thought. “The hospital in Finley Creek, then. Rafael’s. Let’s get them there quickly.”
He studied the girls, in the light from his headlamps. Young. So young. And afraid.
“You…you’re…” The one in the glasses stared at him. Almost in awe. She was a sweet looking little thing. In a shirt with Texas State Police embroidered in white thread that almost glowed in the night. “You’re Powell’s uncle.”
He hadn’t expected her to say that. To recognize him as that.
Handley paused, right next to the thinner girl. She was a bit taller than her friend, but very thin. “Yes, I am. You are…”
“Madison McAlister. I’m friends with Powell and Haldyn mostly. But Mel and Annie, too. Annie is married to Turner now.”
“And this young lady?” That had just cinched it for him. He wasn’t about to leave one of his niece’s little friends out there along a dark and lonely highway. Handley just wasn’t. The taller girl swayed. Almost fell.
Handley bent down and scooped the injured one close. She was barely standing as it was. Big dark eyes stared at him in the headlights. Eyes as dark as his Connie’s used to be. His Connie had been a thinner woman, too. Just as young when he had first seen her in a marketplace so long ago.
For a moment, he was catapulted back in time to the moment he had met her.
The girl shook in his arms. Handley tightened his hold. She whimpered. Anger went through him. Someone had hurt her. There was no denying that. Her thin arm hooked around his neck. Weakly. And she shook against him. He could practically feel her heart pounding against him.
A rush of tenderness, protectiveness, went through him.
“The name is Hope…Coleson. Hi, rich fugitive dude,” Her words were broken, but he heard the spirit there. He suspected this one was a fighter. And at any other time, a handful. “Small world. Alex…is my neighbor, you know. We’re supposed to be the annoying neighbors, but Alex keeps showing up, right at dinner time, every night lately. We just can’t seem to get rid of him. So my mom just sets another place at our table...”
Handley had read about the Colesons, of course. This was one of Heather’s family, though he couldn’t recall if she was a niece or a sister. “Come. I will take you to the hospital, where your family works.”
She never answered. Poor girl was limp in his arms.
“Who shot her?” Handley demanded of the other girl. If either had hit thirty, he would be surprised. Girls. Just girls. And someone had hurt them.
“A guy with the TSP. He and another guy were involved in drugs. Please, I need to get her to the hospital. He took Haldyn. That guy took Haldyn, too. I didn’t know what to do. Haldyn pushed us out of the van and yelled at us to run. We have to find help for her, too. But Hope…Hope’s been shot and she’s hurting and I didn’t know what to do. So we just started walking.”
Handley’s blood chilled at her broken words. Haldyn.
He carried the Coleson girl to the rear of his limo. She was very thin—it wasn’t too much of a struggle for him to hold her. Colin helped get her in the rear seat, then helped her friend follow. “Hurry. Get them to FCGH. Hurry.”
“But, sir?—”
