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“He’s got the first one,” someone shouted. “Looks like two more back there.”
“It’s Mato and Levi,” Prim explained through chattering teeth. “They held me above the water so I could breathe.” She went on to describe a horrifying tale of the father and son taking turns holding their breath under the rising flood to keep her elevated. “Both of Mato’s hands are broken.”
She shuddered violently as he carried her from the tunnel into the cool night air.
Paramedics converged on them, wrapping them in blankets.
The Paddocks stumbled from the tunnel next and were taken into custody. Levi babbled nonstop to the federal agents aboutwanting a plea bargain. He was still negotiating when they led him and his son away in handcuffs.
Shep climbed into the waiting ambulance with Prim, unable to let go of her hand. She was clinging to him as tightly as he was clinging to her. No one made any attempt to pry them apart.
Sirens sounded as the train of emergency vehicles started to move.
The long nightmare was over.
EPILOGUE
June
Summer Midraven leaned back against the porch column and closed her eyes, allowing the warm dry wind to kiss her skin. Her sundress rippled around her knees.
A sigh blew from her lips as she wiggled her bare toes. “Texas feels so much better than New York. Sounds better, too.” Instead of the whine of sirens and drone of vehicles on busy streets, there were dogs barking and Prim laughing over something one of them did.
Good gracious, but she was never going to get tired of hearing that girl of hers laugh!
Shep gave a sharp whistle that made her eyelids fly open and her arms shoot out from her sides. She teetered like an airplane in a pocket of turbulence over the hard-packed ground below.
“I gotcha.” Caleb Whitaker’s large hand molded against her ribs, setting her back in place on the railing.
“Thanks.” She met his dark, searching gaze. It was full of curiosity, humor, and that tingling awareness that often happened between single and lonely people their age. It hadbeen a long time, though, since she’d felt the tingle of awareness from the roots of her long, wispy hair to the callused soles of her feet.
“No problem.” He didn’t keep his hand on her for long, which she appreciated. True gentlemen were a dying breed. She should know. She’d read the dating profiles of enough single and good-looking men to come to that conclusion years ago.
The more divorces a man had under his belt, the more unrealistic he became in his expectations. The average guy her age often was looking for a woman half her age. It was why she didn’t date. She’d learned to find happiness in simpler things like reading, long soaks in the tub, and smelling the wildflowers that sprouted literally everywhere.
She swiveled her head just in time to watch Prim tie on a padded apron for the next segment of her Saint Bernard’s training. Pink was wagging the entire back half of her body in glorious anticipation.
Prim pulled on a long padded sleeve that resembled an extra long oven mitt. It extended well past her elbow.
“I could use one of those,” Summer mused. “I’m forever burning myself when I pull casseroles out of the oven.”
Caleb leaned his forearms on the railing, looking like he was trying not to smile. “You stick around long enough, and I might show you how to make a proper mess in the kitchen.” He sent her a challenging look. “The kind that won’t end with you in a rocker on the back porch with a pinch of aloe vera pressed to your blisters.”
“I would like tha—oh!” She straightened and reached for his shoulder, inadvertently digging her fingers into the layers of rock hard muscle there.
She held her breath while Shep sent Pink barreling Prim’s way. Prim shook her arm, making fierce growling sounds. Pinksailed through the air and sank her teeth into the padded sleeve covering Prim’s forearm.
Summer’s insides went weak at the thought of what her daughter’s arm would look like without the long sleeve.
“Do they do this often?” She scanned Caleb’s face in pure puzzlement.
“Yep. Every chance they get. Always training together.”
“Because they’re such good friends, huh?” She narrowed her gaze on Prim as her daughter jogged, laughing, toward the handsome, young police officer. She slung an arm around his neck with an air of familiarity and intimacy that suggested it was something she did often.
Shep hooked her close with one muscular arm and nuzzled the hairline above Prim’s ear before letting her go.
“Very close friends,” Caleb stressed in a bland voice.
