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“Come on, let’s get Kyle to the hospital.” Ridge pulled his keys out of his pocket and grabbed my hand, leading me through the front door. I watched where I stepped, careful not to touch any blood coating the floor.
The deputies surveyed Kyle as if he were a criminal, even though he’d protected one of their own and defended himself. I opened my mouth to tell them to stop, but Ridge had me outside before I could unleash my irritation.
Ridge’s face was strained with worry as he kept a tight hold on my hand and kept glancing over at me as we headed to his car. The tension between Kyle and Ridge was palpable, but I was grateful for Ridge’s presence, for the safety and comfort he provided.
Ridge unlocked the SUV with his key fob, and Kyle mumbled something about flashy cars and rich shifters under his breath. Even with my enhanced hearing, I struggled to catch it, but I still wanted to tell my brother to cool it. Ridge squeezed my hand, and when I brought my eyes up to his, he gave his head a minuscule shake. He was taking the high road, ignoring Kyle’s glares and anything he had to say, which I was glad for, but it was only a reprieve because of everything going on.
Ridge opened the door for me and helped me inside, and a tiny part of me melted a little. It was nice being treated like a lady at times. Ridge did it all the time, and I loved it, which I never would have expected. After being immersed in Hunter 101, I’d never thought of myself as a girl again, much less a woman. From that point on, I’d become a soldier, trained to fight the monsters.
Hunters were sexless. That’s not to say we didn’t have sex, just that there was no difference in the way the sexes weretreated. While some women might have been appalled at the little touches Ridge insisted on—opening doors for me, pulling a chair out at the table—far from making me feel weak or inferior, he made me feel like a woman for the first time in my life. Hell, even helping with my seatbelt wasn’t demeaning; it proved to me he cared about my safety.
Once I was belted in, Ridge leaned over and brushed his lips over mine before he shut the door. In the backseat, Kyle huffed, but I kept my mouth shut. He was boiling inside, and I’d learned long ago to pick my battles when he got like that.
As we drove through the town square, I could see the fundraising festival was winding down. Booths were being dismantled and packed away as volunteers meandered around the town square, picking up trash. There was none of the pandemonium I’d expected to see, so they must not have heard the gunshots from Ridge’s manor. From the looks of things, the festival had carried on and had been quite successful. What a relief. I couldn’t speak for Ridge, but I didn’t want the news of the hunter attack to be spread quite yet, not until everything could calm a little. Neither of us was capable of handling mass panic on top of everything else at the moment.
People were still browsing the shops, which was great for the businesses and the local economy, but I couldn’t help wondering what was happening with the new shifters in town. Would Blackwood Creek be able to sustain such a large influx of people? Were there enough jobs? Would the shifters moving here even need jobs right away? If so, then what could people do? What skills would they bring to the town? This was a small town with a small economy. It didn’t have factories or anything of that sort. Then there was housing—yet another major hurdle that needed to be addressed.
As we passed Lola’s office, I scanned the area for her, but couldn’t see her anywhere. While her absence and the calmnessof the town square meant she hadn’t immediately gone around telling others what she’d seen, I worried about her well-being. I hoped she’d awakened from her fainting spell and was safe somewhere. We’d have to have a lengthy discussion, but I had to prioritize right now, and the sight of the blood on my brother, reminding me constantly that he was wounded, was number one. Checking in with Audrey was right up there.
As soon as I had a moment alone with Ridge, I would tell him. We’d never really discussed what happened when humans were exposed to our secrets. It had obviously happened before since Mateo, the owner of The Tipsy Tavern, was human and knew about shifters, but I didn’t know the rules about letting humans know, even inadvertently. I hoped Ridge wouldn’t be too angry with me.
When we reached the hospital, I let out a small sigh of relief. The same shifter doctor who’d treated me after Mrs. Marrow had stabbed me stepped forward. I knew I could trust this man. “Dr. Kemp, you have to help,” I said. “He’s been injured.”
“All right, Tori, bring him through, and I’ll take a look at him.”
We followed Dr. Kemp into the emergency room.
“There was a girl brought in by ambulance. Audrey, Audrey Greenthorne. Can you tell me how she is?” Kyle asked the doctor. “I need to know if she’s okay. I’ll heal; it’s just a scratch.”
“I’m sorry, sir. I cannot discuss a patient’s medical condition without proper authorization.” But Dr. Kemp was interrupted when one of the nurses shouted his name urgently. He looked up at Ridge and me. “Get your friend in a cubicle. A nurse will come to clean his chest wound. I’ll come back and stitch it up.”
When Kyle finally glanced down, he winced at the sight of his torn shirt and the deep four-inch-long scratch marking his left pectoral muscle.
“Come on, Kyle, you need to do as you’re told.” I pushed him into one of the curtained cubicles that divided the room. Thanks to his hunter’s augmented healing, the wound was already looking better than it had back at the manor.
He gave an impressive growl for a human, letting me know he was unimpressed. “Tori, I’m fine. I’ve had worse than this in training, and you know it. I need to see if Audrey is okay. It was James. Remember him? He went through training with you? Great shot with a silver bullet?”
An involuntary shiver ran up my spine. I remembered James. He was a mean, aggressive bastard with a trigger-happy finger. I also recalled, with some smugness, his unconscious form being cuffed and taken into Clawson’s custody.
As Kyle continued speaking, I didn’t miss the guilt in his voice. “I tried to get her out of the way. I knew they’d be using silver. But she jumped in front of the fucking bullets. Why would she do that? I tried to push her behind me, but it was like she had a death wish.” His eyes had become unfocused, and his tone distant. “I always told James he was too confident and left himself open, but he never fucking listened. I should have killed him, not just knocked him out.” His eyes cleared, and he looked at me, then Ridge, emphasizing each word. “I. Need. To. See. Her.”
“You did all you could, Kyle,” I said, trying to reassure him. “Audrey’s not some damsel-in-distress. You’ve given her a witch pill. I’m sure she’ll be fine.”
Despite my words, he was still trying to get off the bed to go find Audrey.
A nurse came into the cubicle with a basin of warm water and towels. She was an attractive blond woman, the kind of woman Kyle usually couldn’t help but flirt with—hell, if a person was female and breathing, Kyle usually flirted. “Would you mindwaiting outside while I clean the patient’s wounds?” she asked Ridge and me.
To my shock, it was like Kyle didn’t see the pretty nurse. His thoughts were apparently consumed solely by Audrey. Ridge and I stepped outside, and she pulled the curtain around the bed.
“Can you tell me how Audrey Greenthorne is?” I heard Kyle ask the nurse. “What room can I find her in?”
I smiled. Audrey had literally saved his life, and I knew he probably believed he was indebted to her in some way, but I didn’t interpret it like that. Other hunters had risked themselves to protect him before, and he was never this stressed out about them. My brother had fallen for the glamorous shifter. Not that he’d admit to it, but there was no other explanation. He was smitten with her, and I was eager to see how the dynamic between them would play out.
Ridge went up to a shifter nurse. She didn’t look familiar, but I hadn’t met everyone in the pack yet. Nodding respectfully, she acknowledged Ridge’s authority. “Alpha.”
“Clara, can you tell me Audrey Greenthorne’s condition and where we can find her, please?”
Ridge wasn’t Audrey’s family, but he was her alpha, so the nurse was free to give him the information without breaking patient confidentiality. I understood why he hadn’t inquired about Audrey’s well-being in front of Kyle—if Audrey was still being treated, my overprotective big brother didn’t need to get in their way. Ridge would also have to make sure Audrey wanted to see Kyle. Just because my brother was infatuated with her didn’t mean the privileged shifter would want anything to do with him.
