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“Shit! Frankie, it’s Cace, can you hear me, baby? You’re safe, I’ve got you now.” Rage took over his body. He wanted to chase after her attacker, but he couldn’t leave her vulnerable; at least she had a pulse and was breathing. The asshole had done a number on her. Cace ran his hand gently over her head, talking to her softly as he checked for injuries, hoping she could hear him.
Cace relayed information to the operator. “She has a pulse. I think she’s passed out from the pain, her right eye is swollen. When I was running towards her the attacker was kicking her, but I scared him off. So, she may have injuries to her body, her nails have blood under them.” Cace felt a little elated. “That’s my girl, Frankie. DNA!” He looked around and saw her baton on the floor. “You will need your Forensic guys here; there’s blood and I don’t think it’s all hers.”
“Mr O’Reilly, officers should be with you any minute now, along with the paramedics.” Cace got up as he saw the two officers and the paramedics run towards him.
“I see them, I’ll let you go now.” Cace got to his feet and waited by Frankie.
“Who are you?” asked one of the officers warily as he moved closer.
Cace stepped towards the officer. “Cace O’Reilly, where the fuck were you and why was she alone?”
The Paramedic crew glared at them, shaking their heads as they pushed past to get to Frankie. “You can see who has the biggest dick later, I need to check on the patient. You come with me. What can you tell me?”
Cace looked down at the female Paramedic as she checked Frankie over and spoke quietly to her colleague who passed her equipment from her bag. “She had a pulse but was out of it when I got here. Her breathing changed slightly after I started talking to her, she recognised my voice. Her attacker kicked her while she was down before I could get to her. Her name is Frankie, I mean Francesca Matthews.”
The paramedics continued to work on Frankie as Cace turned to the two officers. “Well did you at least catch the fuckers? Who did this?”
The two men just glared at him as more officers arrived, running towards them from different directions. Cace overheard on the officer’s radio that the dog unit had detained one suspect and another crew had caught the other guy.
Cace’s phone rang as he walked away from the officers. He needed to get his temper in check. “O’Reilly, what’s up?” He walked further along the path away from the scene, but where he could keep Frankie in his line of sight.
“Cuz, you ok? You look like you’re going to do something stupid and get yourself in trouble from the camera feed. Who was attacked?”
Cace peeked up at the camera, knowing his cousin was watching his back. “You remember Frankie the woman I was seeing until a few years ago? She’s a copper now, it was her!”
Michael sighed. “Shit! Man, I’m sorry. Is she going to be ok?”
Cace turned to observe the Paramedics as they worked on Frankie. She was at least conscious now. “I honestly don’t know. She took a beating, but it looks like she gave a good fight. Can you check if your dad or brother knows anyone who can help me out? I was pissed off that she was hurt and snapped at the local coppers.”
Michael laughed. “I’ll call Sullivan, see if he’s available. He’s a friend.” The line went dead.
Cace walked back to Frankie as she was being placed on a stretcher but a young officer blocked his way. “Son, get out of my way or you’re going in that fucking canal headfirst!”
Frankie groaned. She hadn’t imagined that voice talking to her; he was back. She called out to them both, “Stand down, O’Reilly. Markson, what are you doing? He helped me, let him through and he will not be throwing anyone in the canal.”
Frankie tried to lift her head but couldn’t, the pain was too much. She watched as Cace stalked passed Markson, towards her like a panther. “Heard you bought the old place, thanks for coming to my rescue.”
Cace leaned in and stroked her blood-stained hair from her face. “You’re welcome, baby,” he whispered in her ear. He checked that everyone was watching as he placed a kiss near her ear.
Frankie tried to move her head away, as she hissed, “What are you doing?” He was staking a claim. Any man watching would know. He was daring them to try and be stupid enough to stand between him and Frankie again.
Cace whispered, “Shh, Michael is looking at our cameras to see if they caught what happened. They cover this side of the canal as well as the bridge. Do you want me to hand it over or do you want to see it first?”
“Do they know you have cameras?” she whispered back as he continued to stroke her hair.
“They won’t until morning. Even then, they may not notice them during daylight unless we let them on our property. The path lights have been broken on this side and it looks recent as there was glass on the ground.”
Frankie thought for a moment. “In that case me first, something didn’t feel right. I’m sure someone else was there, watching. I only saw two men and they came into the park.”
Cace didn’t like it. Frankie always had good instincts.
“I’m coming to the hospital with you.” There was no way he was letting anyone else go with her, not until he found out what had happened.
“Nope. I’ll be fine, go home.” She just wanted everyone gone. She knew she’d been stupid going off on her own and she didn’t need everyone feeling sorry for her.
“I’m not going to let you push me away this time. You have a lot of explaining to do sweetheart; like why you never told me you’re a cop.” Frankie laid her head back on the stretcher as her mind raced. Her head was pounding and she couldn’t deal with the male drama right now. “What I will tell you is, I’m back for good. If you think something feels off, I believe you?” Frankie raised her face to the night sky. She nodded as the paramedics wheeled her off to the ambulance and Cace walked with her.
CHAPTER THREE
