Harlequin Intrigue September 2014 - Bundle 2 of 2: Way of the Shadows\The Wharf\Stalked by Cynthia Eden

Author:Cynthia Eden
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4603-4569-6
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2014-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

She must’ve screamed.

“What is it?” Ryan bumped her shoulder as he crowded past her into the room. He swore and strode across the carpet, dropping to the floor next to Cookie’s body.

“What happened to her?” Kacie felt like such a chicken, but she stayed back, clinging to the doorjamb.

“Call 911. She’s still breathing.”

Kacie twirled around to retrieve the purse she’d left on the kitchen counter. Now she really felt like a coward. The woman was alive and suffering, and all she could do was scream like a ninny.

She dumped the contents of her purse onto the counter and grabbed her cell phone. She babbled over the phone until the operator asked her for the address.

She knew the street name and stumbled outside to read the number from the front of the house.

Clutching her phone between clammy hands, she returned to the bedroom. Ryan had found a towel and was wrapping it around Cookie’s head, stanching the flow of her blood.

“An ambulance is on the way. What happened to her? Is she going to be okay?”

“Someone beat her to a pulp.” Ryan tucked in the ends of the towel to secure it and picked up Cookie’s wrist to feel for a pulse. “As to whether or not she’s going to be okay, I have no idea. She’s in bad shape.”

Kacie’s stomach churned and she sealed one hand over her mouth.

Sirens wailed, and Ryan glanced up. “Go out front and meet them.”

Grateful to have something useful to do, Kacie rushed from the room and tripped onto the porch. The ambulance came to a screeching halt behind Cookie’s car, with two cop cars hot on its heels.

As she led the EMTs to Cookie’s inert form, she told them as much as she knew. They got to work immediately as Ryan backed up, giving them space.

He held out his hands, stained with Cookie’s blood.

“Did she say anything, Ryan? Was she conscious?”

“No.”

The presence of the police officers halted any conversation between her and Ryan. She’d wondered how much of the truth Ryan was prepared to give to the cops, but she should’ve known better. He told them everything. Of course, they’d have probably figured out sooner or later that Ryan Brody, the police chief of Crestview, wasn’t house shopping in the city.

Before their conversation with the police ended, the EMTs wheeled Cookie from the house.

“Wait—her purse.” Kacie grabbed Cookie’s purse from the counter, and her phone slid out. Her eyes shifted to the side, where Ryan was still talking to the cops, and then she snatched the phone and slid it into her back pocket.

Not everyone was as honest as Ryan Brody.

She dangled the purse from its handle. “Should this go with her to the hospital?”

“We’ll take that, ma’am.” One of the cops held out his hand and she hung the purse over his arm.

The police kept them for another fifteen minutes before releasing them, although the work of law enforcement had just begun. She and Ryan crossed paths with a horde of crime-scene investigators and additional cops and detectives.

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