Wyoming Christmas Peril by Kathie Ridings

Author:Kathie Ridings
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2021-09-13T15:14:49+00:00

* * *

Sean held Bailey to him as Blane followed Levi in his pursuit of Harold Crowley. When he’d seen the man holding a gun on her and then pulling the scarf so tight that she choked, he thought he would come unglued. The adrenaline that had surged through his body helped to clear out some of whatever drug Crowley had injected into his arm, but his muscles and balance were still having a hard time trying to catch up.

Burying his face in her silky copper hair, he breathed in the scent of her herbal shampoo. “Are you all right?”

“I am now,” she said, wrapping her arms around his waist and laying her head against his chest. “What happened to you? What did Crowley do?”

“I had just entered the kitchen when he came in from the mudroom.” He shook his head. “He hit me with the stun gun almost before I realized it was him.” He turned them to start up the steps. He wasn’t sure how much longer his legs would support him, and falling on his face in the snow in front of her wasn’t the kind of impression he wanted to make. “Let’s go inside and sit down. We can start trying to figure this out in there.”

With her help, he managed to navigate the porch steps to get inside. Once they were in the great room, he sank down on the heavy leather couch, pulling her down to sit beside him. “Are you sure you’re all right? I saw him choking you with your scarf.”

“It hurt when he was pulling it tight, but I don’t think there’s any real injury. I’m able to breathe and swallow without any problems,” she said, unwinding the crocheted wrap and taking her coat off. “Now I’m just angry that I wasn’t able to slow him down enough for your brothers to apprehend.”

The moment she revealed the damage Crowley had caused—the bands of angry, reddish-purple marring her tender skin—the urge to go after the career criminal became a fire in his belly that wasn’t going to go away anytime soon. It was one thing to Taser and drug him, but treating a vulnerable woman the way he’d done with Bailey was totally indefensible.

Gently touching the ugly marks on her throat with his fingertips, Sean shook his head. “If I have anything to do with it, he’ll never touch you again.”

The front door suddenly opened and Blane and Levi entered the great room. With just a glance, he could tell his brothers weren’t happy. “Crowley must have had someone waiting for him close by,” Levi said, taking off his coat and sitting down on the raised hearth of the river-rock fireplace. “We tracked him into the woods, but lost any sign of him about a quarter of a mile from the main road.”

“And we heard a car pull out from close by,” Blane added. “But all we could see were taillights as they raced away.”

“Who was caught out by the barn?” Sean asked, wondering if it was the leak from the Cheyenne field office.

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