to ask you a few questions for the report.”
Her answering smile looked more like a wince. “It kind of hurts to talk.”
His chest tightened. If he’d just manned up and gone to Dad’s place the day he’d pulled into town, he might have averted this whole incident. “You really were amazing back there. Held it together when most people would’ve freaked.”
Once again the compliment seemed to make her uncomfortable, or maybe it was him. Her gaze flitted from her partner to the police cruiser to the vicinity of his chin. “Would you have zapped him?”
“In a heartbeat. If I’d had a clear shot.”
Anguish flickered in her eyes, reminding him of the caring girl who’d nursed back to health every injured creature he’d brought to her doorstep.
He reached for her hand as naturally as she’d reached for his the day he’d been the injured creature on her doorstep. Her fingers felt like ice and remained coolly rigid. “I love my brother, Sherri. But your welfare comes first.”
Her surprised gaze jumped to his.
“I’m not going to stand by and do nothing while he hurts innocent people,” he added, needing to convince her for a reason he didn’t want to examine too closely.
Her gaze dove back to the sidewalk as her hand slipped from his grasp.
Her retreat hurt more than it should have, considering she’d just been ambushed by his brother.
“Listen, I can come by the ambulance base later to get your statement. But I need to confirm a couple of things. Eddie took you hostage to coerce you into handing over narcotics?”
“Not at first. I surprised him when—” grimacing, she splayed her fingers over her throat and sank back to the porch step “—when he was trying to break into the cabinet.”
“Okay.” He hated to press her for details when talking was obviously painful. But... “One more question for now. Do you have any idea who the guy he referred to is?”
She shook her head.
Cole pocketed his notebook and hunkered down in front of her until she couldn’t help but look at him. “I’ll make sure Eddie never bothers you again. I promise.” The disbelief that flickered in her eyes at her nod pierced clean through his soul. “I’m sorry this happened.”
“Fat lot of good sorry does her,” her partner growled, stalking toward them. “You need to lock that punk up and throw away the key. He’s done nothing but terrorize Sherri for weeks!”
“What?” Cole’s heart couldn’t have jolted harder if the guy had slapped paddles on his chest and zapped him. He jerked his attention back to Sherri. “Is that true?”
She shook her head repeatedly this time.
“Someone’s doing it,” her partner hissed.
“Whoa, whoa. Back up a second.” Cole pulled out his notebook again. “These incidents, were they reported?”
“No, they’ve been little things. The kind of things that could happen to any paramedic. Crank calls. Getting sideswiped.” He motioned toward Sherri’s black eye. “Assaults.”
“So what makes you think that Eddie’s behind them? They all sound pretty random.”
“’Cause they only happen to her!”
The color drained from Sherri’s face, her white cheeks a sickeningly stark contrast to the bruises around her eyes and throat. “Dan, leave it alone,” she whispered.
Cole’s heart lurched. She was afraid. Anyone with two eyes could see it. So why didn’t she want the incidents investigated? Did she know who was behind the other attacks?
Dan shot a scowl toward the rear window of the cruiser. “A kid like that doesn’t hang around a neighborhood like this. No way did he just happen upon our ambulance. Not unless he’s breaking into old folks’ houses to grab their prescription meds.” His lips curled menacingly. “Either way, he needs to be locked up.”
“No argument here,” Zeke agreed, his rear resting on the cruiser’s hood, his legs stretched casually in front of him, his arms crossed.
Cole ignored him, focusing instead on Sherri as he clasped her elbow. “When I come by I’ll want details on every suspicious incident.” Her trembling reverberated through him, sending way too many unwelcome scenarios bouncing around his brain.
Her lips flattened into a silent line, and she stepped backward toward her truck.
“Okay?” he pressed. “I want to help you get to the bottom of what’s going on.”
Zeke snorted. “Why don’t you start by barking up your own family tree?”
Sherri wrapped her arms tightly around her middle and shook her head. “It’s not your problem, Cole.”
“I’m making it my problem.”
“What am I going to do with you?” Sherri’s boss rested his hip on the corner of his cluttered desk. “Every time I turn around you’re getting into trouble.”
The rain that had started soon after Eddie’s attack now pelted the office window as fast and furiously as her heart pinging her ribs. The ambulance base was a three-strike operation. Not that any of the incidents that had happened to her lately could really be called strikes, no matter how much her boss liked to intimate as much. Yes, she’d left the ambulance unlocked, but not one of their paramedics would have thought twice about leaving it unlocked in that neighborhood. “I’m sorry, sir,” she said.
“I’d like you to take a few days off.”
“That’s not necessary.” The last thing she wanted was free time. The busier she kept, the less time she had to think. To relive her dead partner’s shooting. She swallowed and caught herself wincing at the pain still plaguing her throat courtesy of Eddie’s stranglehold. “I’m fine. Really.” Or she would be if she could shut out the memory of Cole’s concerned gaze searching hers and his husky declaration that he was making her problem his problem.
“You may be fine,” her boss scolded, “but the station’s morale has hit rock bottom. One more incident like this and no one’s going to want to work with you. You know what they call you?”
“Yes, sir.” She lifted her chin. Princess Dark Cloud was actually a step up from what they used to call her—Ice Queen.
He studied her in silence for an unnervingly long moment. “Your partner Dan has convinced one of the sheriff’s deputies that the incidents haven’t been merely unlucky coincidences. Is that what you think?”
Sherri pressed her sweaty palms against her navy blue slacks, debating her response. Her boss wouldn’t want to hear what she really thought. But she heard the way her fellow officers still whispered about the shooting when they thought she wasn’t around. They blamed her for letting Luke die.
