for a pair of bolt cutters to get her out of the chair. “I’m fine, sweetheart. It’s you we’re worried about.”
“Hit my head when Silver pulled me out the door,” she muttered. “You…you ran into a fire to save me.”
“Yeah. Turned out the furball here had already gotten you out.”
“But you hate fire.”
“Not as much as I love you.”
She blinked up at him and smiled. “I love you too.”
Ken cleared his throat. “I know you’ve better things to talk about, but are either of you hurt?”
Dash shook his head, though he coughed, having inhaled just a little bit of smoke.
78
Eagle’s Redemption
“Just a bump on the head,” Carmen assured them. “I think I blacked out mostly from overusing my healing ability.” Her eyes flew wider as she looked around at Silver.
“Shane—check Silver’s hip. I think I healed the bullet inside it.”
“We’ll take care of our four-legged hero,” Shane assured her. “I just hope the police caught Arroyo. He zipped past us, but since we saw the flames, we were more worried about getting here than stopping him.”
“Umm, Doc, I wouldn’t worry about that,” said one of the hands, who had just trudged up to the crowd as another couple of truckloads of men arrived. By now, most of the hands were working with buckets and the sirens grew closer, but Dash knew they wouldn’t be in time to save the shack. It didn’t matter, not as long as Carmen was safe.
“Saw his truck coming toward us, like a bat outta hell.” The hand jerked his thumb toward Dash, to indicate that it was his pickup. “Was about to hit the ditch just to get out of his way when the damnedest thing happened. Big ol’ eagle swooped right down in front of the pickup and screamed louder than anything I ever heard. Bastard ran right off the road into a tree. We stopped to pull him out, but he was deader ’n a doornail.”
“But eagles don’t fly at night,” Carmen whispered.
Ken sighed. “You know that, granddaughter, and so do I. But apparently your feathered friend forgot to read the textbook.”
79
Cindy Spencer Pape
Chapter Nine
By the time the paramedics had pronounced both of them more or less fit, and the sheriff had gotten all the information he needed, it was close to dawn when Dash and Carmen limped together into her house and up the stairs. Silverfoot was spending the night in Shane’s clinic. Carmen could barely put one foot in front of the other, but when Dash drew her into the shower with him and tenderly washed her from head to toe, she returned the favor, running her hands over the smooth skin and taut muscle she’d never thought she’d have the chance to touch again.
Finally, they dried each other off then tumbled into bed in a warm tangle of limbs.
“I want to make love to you more than anything in the world,” Dash murmured.
“But I don’t think either of us can stay awake long enough.”
“I’ll take a rain check,” she replied, settling back against his chest, her bottom pressed against his groin. The warmth and strength of his arms wrapped around her made her feel safer than she’d ever felt, even after all they’d been through tonight. “As soon as we wake up though, you’re all mine.”
“Honey, I’m all yours, period,” he said against her hair. The last words she heard before she drifted off into exhausted slumber were, “Love you.”
* * * * *
When she woke several hours later, the sun was streaming in through her window and Dash was still holding her.
“Good morning,” he said, nuzzling her ear. “How are you feeling?”
“A little bruised and battered, but lucky as hell that we’re both alive. You?”
“The same. Leg hurts like a bitch, but it’s been worse.”
80
Eagle’s Redemption
She knew he had an enormous bruise on his stomach where he’d been shot. Thank god for his bullet-proof vest. There was another on his cheekbone where Arroyo had kicked him. Rolling over, she looked up at him then leaned up to
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