“I’ll be fine,” he promised her. “Can you step out of the truck? I want to get a look at you.”
With Lawson’s hand under her arm, and Sarah pushing up on the seat, she managed to get herself up and stepped out of the truck.
First thing she noticed was that the square was empty—everyone who had been here before must have scattered when the gunfire started. She knew this incident would change the fabric of the town entirely.
She craned her head around as Lawson looked her over and her heart dropped when she saw someone sprawled, not moving, on the ground next to the police station.
Lawson saw her staring, and shifted so that he was blocking her view.
“Hey, you don’t need to see that,” he told her gently.
“Who is that?” she demanded, voice trembling. “The sheriff?”
“No, the sheriff’s okay.”
“Well, who is that? What happened?” she asked again.
“I don’t know exactly yet,” he admitted with a sigh. “But Donner and Adams were both rushing out of the station firing, so I’d guess somehow they managed to get weapons off a couple officers inside and made a run for it. The sheriff and his guys are not used to dealing with men like these.”
“They both had guns?” she gasped. “And they—they were shooting at you?”
“Yeah, trying to make good on their threats, I suppose,” he replied as he gazed down at her. She could feel the tension radiating off him, and she knew he must be unnerved by what happened, though he was doing everything he could not to let her see it.
“So the dead guy is one of them?”
He gestured behind him, toward the unmoving body on the sidewalk. “Jim Adams.”
“Oh,” she replied. A bad guy was dead. And Lawson, if she was guessing right, had been the one to kill him. The thought made her stomach twist into knots. He’d done what he’d had to do, of course, but she had never imagined she would see something like that, and definitely not here in Blue Ridge.
“And what about the other one?” she asked.
“Donner made a break for it,” he admitted.
Her eyes widened. They hadn’t recaptured him. The other man was gone. Sarah wrapped her arms around her middle. The thought of that man running back to Granger and then him setting his sights on this town… The danger around them had just multiplied tenfold.
A few officers emerged from the station to deal with the mess that had been left outside their building and to take care of Jim Adams’s body. The sun was fading now, bringing a dark night. A cold chill ran through Sarah’s body, though she knew it was nothing to do with the weather.
“They said they were going to come after you,” she muttered.
Lawson nodded. “They did,” he replied.
She could tell by his posture that he wished he hadn’t told her that. But that didn’t matter now. She already knew they’d all be in danger when the guys first set out to find the men kidnapping women on the mountain road.
“So, what now?” she asked as they continued to glance around the damaged town square.
“I’ve got to go back over and give a statement and check in with the sheriff,” Lawson told Sarah. “Do you want to come with me, or go back and wait inside the café?”
Sarah shivered again and shook her head. No way was she staying here by herself, not after what just happened. “I’ll come with you,” she said quickly and latched on to his hand.
Lawson nodded and wrapped his arm around her as they made their way across the square and back into the police station, meeting Sheriff Willis at the door. He left Sarah in the waiting area and followed the angry sheriff back to the interrogation room.
After what felt like forever, Lawson reemerged looking more haggard and holding his side like he was in pain.
He walked right up to Sarah and drew her into his arms, then kissed her forehead.
“Come on, we need to get you back to the lodge,” he told her. She didn’t speak as he steered her gently back toward the truck. Gun smoke still lingered in the air, the scent of it cloying in her nostrils. She wanted to forget this had ever happened, but she knew it wouldn’t be that easy. Especially with Lawson being hurt.
“You should have had someone look at your wound while you were in there,” she gently chided.