Page 54 of Rancher to the Rescue
Just as her fingers were about to give, the suit spun around. The next thing Prudence knew, his back slammed up against her door. She hit the lock button and scrambled to get out from the driver’s side as Adam threw a punch so hard the man’s head snapped to the right.
She ran her hand along the floorboard, searching for a weapon. Bingo. She curled her fingers around a handle and then pulled out a hammer.
As she rounded the back of the truck, she caught sight of blood.
The next few moments happened in slow motion.
Adam threw a punch so hard she heard the suit’s jaw snap. She was certain he’d broken bone. As Adam brought his fist up for another round, blood squirted from his hand. A lot of blood.
She glanced around for some kind of weapon. A knife?
The glint of metal five feet behind Adam caught her eye. Suit must’ve found it at the same time because he lunged toward Adam, using the truck to deliver enough force to knock Adam back a couple of steps.
As the suit dropped to the ground, Prudence dove toward the knife. She knocked it farther away half a second before the suit got there. Her skin burned where the concrete shredded her forearm as she landed. She managed to keep her head from slamming into the pavement.
But the suit gripped her by the chin, squeezing until she thought her eyeballs might pop out.
“Where’s the kid?” he ground out.
With all her strength, she slammed the hammer into his forehead as Adam literally pulled the man off her. The suit went flying up, hands behind his back as Adam put him in some type of wrestling lock.
The suit’s head snapped back, and he blinked a few times like he was barely holding onto consciousness.
The sweet sound of sirens split the air. Help was coming.
Still, she scrambled toward the knife and kicked it as far as she could. The sound of metal grinding across concrete caused her shoulders to tense.
“You’ll never find her,” Adam said, hauling the suit chest first over the hood of the pickup truck.
“They will.” Adrenaline must have kicked in, giving the lawyer a boost to stay coherent. Blood splattered from his nose and colored his teeth in what looked like red dye.
Who would? The grandparents? Her main concern right now was Adam. Blood dripped from his elbow. There was a lot. Too much.
Lawler’s SUV roared up to the scene. He was out of the driver’s seat and handcuffing the suit faster than Prudence could say, under arrest.
“I’m a lawyer,” the suit claimed. “I’ll sue the shirt off this department if I’m not provided emergency medical care now.”
Lawler quickly assessed the scene.
“You’ll have access to medicine,” he said. Right now, though, I plan to read your rights.” He walked the lawyer over to the back of the SUV and moved him inside as he started with, “You have the right to remain silent…”
Prudence hopped to her feet and ran to Adam. Lawler was there. The lawyer was going to jail. The news seemed to sink in as he confessed that he’d been hired by the Warringtons to make ‘the little problem’ go away.
Would they sign over their rights and walk away now? They wouldn’t need to. She overheard Lawler making the call to his office to place them both under arrest.
She skimmed Adam, looking for signs of injury. Her gaze stopped on his arm where blood pulsed out of his wound. “You’re hurt.”
“It’s a scratch. I need something to tie it off with,” he said. “Stop the bleeding.”
She immediately found a towel in his backseat.
He tied off his arm above the wound, which stemmed the bleeding while an ambulance pulled up, and a pair EMTs came bolting toward them.
“Let’s have a look at that injury, sir,” one of them said. He was young, early twenties if Prudence had to guess. All she could think of was how easily it would have been to lose Adam today. The thought gutted her. Her heart squeezed because in that instant, she saw a different future unfold. One where he was gone and her life was empty.
She couldn’t allow that to happen, not without fighting for the future she wanted. Needed?
Yes, she needed Adam in her life and she had to know if he felt the same.
