Primal Force (33 page)

Maybe. But Law wasn't going anywhere until he saw his K-9 again.

Law drew in a breath, his shoulders arching, as the sound of voices rose at one end of the hall.

It wasn't unusual to see a hospital corridor full of uniforms when one of their own had been wounded. But the veterinary hospital had never seen anything like this. State and local law enforcement had turned out to stand vigil for the dog who had saved three people, including one of their own, from what the news was calling the Blizzard of the Century. So far. When they got details of a hostage situation … Law sighed. He hated being in the media.

Yet suddenly Sam was a celebrity, and very much a member of the Troop L Springdale office.

“
Oooh-whee.
I never saw anything like it. That dog has heart. She gave it everything she had.” The trooper who had followed Sam in his cruiser was gracing the vet staff with his version of events.

Another trooper chimed in. “Don't leave her owner out of it. Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. On a dog!”

A third added, “Trooper Battise is one of us, all right. Captures a fugitive. Rescues the girl. And saves his dog's life. All with his leg missing.”

Law scowled. “That's not exactly how it happened.”

“Be quiet, Law.” Jori snagged his arm. “They're building your legend. And just think of all the bragging rights this is going to earn you!”

Law ducked his head, but a smile tugged at his mouth. “I don't like things getting built up all out of proportion.”

Jori gaped at him. “To what?”

“You found us. Sam went for help. I was tied up.” Law shook his head.

“You came through when it counted. Ask Becker. And Sam. You're amazing.”

“I don't see it like that.” Law reached up to brush a thumb down the side of her face. They'd been given fresh clothes by the troopers who'd come to the vet's office to check on them. They'd washed up as best they could in the restroom. But Jori's face was still pinched with cold, and her eyes were dull and her mouth drawn with fatigue. He was going to get her to an emergency room to be checked out as soon as he saw Sam. Turned out, he was feeling pretty territorial, too. “I'm nobody's hero.”

“Sorry. No. Get used to the role.” Jori drew up her feet and snuggled down closer to him. “You saved Becker. After you talked him out of killing us. Sam went on your command to get help. When she couldn't go anymore, you saved her. You're awesome.”

“It's not that simple, Jori. Never simple with me.”

He rubbed his thumb alone her jawline, his sludge-gold gaze following its path. “I thought I was a goner when Becker skidded off that rise. We bounced around so much we should have been on the obit page tomorrow. Guess I've got a few lives left, after all.”

“Don't say that.” She touched a finger to his lips for a second. “I don't like to think of how much you risk on the job every day. And I know, before you say it, that it's not my business.”

“I wasn't going to say that.” He didn't smile at her, not quite yet ready to tell her everything he thought.

“It seemed like a miracle when Sam showed up. But I could deal with that.” He paused again, his face going serious. “However, I thought I heard the underbrush crackling under footsteps a few minutes later. I almost shouted to alert that someone that we were alive. But then I noticed Sam wasn't responding to those sounds.” His voice dipped. “So I chalked it up to…”

Flashback. Hallucination.
They both knew that's what he meant.

“Sam and I were together. She knew it was me.” But Jori didn't want this bright moment in a tough day to turn dark. Not after all they'd been through.

She put a hand on his chest and began smoothing it across the one ab. “In other words, you would have been dreaming it was me, if I hadn't actually showed up?”

Law looked into her eyes with a heated intensity that was impossible to misunderstand, but said nothing.

So she plunged on. “Sorry, you don't get rid of me that easily.”

“Mr. Battise?”

Law looked up, relieved to see the veterinarian coming toward him. “You can see Sam now. She's feeling pretty frisky, considering what's she's been through.”

That drew a shout of joy and relief from the throng of his fellow officers. “Way to go, Doc!”

The veterinarian nodded in acknowledgment. “Don't be alarmed that we have her restrained. Don't want her to damage her paws before we're sure about the possibility of frostbite issues. If you'd like to follow me.”

Law looked down at his missing leg. He had come in on the backs of two colleagues. Getting to Sam was getting to be a burden for others.

“Got your back, Battise.” One the troopers appeared with a pair of crutches. “One of the vet's assistants broke her ankle at Thanksgiving. She says you can borrow these until you leave.”

Law stood up on one leg as easily as most people do on two to accept the crutches. He tried them out. But they were so short he had to hunch over.

The trooper laughed. “Did I say she's five foot two? Improvise, Trooper. Improvise.”

Law looked back at Jori. “Coming?”

She shook her head. “You first. She's your dog.”

He nodded and moved to follow the doctor.

Jori sighed and watched Law navigate the crutches. He should have been a foolish sight. But she'd learned the first time she'd met him that Law didn't have a disability. All that tough male grace was an innate part of him that went deeper than two legs. Lauray Battise was a force unto himself.

Her heart shuddered.

Oh no.
She'd skipped over all the steps between attracted—things such as “like,” “fond of,” “comfortable with,” “connected to,” “starting to see a future”—and love.

She swallowed and pulled her legs up in her chair then wrapped her arms around them and rested her chin on her knees.

It was a stupid thing to do. He'd warned her. She'd seen him in action. When things got tough, he pulled so far inside himself that up until a few hours ago, he had probably been determined never to see her again.

That thought gave her palpitations.

Regardless of all that had happened he had yet to ask why she was here.

And until this moment, she hadn't been sure, either.

Whatever was going on inside her had nothing to do with his feelings, or even his approval. It went deeper than that.

This feeling was wild, tough, unreasonable. The kind of love where you know that, whatever happens, it will remain.

Even if he didn't.

It felt scary but good, certain and real. It was an outflow of emotions from her heart toward the heart of this hard-to-love man. It was unconnected to the hope that he might, should, must return it. No, this kind of loving was a gift.

Hold what you love in your open palm. If it remains, it's yours.

She'd heard that somewhere, or words to that effect.

Law's head might not ever get to
love
with her. But it was enough for now that she was there.
Now
was all anyone every really had.

And it felt so damn great.

She was grateful for the now of loving Lauray Battise.

Jori looked up. Where had everyone gone? The hallway was empty. Except for Law, standing at the counter.

Her heart flipped over at the sight of him. Lust stirred much lower. But in her gut, fear flickered. She didn't have a prayer.

“You are an idiot, Jori Garrison,” she whispered to herself. She wanted him, all of him, and for him to want her back.

The phone in her pocket chimed. She looked at the number. It wasn't one she knew.

“Hi. You must be Wonder Woman.”

“Uh, I'm Jori Garrison. And you are?”

“Jori. He never told me your name. I'm Yardley, Law's sister.”

Jori's eyes got big as Battise came toward her. She put a hand up to block her voice and whispered, “Law told you about me?”

“Let's just say that I heard what he wasn't saying. Heard about your adventure today. You and I have lots to talk about. Privately.”

“Okay. Then I'll have to call you back.” The legendary Yardley Summers had called her!

Law thumped his way over to her chair. “Sam looks good.”

“I can tell. You're perfumed with her tongue.”

He smiled a little through his weariness. “Want a kiss, babe?”

Jori held up her hand. “Later. You're a few Tic Tacs short of yummy.”

“Let's go.”

“Where are we going?”

“I've called in a favor with a fellow trooper. You're going to the emergency room.”

Jori stood up. “Think again.”

Law stared at her. “I don't have a vehicle. You don't have a vehicle. It's still snowing. What do you suggest?”

“I need a bath and dinner.”

He studied her for a long moment, noting her color, her breathing rate, and the pulse beating in the hollow of her throat before nodding. “Got it.”

 

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

“This isn't exactly what I had in mind.”

Jori looked around the neat but too-frilly-for-her-taste bedroom of the B&B. It was the place Troop L used when an officer who lived in the county needed to stay close to the office overnight. It had been years, but Mrs. Watson remembered Law and readily agreed to give Jori a room.

Law stood just inside the door, looking about as comfortable as a six-year-old in a crystal shop. “The owner says she's got a can of soup she can heat up for you. I've arranged to have your car towed here as soon as the roads are passable.” Something struck him. “You didn't leave Argyle in your SUV?”

“No. I didn't think I'd be staying overnight. I left her at WWP.” She hadn't thought through a lot of things. For instance, how Law would react to her presence. She'd used her need to know about the Tices as an excuse to see him. Now it seemed like the ridiculous errand it was.

She started to sit on the bed but then thought better of it. She dropped into a small wicker chair next to a matching wicker table. “Make yourself at home.”

He let out a long breath. “I'm not staying.”

Jori popped up. “You're not thinking of going back out in that storm?”

He came close and pushed her back into her seat with a palm to her shoulder. Efficient but not very lover-like. “
Shh.
You're exhausted. I don't want to argue. I'm not staying with you.”

She gave him a doubtful stare from her seated position. He had developed a black eye, and the vet had glued the cut over his eye shut. Even so, he looked dangerous, and sexy. She immediately regretted that selfish thought. He held his left shoulder hitched a fraction higher than the other when he used the crutches. How badly did it hurt him? He looked ready to drop.

“Where are you going to sleep?”

“At my desk, eventually.” He shrugged only his right shoulder. “I've a mountain of paperwork to fill out about what happened today. The feds have questions for me. My captain has his own set. My truck's been totaled so I have to see about that, insurance, towing. And then I'll need to withdraw from the state police physical tomorrow.” He looked down at himself. “It's not going to happen. My prosthesis may not fit for a few days.”

Jori's gaze dropped to the pinned-up leg of the sweatpants he wore. He must be in a lot of pain, but he wouldn't admit it. “It doesn't seem fair. You worked so hard.”

He shrugged. “I've waited this long.”

She reached out as if to touch him but stopped short at his backward step. She wondered what constellation of bruises lay underneath the Trooper L sweatshirt he wore. He'd been tossed like a salad in that tumbling truck. He probably needed first aid more than she did. But she saw it in his gaze. She didn't have permission to invade his space just now.

Law was grateful for every inch between her hand and his body. If she had touched him …

He looked back at the window where winter was doing its best Disneyland version of
Frozen.
“It's still snowing.”

“I noticed.” She rubbed her brow. “You should at least get a shower.”

He stared at her until her head came up and a little smile appeared on her face.

“I promise I won't attack you. I'm too exhausted.”

He didn't smile. “I can't make the same promise.”

That brought color to her cheeks and reminded Law that even battered and bruised, he still had the capability to rise to the occasion of Jori. “I'll take my chances.”

He shook his head. “No. You called me five times this morning. Yeah. I got the messages before my run-in with Becker.”

He pushed back against the hurt that suddenly shadowed her gaze because he hadn't returned any of them. He needed to be very clear. He was an officer of the law at the moment with business to finish. “Why were you coming to see me this morning?”

He saw her reach back through the long hours of this day. It was only one thirty in the afternoon. “When I woke up I saw the news about Harold Tice being arrested as a suspect in a drug trafficking ring. I called because I thought you'd know more.”

“So did Becker.” Law let out a long sigh, the only indication that he was so tired he was practically asleep standing up on insufficient crutches and one very sore good leg.

“When you didn't answer I couldn't wait. I needed to know what you knew. That's why I drove over. To talk.”

He knew she added those last two words as a defense, because the flush creeping up her neck was working on him, too. For that reason, he owed her a glimpse of what was on his mind. Now that they were safe. He was running an operation in his head one step after another.

“Becker was rattled when he came to see me today. He got the drop on me as I was coming off night duty. But it had nothing to do with the task force roundup. He claims that was a mistake. He isn't part of a trafficking ring.”