Delivering His Gifts (Mountain Men of Liberty #10)- K.C. Crowne Page 0,65

took Eli’s place and helped me to the ground.

“He went that way,” I said, pointing in the direction the man had run.

“I’ll go search for him,” Eli said.

“No. He’s armed,” I said.

“I’m going—”

More footsteps and a familiar face.

“Teddy, thank God.” I winced as the fireman pulled my blood-stained shirt away from my skin to get a better look at the stab wound.

Teddy was the sheriff of Liberty, and a good man. With friendly eyes and a serious expression, he knelt beside me.

“Who did this to you?”

“A man. Shaved head, but dark hair growing in. Dark eyes. Medium build, probably around 5’11 and 190 pounds,” I said, closing my eyes to picture the man again. “Red and black ski mask. He went that way.”

Teddy nodded at the two deputies with him, and they took off in the direction I’d been pointing. “Let’s call an ambulance,” he said, speaking softly to the fireman.

“No, I’m fine,” I said through gritted teeth.

Both Teddy and Eli gave me a look that said I was not fine. Eli managed to convince me. “Danielle needs you to be at your best.”

And he was right. Dammit, I knew he was right, so I nodded.

The deputies came back and said they couldn’t find anyone, and they’d even called in backup. Time seemed to be moving so slowly.

“Cameras,” I said.

“What?”

“There are cameras all over the house,” I said. “You can probably see what happened from them.”

The firemen shared a look.

“What?”

“The house is completely destroyed. It’s gone.”

“But you can still get the feed up to that point, right?”

“We’ll keep looking,” Teddy reassured me. “We’ll try to find any scrap of evidence we can.”

“Thanks, man,” I said.

I heard more footsteps, and two EMTs arrived with a stretcher.

“I can walk,” I said, pushing myself to my feet. That was a very bad idea, however, as the world began spinning.

“Careful, you’ve lost a lot of blood,” was the last thing I heard before my world went black.

Danielle

“Oh my God, Mason,” I said, pushing past the curtain hanging around his bed. Tears streamed down my cheeks, and they hadn’t stopped falling since I heard about the fire. Once we got in the room, I dropped Skyler’s hand and took his hand in mine. She stood beside the bed, quiet at first. I hadn’t had a chance to explain anything to her, other than Mason was injured, but she didn’t know how or why or what had happened to our home yet. I wasn’t sure how I to tell her.

As soon as I saw Mason in the hospital bed, a sense of relief washed over me. His eyes were open, and he seemed alert. Besides looking a little pale, he was the same strong man I knew.

I don’t even know what got into me - I leaned down and pressed my lips to his. He seemed surprised but kissed me back, his rough hands stroking my hair.

“I thought I lost you,” I whispered against his lips.

“Nah, you aren’t gonna lose me. I’m stubborn as hell,” he joked. “It’ll take a lot more than a couple knife wounds to take me out.”

Skyler’s little voice piped up from beside us. “Are you okay?”

I pulled away from Mason but kept his hand in mine. He turned to Skyler and answered, “Oh yeah. It’s just a little scratch. Doctor says I can head home soon.”

My gaze narrowed. “Did he really?”

“Well, I had to persuade him a bit, but thankfully the wound isn’t that deep. It didn’t hit anything major. I lost some blood, but they stitched me up. I’m gonna be just fine.”

“Yay!” Skyler said, pushing between me and the hospital bed to get closer to Mason. “Mommy was scared. She wouldn’t stop crying.”

I wiped at my tears and chuckled. “Yeah, I was really worried, Mason. You have no idea how happy I am to see you okay.”

“Nothing to cry about,” Mason said soothingly. “In fact, I have some good news for you.”

“Oh yeah?” Skyler asked.

“Yeah. All your pets are being delivered at the rental as we speak.”

Skyler’s grin widened. And I was so thankful that everyone - the guys and the animals - made it out alive. According to Sam, the house was gone. There was no salvaging it. But thanks to Eli and Mason’s quick action, they were able to rescue all the critters and no lives were lost.

It had taken Sam some time to find the cats. Chewie had never really been outside before, but they found her hidden underneath one of the trucks. Cinder was in