Playing With Fire (Tangled in Texas #2) - Alison Bliss Page 0,113

few minutes later and we argued, so I threw the drink on him and he stumbled. If only he…hadn’t been standing in front of the fireplace…”

“He caught on fire?” the sheriff asked, gently coaxing the information from her.

She nodded with tears streaming down her face. “I tried to help him, but he wouldn’t stop screaming. I couldn’t take it anymore. Everything started burning around me, so I…I…”

“What did you do?” Cowboy demanded, breaking his silence with his accusatory tone.

Her eyes cut to him and then closed as she lowered her head. “I left. But it wasn’t my fault. He did this to himself.”

“You threw the drink on him, and you left him to die,” I said, cringing at her words. “You’re the reason he’s dead. You killed him. Every bit of that was your fault.”

My comment must’ve pushed her over the edge because her eyes took on a glazed look as she turned her cold, steely gaze on me. “No. This is all your fault. If you would have just left after the first warning, none of this would have happened. For Cowboy’s sake, I tried not to hurt you. That’s why I put you in that barn…to get you out of the way. But I should have just lit your house on fire and killed you…because you deserve to die!”

Without warning, Mandy grabbed something from the incision tray beside her, raised it high into the air, and lunged for me. Cowboy threw himself across me, blocking my body with his, as the sheriff and Ned hurdled over the end of the bed to subdue her. They grabbed her and, although she fought to free herself, managed to hold her arms behind her back as the sheriff handcuffed her.

Mandy screamed in protest and hatred filled her eyes. Then she stopped and grinned at me with a sinister look on her face that sent chills scattering through me. “If I can’t have him, then neither can you,” she sneered.

“What’s going on?” Dan asked, confused by the scuffle he heard.

Cowboy groaned at her, obviously showing his exasperation. Though I couldn’t see his expression, I could imagine him rolling his eyes at her.

“Hit the nurse’s call button,” the sheriff ordered me, clicking the last cuff on Mandy’s wrist.

“It’s okay, I’m fine.”

He shook his head and I saw the fear in his eyes. “Cowboy isn’t. Hit the damn button.”

Uncertain as to what I missed, I shifted to get a better look and eyed a small pair of surgical scissors sticking out of his neck. “Oh my God!” I fumbled to grab the call button, though the weight of his body on top of mine made it more difficult. When I found it, I pressed the red emergency button over and over as tears squeezed out of my eyes. “No, no, no!”

Ned didn’t wait for someone to come. He ran to the door and yelled, “We need help in here! Someone’s been stabbed.”

A doctor and two nurses rushed in almost immediately and began clearing the room. The sheriff dragged Mandy out, kicking and screaming, while a nurse led Dan to the waiting room, quietly explaining what had happened to Cowboy. Ned didn’t make any attempt to leave. He just stood quietly in the corner, watching the scene unfold.

Once a gurney was wheeled in, a flurry of activity took place. The medical team quickly and carefully moved Cowboy off me and onto the other bed as they took his vitals and wheeled him from the room.

I tried to get up, but a nurse pushed me back down and ordered me to stay where I was as he was taken away. Upset, I began coughing violently, pulled out my IV, and tried to get up again. “No, I need to make sure he’s okay.”

She had at least fifty pounds on me, though, and held me there. “They’re going to assess him first. Then he’ll probably be taken up to the OR for surgery. You won’t be able to see him anytime soon. I’ll find out what’s going on and come back and give you an update,” she promised. “Sit tight.”

The nurse glanced to Ned and he nodded. “I’ll stay with her.”

When she seemed sure I wouldn’t get up again, she told him, “Hit the call button if you need anything.”

I looked down at the white sheets on the bed and shivered. There was no blood. Anywhere. In fact, there wasn’t a single drop on my hospital gown, the bed, or even the floor. Almost like it had