All breath left my body as more nightmare images spun through me. Ones that had bile singeing my throat.
What exactly had he done to her?
“Maisey.” My voice was hoarse. Raw. Full of regret.
At the sound of her name, her eyes popped open. Unshed tears welled, spilling down her cheeks. Bugsy was picking at Maisey’s free hand with tweezers, but I pushed her aside and tugged Maisey into my arms. A sob escaped her. She fisted the back of my uniform shirt, clinging to me.
Vader shoved between us, pressing his body into our legs.
I looked over Maisey’s head at Lewis and demanded, “What the hell happened?”
To his credit, her dad looked angrier than I’d ever seen him.
“She came back from taking Mikey and Letty home, and someone hit her on the back of the head as she got out of the car.”
In my arms, Maisey shifted. I could actively feel her pulling herself back together, forcing the tears to stop and straightening her shoulders, all so she could appear calm and strong and brave. And she was those things, but she didn’t have to be. She could let go here, with me, and I’d catch her.
Another vehicle squealed to a halt on the street behind us. Two car doors slammed, and Fallon and Parker rushed over. Fallon’s expression held the same fury the rest of us were feeling.
Once Maisey saw her friend, she started to step away from me, and I hated it. I didn’t want to let her go. Not until I’d gotten the entire story. Not until I was sure that a knock to her head was the worst thing that had happened. But Fallon gave me no choice, yanking Maisey to her and squeezing tight.
Maisey hugged her back, burying her face in Fallon’s shoulder.
Ridiculous jealousy bloomed, but I couldn’t help wanting to be the one caring for Maisey.
Parker’s hands were in his pockets as he rocked back on his heels. “What happened?”
“That’s exactly what I want to know,” I snapped, looking at Lewis and then Bugsy.
It was Cleaver who answered, leaving his search to join us at the back of the ambulance.
“Someone hit her twice.” He held up a crowbar with gloved hands that looked just like the one I’d left in Lewis’s backyard while working on the porch. “Don’t know if Fallon’s voice on the phone or Lewis letting Vader out the door scared them into leaving it behind, but they did. They also left this.”
He handed me a clear bag. Inside was another note. As my fury grew, the words blurred, and I had to force myself to focus to read it.
Last warning. Stay away, or you’ll both end up dead.
Fucking hell.
Fallon ripped the bag away, read the note, paled, and then gave it to her husband with a hand that shook. Parker’s face darkened before he gave the note back to Cleaver.
“This has gone far enough,” I growled at the deputy sheriff. “Do something about this, or I will.”
Cleaver frowned. “If you have actual proof of who did this, hand it over, Romero, and I’ll happily arrest them.” I grunted an objection he ignored. “If you think I’d let anyone hurt Maisey and get away with it unpunished, then you don’t know me at all.”
“Maybe I don’t know you. Maybe none of us do. Maybe you’re the one pissed she’s here, living with me, getting married to me, and trying to scare her off.” I didn’t think it. I knew he was jealous and unhappy about her being mine, but I didn’t think he’d actually hurt her to get her to leave me, and yet rage still had me spewing things I couldn’t seem to stop.
Cleaver reacted, stepping toward me with anger radiating off him. “Screw you.”
“Stop!” Maisey’s quiet voice, raised in frustration, had me swallowing my retort. She looked from me to Cleaver and back.
Bugsy cleared her throat. “Can we all just take it down a notch? Maisey, sit down so I can finish cleaning those scrapes, or I’m going to insist you go to the hospital.”
The full force of my gaze landed back on the woman I loved.
Loved.
I loved her. Wildly. Completely. Ferally.