Her brother was walking up her driveway with murder in his eyes as two SHPD cruisers pulled onto the street. She spotted Ford Willis through the windshield of one of the cars. He had gone to high school with Faith and also happened to be their minister’s kid. You couldn’t meet a nicer person than Ford. He couldn’t even bring himself to give out speeding tickets.
She sighed and then winced because the action of exhaling that hard actually hurt her throat. North was watching her closely. He did not miss her reaction. He tilted her chin up and his thumb lightly brushed the raw skin of her throat, his expression tightening with concern.
Suddenly her brother was there, shouldering his way through neighbors. He took one glance at North and looked ready to start a beat down of his own. “Callaghan!” he roared.
Naturally, he would think this was somehow the felon’s fault. She shook her head and stepped in front of North, holding up her hands. “Hale, stop! He didn’t do anything!”
Her brother’s bigger body collided with her hands, but he didn’t seem inclined to stop and listen to her. He kept walking forward, pushing against her hands, ready to plow through her to get to North. “No! Stop! It wasn’t him. He didn’t do anything.”
Except save her life. He did do that.
She turned, still keeping one hand on her brother’s chest to ward him off. She looked up at North. “He saved my life.”
North didn’t even glance at her brother. His eyes were glued to her face, as though she were the only person in the world . . . the only one who mattered in this scene of chaos.
“What the hell happened?” Hale demanded, not one to waste time getting to the point.
She shook her head and quickly realized that was a mistake. Dizziness swamped her and she staggered to the side. North let loose a curse beside her. Before she knew what was happening he swept her up into his arms. Closing her eyes against the spinning world, she pressed a hand to her forehead.
Dimly she heard her brother exclaim something. She wasn’t sure what he said, but there may have been a curse word or two trickled in there. North carried her a short distance. And then she was no longer moving. She sank down onto something soft and yielding.
She opened her eyes slowly. All she could see, the only thing she could even look at in that moment, was North’s face hovering so close to her own.
“North,” she breathed.
“I’m here, Faith.”
NINETEEN
The son of a bitch tried to kill her. There was no mistake about it. If North had been two minutes, even one minute later, Faith could be dead.
He could have been too late. Too late again. The story of his life.
He took a peek through the blinds, sending a glance to where the bastard was writhing on the ground. His hands curled into fists at his side. The urge to continue beating the shit out of the guy was overwhelming. One of the officers that had just arrived was cuffing him even as a medic attended him.
He looked back down to where Faith sat on the couch. Another medic was examining her. He forced himself to stand back. It wasn’t easy. He longed to touch her. Feel her. Know that she was okay. He didn’t even care that her brother was there. Her brother. The sheriff. The one guy with enough power to ruin his life. To take away his freedom. And he didn’t give a shit.
“I’m fine,” Faith insisted, not for the first time, to the medic. Her imploring gaze lifted over the woman’s head to her brother.
“Let her finish looking you over,” Hale Walters commanded, his thumb hooked inside his gun belt. He must have felt North’s stare. He cast him a quick look. The wariness was still in his eyes. North might have saved Faith’s life tonight, but her brother still didn’t fully trust him.
“I’m fine. I just want to go to bed and forget this night ever happened.”
“You can’t do that yet,” her brother commanded. “We need a statement from you about what—”
“Maybe you can do that later,” North suggested. “I’m sure it won’t hurt to wait until tomorrow morning.”
The sheriff stared at him with hard eyes as though he wanted nothing more than to slap some cuffs on him and throw him in a cell. “That’s not protocol—”
“She’s your sister,” he bit out. “I’m sure you can be flexible for her.”
Walters’s gray eyes shot to flint. “I know who she is, asshole. I don’t need the reminder.” He stabbed a finger in North’s direction. “This doesn’t concern you . . . she doesn’t concern you and you don’t forget that—”
“Hale,” Faith interrupted. “He saved my life.” She motioned to her door where somewhere beyond her attacker was being hauled away. “That guy was choking me. He would’ve finished me if North hadn’t been here.”
The medic stood then. She closed up her kit and lifted it off the floor beside the couch. “She looks all right.” Her glance slid over each of them uncertainly. “I’ll go now.”
She stepped out and the door snicked shut after her.
Walters opened his mouth, clearly wanting to argue with Faith, wanting to reject that he owed North any thanks at all, but then his gaze swung to his sister and something softened in his eyes. Clearly he loved his sister and didn’t want to add misery to her already shitty night.