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"Oh God! Katie, are you all right? Kate? Talk to me, damn it! Oh, please don't tell me you've passed out, too!"
It took Kate a second to realize she'd managed to land them on the bed. Another second for Laura's frantic voice to penetrate the haze of pain radiating from her shoulder. And several more to become fully aware of the awkwardness—no, the sheer wrongness—of her current position on the bed.
Their incapacitated guest was lying atop her. His nose was smooshed against the curve of her right breast, his nude body pressed against her length, and one of his legs had found its way between hers so that her thigh cushioned his...
Well.
Kate’s face flamed.
"I'm fine," she growled at her sister, fighting her way out from under the weight holding her against the mattress.
"Stop!" Laura squealed.
Kate froze in mid shove. "What?"
Their patient began sliding off the edge of the bed. Kate gritted her teeth and clutched him close.
"You're going to start the bleeding again," her sister said. "Just wait a second."
Laura grasped fistfuls of the bedspread and pulled it taut. "All right. Ease out from under him, but try to keep him from sliding any more. I'll pull him back onto the bed."
When their patient was secure once more, Kate picked herself up from the floor and rubbed her throbbing shoulder. A few more times rescuing this guy and the desk duty she'd been temporarily assigned to would become permanent. She glowered at the man on the bed. He was out cold. Or was he?
"Idiot," she muttered.
Not so much as a flinch rippled over his skin at the insult. Yup. Out cold, all right, because he was way too volatile not to react to that. She watched her sister fuss over the wounds that had started oozing again, careful to keep her attention on Laura’s dark, bent head and not certain exposed anatomical features.
"Will he live?" she asked. As discreetly as she could, she reached back to shift her handgun over an inch or two in her jeans waistband, trying not to wince. Great. Now she was going to have a massively sore shoulder and a gun-shaped bruise in the small of her back.
Laura regarded her. "You sound as if you'd rather he didn't."
Kate sighed. "Of course not. I'm just pissed at him right now. I thought you said he wouldn't be able to get up."
"I didn't think he could." Laura turned her attention back to the torso hole, taping a bandage over it. "He has to be some determined to get out of here."
Please.
Kate shoved away the memory of his plea. She grimaced down at her shirt, streaked with dried mud and fresh blood. Her shoulder throbbed with a steady, teeth-on-edge ache.
"How bad is it?" Laura asked.
She didn't pretend not to understand. "On a scale of one to ten? About a twenty."
"I'm not surprised, after that wrestling match. I'll give you some of what I'm giving him when he wakes up. It'll help you sleep."
"Thanks, but no." Kate held up a hand to forestall the frown gathering on her sister's forehead. "I can't be out of commission tonight, Laura. Not with him in the house."
"You really think he's that much of a threat?"
"Honestly, no."
"Then who—" Laura broke off and swallowed. "The people who shot him."
Silence followed Kate’s nod. Laura swallowed again, her gaze flicking to the window that overlooked the darkened barnyard beyond. Kate rounded the bed to give her a one-armed hug.
"I'm just being cautious," she said. "Besides, there's a tree blocking the only road, remember? No one's coming through tonight.”
Laura's tense body didn't relax. Kate grinned and gave her a sisterly nudge with her good shoulder.
"Plus," she added, "there's a cop in the house."
An indrawn hiss of breath sounded from the bed. Kate looked over to find the man struggling to sit up, one hand clutching his side, the blanket Laura had pulled over him falling away from the spectacular chest once again. So he hadn't been unconscious after all. Damn, but this guy was good at playing dead.
Laura made to move toward him, but his outstretched hand stopped her. Glittering, cold blue eyes fastened on Kate.
"How did you know?" he snarled.
Kate frowned. "How did I know what?"
"How did you know I—" He stopped, his expression giving way to sudden comprehension.
Down the hall in the kitchen, the phone rang.
For a moment, no one moved. Or spoke.
Kate stared at the furious man on the bed. Tension radiated from him, reminding her of a cornered animal. A cornered but still lethal animal.
The phone shrilled again.
Beside her, Laura shifted her feet. "I should..."
Her voice trailed off.
Another ring.
Without taking her eyes from the man, Kate stepped out of her sister's way.
"Go," she said, tipping her head toward the doorway.
The man's jaw clenched, whitening the lines around his mouth. His gaze darted from Kate and Laura to the doorway, then back again, measuring. Calculating. His mouth twisted. His shoulders slumped. Defeat replaced defiance as the phone rang a fourth and then a fifth time. Laura shoved the roll of gauze and scissors into Kate's hands and started for the doorway.
"Laura."
Kate's sister turned to her.
Please.
"Whoever it is, don't say anything about our guest."
"What? But—"
"Not yet."
Laura studied the man, then looked at Kate again. "You're sure?"
"I want to talk to him first."
Slowly, reluctantly, Laura nodded. After a last, lingering glance at the bed, she hurried down the hallway. A few seconds later, the murmur of her voice floated back to the room, and Kate turned her full attention to the man.
He'd pulled himself up in the bed to a half-sitting position, propped against the smooth wooden headboard. A sheen of sweat covered his torso from the effort, and his breathing sounded ragged. They stared at one another for a moment. He looked away.
"Thank you," he said.
"I wouldn't be too grateful just yet," Kate replied. "I'm a heartbeat away from changing my mind unless I get some answers. How did I know what?"
Blue swiveled back to her. Damn, but those eyes of his were intense. Especially when he glowered like that.
"How did you know where to find me? Did they send you?" he growled. He waved off her response before she could form one, and added in a mutter, "No. That doesn't make sense. If they'd sent you, you wouldn't have tried to save my life."
Tried to save his life? She was pretty sure she'd succeeded, given his level of combativeness, and what in hell was he rambling on about, anyway? Kate crossed her arms and took a deep breath, only to exhale again as footsteps in the hall heralded her sister's return.
Laura came into the room, her gaze going between them before settling on Kate. "That was Matt," she said. "Lainie Peterson tore open her forearm on some barbed wire when their cows got loose. The ambulance is already on a call, and it'll take hours to get another. I'm going to have to see her."
"What about the downed tree?"
"They've sent a crew out to open the road for me. They were going to come here to pick me up, but the storm is easing up, and I said it would be faster if I drove. I wasn't sure—" Laura's gaze slid toward the bed.
"Good thinking," Kate said, although she almost wished her sister had done otherwise. At least then the decision about whether to keep her guest a secret would have been taken out of her hands. "Thank you."
Laura pursed her lips, doubt clouding her eyes, but she nodded and turned away to pack her bag, issuing a set of instructions as she did. "You'll need to finish bandaging his leg, and you'll have to change both dressings tomorrow morning. A little redness and swelling is normal, but—"
"Laura."
Her sister stopped. Looked at her. Sighed. "Of course. You know what to do."
She set a vial on the nightstand. "Painkillers. With codeine. There's enough for twenty-four hours for both of you. That's more than long enough to get him to the hospital he needs to be in."
Kate smiled. "Point taken."
"I hope so." Bag in hand, Laura faced her. "See me out?"
The words may have been framed as a request, but they carried the full force of an elder sister pulling rank. Kate paused only to shoot their patient a dark look.
"Stay," she said. "Because if you try getting up again, you'll be spending the night on that floor."