EPILOGUE

A commotion in the front office brought Rafe running. Darcy was helping a badly beaten woman into Exam Room One, galvanizing him into action.

The woman, face swollen and bruised, her lip and nose busted, groaned as she lay on the exam bed, holding her side. Rafe was horrified by the extent of her injuries, but the professional in him was already assessing her condition.

“Ma’am, can you tell me what happened?” he asked, swiftly checking her pupils for evidence of shock, then slipping a blood-pressure cuff on. “You’re hurt badly. I’m going to stabilize you, but you need to go to the hospital.”

She groaned again, tears squeezing from her swollen lids. “Hurtsss,” she moaned. “So b-bad.”

Rafe looked to Darcy and she shot off to call the ambulance.

“What’s your name?” he asked, trying to keep her conscious. “I’m Dr. Black. I’m going to take care of you. You’re safe now.”

“G-Gemma,” she managed to whisper, though it was difficult to understand at first because of her injured lip.

“Gemma? Okay, Gemma, the ambulance is here. I—” Her hand clutched his in a surprisingly strong grip. Her expression pleaded with him not to leave her. Fear was in her eyes and he nodded in understanding. “I’ll go with you to the hospital.” Her grip loosened as her eyes registered relief. Rafe couldn’t help but wonder if this was the work of Grayson or his henchmen, but there was no way to find out at the moment. Gemma was barely conscious.

The ambulance arrived and trundled Gemma into the back, and Rafe climbed in to sit beside her.

“Cancel all patients,” he instructed Darcy just before the doors closed, and they raced the short distance to the hospital.

He relinquished her care to the trauma department but he waited for news. It was an hour before they’d patched her enough to put her in a room, with heavy painkillers on a drip. Rafe entered her room, relieved to see the blood wiped away and the wounds attended to. He checked her chart. Severe facial lacerations and bruising, a bruised kidney and liver but otherwise no internal bleeding, which surprised him.

Rafe went to her bedside and found her awake.

“You should be resting,” he said softly.

“Thank you,” she said, her voice raspy and drugged.

“No need for thanks,” he said. “I wouldn’t be much of a doctor if I ignored an injured woman who stumbled into my practice.”

She attempted a smile, but it was too painful and she stopped.

“Gemma, what happened?” he asked.

Just then Grayson walked in and Rafe resisted the urge to scowl. Fargo must’ve alerted him to the call that went out over dispatch when the ambulance was called.

“I came as soon as I heard,” Grayson said, his face a mask of concern. “Who did this?”

Rafe answered, “Not sure. Do you know her?”

Grayson shook his head and gingerly took her hand. “No, but she’s in Cold Plains’s care and we will do our best to find out who did this to her and bring them to justice.”

Gemma stared at Grayson, her eyes brimming. “My ex-husband…he found me. I tried to run, but he caught me and did this…. He’s dangerous….”

Grayson rubbed her hand gently. “Don’t you worry about him. We’ll find him before he can be a danger to anyone else. You rest.”

Her eyelids fluttered shut and she dropped into a drugged sleep that she desperately needed to heal. Grayson turned to Rafe, who was watching the exchange with guarded reserve. He didn’t trust Grayson taking an interest in this poor woman. She’d clearly been through enough. But he could say nothing. He was still walking a tightrope with Grayson, playing the part that kept him alive.

“Have the nurses tell me as soon as she’s well enough to leave. I want to make sure she’s taken care of. I will personally see to her needs. Cold Plains is a safe place. If word of this gets out, it could tarnish our image. This is a family-friendly town, not one where defenseless women get brutalized.”

Amazingly hypocritical, thought Rafe but nodded gravely just the same. “Of course.”

“I’ll get Chief Fargo to take her statement when she’s feeling up to it.” Grayson took one last look at Gemma and said, “I’ll bring the audio version of my lecture tonight—Healing the Heart. It’s appropriate, don’t you think?”

“Very,” he agreed. “I think she’ll like that.”

Pleased, Grayson nodded and left.

As soon as Grayson was gone, Rafe dropped the act and regarded the sleeping Gemma with apprehension. Grayson taking an active interest in the woman wasn’t a good thing. In his experience, when Samuel Grayson took a shine to a woman…sometimes they ended up dead.

He’d have to find a way to warn the woman…or else she’d find herself running from one madman—straight into the arms of another.

That now-familiar tightening in his chest reminded him that even though he’d finally found Devin, all was far from well in Cold Plains.

Rafe could feel the tension in the tightrope he continued to walk. The urge to pack up his little family and split was strong, but when he looked at Gemma, saw the trust in her eyes for the madman pretending to care about her well-being, he saw countless other people falling for Grayson’s lies and he couldn’t walk away. Not yet.

The battle was coming and, whether he liked it or not, he was already on the front lines.

There was no turning back now.

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