LLucy’s Revenge(Divine Creek Ranch 15)(136)

Kemp Whittier smiled as he looked down at her, the expression making his craggy face downright handsome. In a comforting, raspy voice, he said, “Hang on just a minute, Lucy. We’re getting your men for you.”

Kemp took Baxter by his shirt collar and lifted him with one hand, freeing her from his dead weight. He pulled Baxter up so he was hanging nose to nose with him and in a rough growl, he said, “Come on, you piece of shit. I have some friends who want to talk to you. You’re damned lucky it’s not just you, me, and a roll of duct tape.” He gave him a single, hard shake and then dragged him from the house.

Just the week before, Lucy had seen Kemp and his wife Summer at the Dancing Pony, with her sitting in his lap. He’d kissed her and cuddled her like she was more precious to him than anything in the world. He’d whispered in her ear until she laughed and blushed, and looked so happy. Somehow seeing this rough, ruthless side of him made Lucy like Kemp even more.

Patrick and Beck descended on either side of her just then and she was blanketed in their own brand of masculine, caring attention. Patrick lifted her in his arms and she held on to both of them. Her wrists throbbed but she didn’t care.





Chapter Twenty-Three




Beck couldn’t stop squeezing her, once Patrick had mercy on him after a few minutes and handed her over for him. Every one of his senses reveled in her warm, solid weight. Her scent and the warmth of her skin seeped into his senses and after a while, his heart rate returned to normal.

She’s safe. My Lucy is safe.

Lucy’s strained whispering pleas finally broke through his thankful inner mantra. “Beck. Beck, I’m okay. Squeezing the breath out of me.”

He realized that in his relief, he’d squeezed her in a tight bundle to him, not knowing if she was injured or not.

“Hell. I’m sorry, Lucy. Here,” he said as he set her down and walked her over to her vehicle and opened the rear hatch so she could get off her feet. He frowned when she groaned and held a hand against her side.

“Lucy, what the hell happened to you, baby?” Patrick asked as he lifted the hem of her top and revealed the purplish markings on her ribs.

Further inspection revealed that her wrists had been bloodied by the rough ropes during her little beat-down with Baxter, which set his teeth on edge to contemplate.

“Baxter kept jabbing me with his gun. I’m just lucky he didn’t accidentally shoot me. The safety was off the whole time.” Lucy grimaced as her fingertips brushed the tender, inflamed skin over her ribs. “Crazy bastard.”

“I’ll say,” a familiar, sympathetic voice said from behind him. Beck turned and looked into Chloe’s pretty eyes. He braced himself for the painful memories seeing her might dredge up but they never came. He was just happy she was okay, too. Chloe smiled at him but her body language was hesitant as she said, “Hey, Beck.”

He gave her a gentle smile and she seemed to lose a little of her uncertainty as she stood there with her hands stuck in her back pockets.

Lucy reached between him and Patrick and pulled Chloe over to sit beside her. “You were fantastic. If you hadn’t showed up, we’d probably still be in there.”

“I couldn’t sit there in my car for two hours waiting for the cavalry,” Chloe replied. “He called us hookers. Did he really think we were hookers?”

Beck rolled his eyes. “He was still going on about that?”

Patrick chuckled and stroked Lucy’s hair as he said, “You didn’t hear him when they were reading him his rights? ‘Now it’s hookers and their damn pimps,’ he kept saying. I think the confrontation sent him over the edge.”

Beck smiled, knowing that all he’d registered at that moment had been the feel of Lucy, alive and well in his arms. All he’d been able to hear was her breathing and the sound of her heart. “No, I guess I was distracted.” Looking at Lucy, he added, “So…the two of you have met now.”

Lucy and Chloe shared a look and then chuckled.

“Of all the ways I’d ever imagined introducing an old girlfriend to the woman I love, this was not it.” Then all four of them laughed.

Chloe hugged Lucy and they both cringed as they butted their injuries together.

“Oh, my head,” Lucy groaned. “I think he landed on it when we took him down.”

Chloe rubbed her cheek. “I got his knee to my face. I may have a black eye later. Oh, damn,” she said, looking at her left hand. “I cracked a nail.”

Lucy jeered. “You had quite a grip there, girl.”

Chloe snickered and nodded happily. “I never thought I’d literally have him by the balls.”