Page 69 of Lost and Found Cowboy
Then the coffee shop was full of voices as two of the deputies secured Lyle while another one raced to Misty, and another ran to Lorna and Mack.
Sirens wailed and an ambulance pulled up. EMT’s rushed inside, trying to triage who needed them the most.
Since Lyle had been shot in the chest, he took priority. Lorna wasn’t sure if she was sad or glad when she realized her ex-husband was still alive. She didn’t want Misty to go to prison, so she guessed she was glad.
“Take care of Misty first,” Lorna told the EMT who approached them. Someone had turned on the overhead lights, and she could see the other woman slumped in a heap by the wall, her injuries even more apparent in the light. “She’s in bad shape.”
She and Mack were battered and bruised, but the woman who had just saved her life seemed to be hanging on by a thread. Lorna’s heart went out to her as she had to assume Lyle had been the one who had beaten her so badly.
“Mack!” Duke’s voice rang out as he ran into the shop.
Ford and Dodge burst through the door behind him, and they all three rushed toward them. Duke fell to his knees beside Mack. “You all right, son? What do you need?”
Mack’s lip was split and bleeding, and he spit a gob of blood onto the floor. “I’m okay. But I could use a hand gettin’ up.”
His brother’s helped them to get up and then half-carried, half-led them a few feet to the loveseat in front of the window, where they both sank into the cushioned sofa. Duke passed them each a stack of napkins, and Lorna pressed hers to the cut on herbrow, while Mack dabbed at his lip then held it to a gaping gash on his forehead. Both his brothers served as volunteer fireman and had first aid training, so Ford looked Mack over while Dodge gingerly checked Lorna.
“Doesn’t seem like you have a concussion,” Ford told his brother. “But you’re gonna feel like you got hit by a truck in the morning.”
Dodge grinned. “A Mack truck.”
Mack grinned back. “The best kind.”
Lorna was glad they were able to tease each other. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to laugh or burst into tears but had a feeling she’d be doing a little of both in the next few hours.
They’d already wheeled Lyle out on one of the stretchers, and they had Misty strapped to another one. Lorna pushed to her feet, a little unsteady, but she needed to make sure she was okay.
“Wait,” she told the EMT who was pushing the stretcher past them. She leaned over Misty, taking her good hand and gently squeezing it. Tears fell as she took in the carnage that remained of the beautiful woman. “Thank you, Misty,” Lorna told her, her words catching on the emotion. “You saved our lives. How did you know he was here?”
“This building and the money he was gonna make from selling it is all he’s been talking about,” she answered, squeezing Lorna’s hand. “I’m sorry, Lorna. I never knew he was like this. He beat the hell out of me and has had me locked in the bedroom of the trailer for days. He was drunk when he left tonight, and didn’t get the door all the way latched, so I finally escaped. I got in one of my brother’s trucks, and I planned to just keep driving, away from him and this town, then I saw Lyle’s car parked in the alley. There was a pistol in the glove box of the truck, and all I could think about was coming in here and shooting that bastard’s dick off.”
“I’m so sorry he did this to you.”
“I’m so sorry I missed. I meant to kill him. Maim him first. Then kill him.”
Lorna leaned closer. “Maybe tell the police it was self-defense.”
The next day,the whole family was together at the ranch. Duke insisted they all be under one roof so he could feed and hug them throughout the day, and Mack couldn’t argue with his logic.
He and Lorna hadn’t had much of a chance to talk, but he hadn’t let her or the kids out of his sight all day.
It had been a long night. Elizabeth had shown up, and she and Ford had driven Mack and Lorna to the emergency room. He’d been checked out, cleared of a concussion, and the doctor had stitched up the cut on his head from the coffee cup Lyle had hit him with.
Lorna had also been cleared of a concussion, but it hurt his heart every time he looked at the purple and black bruises Lyle’s fist had left around her eye and the small steri-strips holding the cut on her brow together.
Knox had come to the hospital, and it was past three in the morning by the time they’d given their statements and been released.
The pain meds had made Lorna drowsy, and she’d fallen asleep in the truck, so Ford had driven them both back to the ranch, and Dodge promised he and Maisie would bring the kids out first thing in the morning.
For all they’d been through, he was thankful they’d escaped with only bruises and a few stitches.
Misty hadn’t been as lucky. She’d been admitted to the hospital, and they’d had another chance to talk to her beforethey left. She told them that along with multiple contusions, she was dehydrated, her arm was fractured in two places, she had a couple of broken ribs, and a ruptured spleen.
Apparently, Lyle had beaten her then kept her locked in the bedroom of her trailer for the last several days. She said he told her he was coming into some big money and then they were going to Florida. Together. He’d locked her in the room when she’d told him she wasn’t going anywhere with him, except to hell.
Which was apparently going to have to wait for Lyle Williams.
The gun shot ripped through his chest, but unfortunately, missed any vital organs. Which had the fortunate effect of saving Misty from going to prison and instead would send Lyle there for breaking and entering, domestic violence, and attempted manslaughter, just for starters.
