LITMIR.BIZ

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renewed strength he gripped her arm and kicked to the surface, pulling her with him. Rolling her onto her back, he placed an arm around her chest and swam toward the dock.

      He was close, so close. He got to the dock ladder, hoisted her over his shoulder and climbed the metal steps. He laid her gently against the wooden planks.

      He felt for a pulse.

      She was alive, but not breathing. He started chest compressions. One, two, three, four...

      No one’s going to hurt you.

      A promise he didn’t intend to make and was unable to keep. Yet he couldn’t have guessed she’d run out into the darkness. What had spooked her?

      Finishing chest compressions, he tilted her head and performed mouth-to-mouth. She coughed, the best sound he’d heard in years, and he gently rolled her onto her side facing him. She retched twice and went still. She blinked a few times, turned her head and looked up at Alex.

      “You’re okay,” he assured her.

      So was Alex, thanks to her beautiful eyes staring back at him. She seemed dazed, and that’s when he noticed redness forming above her left eye.

      “What happened?” he said.

      She touched her head. “I was running and tripped.” Her amber eyes rounded with fear. “There was a man...it could have been the killer.”

      When she struggled to get up, Alex placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Sit tight for a second, okay?”

      He scrambled across the pier and grabbed his radio. “Mark, it’s Alex. Send officers out back to search the property. Miss Harris encountered an unidentified man. Could be our suspect. Over.” He glanced back at Nicole. She trembled worse than when he’d found her in the closet. This time it wasn’t just from fear. She could be suffering from hypothermia.

      He yanked on his boots, clipped his firearm to his belt and grabbed his jacket. He laid it across her shoulders. “We’ve gotta get you into some dry clothes.”

      She stood and wavered, so he automatically scooped her up into his arms. “Are you okay with this?”

      “Y-y-yeah.”

      Which was a good thing because nothing could make him let her go. He went to the embankment, grabbed her messenger bag off the ground and strode across the back lawn toward the side gate. Alex avoided trekking through the house with Nicole in his arms. FBI agents would surely stop him, asking more questions, demanding answers.

      He didn’t have time for that. He needed to get her somewhere safe. Nicole had almost been killed while he’d stood not a hundred feet away. Thanks to his keen senses he’d heard the splash in the water that could have been the last movement she made in this life.

      Instead, he was carrying her shivering body in his arms. Thank You, Lord, for helping me find her.

      Now he had to make good on his promise that no one would hurt her again.

      “Were you staying at the lake house?” he asked.

      She shook her head that she wasn’t.

      “Did you rent a room in town?”

      She nodded that she had. She was back to nodding instead of speaking, which made sense considering she’d been so close to death twice now in the past few hours. Carrying her gently but firmly, he scanned the property as they headed toward the gate that led to the driveway.

      Just as he nudged the gate aside with his boot, the sliding door opened in back of the house and men’s voices drifted across the property. Alex focused on getting Nicole safely to his truck. Answers would have to come later, or even tomorrow, after she’d warmed up and Alex was confident she was out of physical danger.

      Which brought up the question of why she ran in the first place.

      “Why did you take off like that?” he asked.

      “S-s-scared.”

      “In a house full of cops?”

      She shook her head in dismissal, obviously not wanting to talk about it. Fine, they didn’t have to discuss her reasons right now but after she thawed out he was getting answers as to why she put herself at risk.

      Great, now he was starting to sound like the bully FBI agent.

      “What happened?” A short man with black hair, in his mid-fifties ran up to them. “I’m Artie, Edward’s driver. Is she okay?”

      “She will be. Please step back.”

      Alex placed Nicole on the front seat of his truck, adjusted her messenger bag in her lap and grabbed a wool blanket from the back. He covered her, carefully tucking the blanket around her shoulders.

      “Where are you staying?”

      “Harbor L-l-...”

      “Harbor Lights Inn on Main?”

      With a nod she closed her eyes. Alex buckled her seat belt and shut the door.

      “Is there anything I can do?” Artie asked.

      “Help the officers inside.” He rushed around the front of the truck, keeping an eye on the witness.

      The witness. That’s how he had to think of her or else he’d risk losing his edge. She was the key to finding Edward Lange’s killer and Alex couldn’t afford to be distracted by her natural beauty or vulnerability.

      “Donovan!” Agent Banks called from the front of the house.

      “Gotta get her safe!”

      “Was it the killer?”

      “Don’t know.”

      He jumped into the truck and peeled out of the driveway. “Harbor Lights is five, seven minutes away, tops,” he said to comfort her. “I know the owner, Mrs. Cavendish. She can help you change if you’re feeling light-headed. We’ll go back for your car tomorrow, okay?”

      No response.

      “Nicole?” He glanced across the front seat. She was unconscious.

      With one hand on the steering wheel, he touched her shoulder. “Nicole, open your eyes.”

      Her limp body slid onto the seat between them. He took a deep, calming breath. This was not the time to panic, yet the nearest hospital was a forty-five minute drive. He didn’t have that kind of time.

      She didn’t have that kind of time.

      He grabbed the radio off the dash. “Dispatch, this is Detective Donovan. I’ve got a medical emergency, suspected hypothermia, and need a closer alternative than Skagit Valley Hospital, over.”

      “Waverly Medical Center is open until nine, over.”

      “Can you let them know I’m coming?”

      “Affirmative. ETA?”

      “Two, maybe three minutes.”

      “Copy that.”

      He stroked Nicole’s shoulder, hoping the connection would snap her out of whatever haze she’d sunken into.

      “We’re stopping by the health center. They’ll get you warm and check you out. I’m guessing you’ve got a concussion,” he said.

      He gripped the steering wheel tighter at the thought of the killer stalking her in Edward Lange’s backyard. Alex couldn’t be sure it was the killer, yet who else would have been out there wandering the property?

      He glanced at Nicole and whispered, “What made you run?”

      Suddenly he needed to know everything about Nicole Desiree Harris, not only because she was their only witness to a brutal murder, but also because he refused to lose another innocent woman to the tragedy of violence.

      He’d make sure Nicole

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