vision. Hearing her own scream locked inside her head, or maybe she was screaming out loud, she braced herself as the robber held her tight, dragging her toward the kitchen door. “I have to take her, man. I have to. I don’t want to hurt anyone, but I have to take her with me.” He held the gun close. Guiding Julia backward with him, he reached the swinging door, then stood inches away.
“Don’t do it,” Adam called, standing up. “Just drop the gun and we’ll get you some help.”
The man shook his head. “Can’t do that.” Then in one swift motion, he grunted, tugging Julia toward the rickety old door. Julia took one last look at Eric Butler, hoping to give him a sign that she wasn’t going to go willingly through that door.
But Eric was watching the man holding her. “Don’t make me shoot you. Because I can bring you down before you ever pull that trigger.”
“Try it,” the robber goaded, stepping back, the swinging door now inches behind him.
Julia knew if they got past the swinging door, she might not live to see her daughter again. She had to do something right now. With a grunt and all the force she could muster she pushed with one foot against the wobbly door, then grabbed the solid wood frame with both hands as she used her body to slam against the man behind her. When she felt him shifting backward, she held on to the frame so she wouldn’t fall with him, steeling herself against the chance of getting shot.
Shocked to find himself moving through the open space, the man had no choice but to loosen his grip on Julia and grab for a handhold. While Julia lunged back against the robber, Cat pushed at the door, causing the confused man to let go of Julia as he went falling through the open doorway. He hollered his displeasure, then lifted his gun in the air as he lost his balance. A round of shots rang out. Then the man grunted as he went flying into the kitchen. Scrambling up, he clutched his left arm, then ran out the back door of the kitchen, leaving Julia crumpled on her knees, shaking, as she clung to the door frame. The swish of the door banging back toward Julia’s slumping body echoed through the building, followed by the slamming of the metal back door. The man was gone and she was still alive.
And then silence, followed by a rush of action all around her.
“It’s over, honey,” Cat said, pulling Julia up to hug her close. “It’s all over.”
Adam jumped up, heading for the kitchen door. “I think you hit him, Eric. Everybody okay?”
People begin lifting off the floor. Julia heard women crying and saw a crowd gathered at the front door. A buzz of energy surrounded the screams still echoing inside her head. Her ears were ringing; her blood pressure was pumping inside her temple. But she was alive.
Thanks to Deputy Butler. He’d shot the man holding her. She knew, because she had splatters of blood on her white shirt.
“Where’s the other deputy?” she asked Cat as Adam brushed past her, her head coming up to search for Eric.
And then she saw him, lying behind an upturned table with blood covering his left shoulder. He wasn’t moving.
“He needs help!” Julia shouted, pointing toward Eric. “Somebody help him.”
“Eric?” Adam bolted around, then screamed, “Call 911, Cat. Eric’s been shot.” He headed past Julia and through the kitchen door, already talking into his radio about being in pursuit. “I’m going after him!”
The call was unnecessary. Julia could hear the sirens and the banging of the front door as the café became swamped with deputies and policemen and the lone reporter from the town newspaper, the Wildflower Gazette.
The first responders looked over the place and took in the grim scenario, then started moving people out of the café, which had now become a crime scene.
“He saved my life.” Julia went limp against the wall, all of the strength drained out of her as the reporter’s camera flashed in her face. Deputy Butler had saved her life.
And now he might be dead because of it.
TWO
Eric woke up in the emergency room, his left shoulder throbbing to beat the band.
Trying to raise his head, he called out, “What—”
A gray-haired nurse pushed him back down. “Easy, cowboy. You’ve been shot and you’re about to go into surgery to debride the wound. We just need to clean it out a little bit, make sure everything’s intact in there. You’re lucky, though. Bullet went straight through without hitting any major arteries or bones.”
“Bullet?” Eric lay back, trying to remember. Then it all came rushing back. Julia Daniels. An armed robbery. The man was going to take Julia as a hostage. They’d exchanged gunfire. Darkness and voices in his head. Adam telling him to hang on. Now he had vague flashes of the EMS team…someone applying pressure to his wound, asking him questions about his medical history, a needle shoved into his arm.
“The waitress?” he managed to croak over the sound of doctors rushing all around, poking him here and there and shouting out orders about X-rays and vital signs.
“That pretty little thing,” the nurse said as she checked the IV drip, her expression all business. “She’s just fine. Outside waiting with your family to hear how you’re doing, though. She said you saved her life.”
Eric managed a weak grin. “My buddy Adam did most of the hard work.”
“Yeah, right. But you shot the bad guy.”
Eric tried to lift up again. His bloody shirt was gone. “The robber, where…is he?”
The nurse shook her head. “From what we’re hearing, he got clean away. But don’t fret, now. Your buddies have put out an APB on him.”
Eric tried to speak, but his fatigue, coupled with whatever medication they were pumping into him, caused drowsiness to overtake him. He went to sleep with the memory of Julia’s face, front and center in his frazzled mind.
Julia paced the tiny E.R. sitting room, her sturdy, black wedge-heeled work shoes clumping with each step. Cat had insisted she go home and rest, but Julia was too keyed up to do that. After rushing to the elementary school to check on Moria—no, make that after making a scene at the school because she was so frantic to make sure her daughter was safe—and then checking Moria out and taking her to the neighbor’s house just to be sure, she’d come straight here. And she planned on being right here when Eric Butler came out of surgery.
Thank goodness Mrs. Ulmer hadn’t minded watching Moria. Julia knew Moria would be safe with the Ulmers. They’d seen how upset she’d been and promised to keep Moria inside and quiet. Even though he didn’t get out much these days, Mr. Ulmer had once been an avid hunter and he’d assured her he’d watch over Moria, using one of his many rifles and shotguns if need be. But there had been enough shooting for one day, Julia thought, her mind reliving how the gunman had tried to take her and how Eric had fired a shot to stop him. Then she remembered seeing Eric lying there, bleeding and unmoving.
Please don’t let him die, she prayed.
She’d seen too much death lately.
And her daughter had seen enough grief and death to last her a lifetime.
That thought caused Julia’s knees to go weak. Sinking down in a fabric-covered blue chair, she put her head in her hands and prayed that Moria didn’t hear about this. She’d warned the Ulmers not to discuss it in front of her already-fragile daughter.
“You okay?”
Julia looked up to find Adam and Cat standing in front of her. Cat settled in the chair beside her while Adam stood with his hands in his pants pockets, looking as worried about his friend as she felt.
Down the way in another chair, Eric’s father, Harlan, sat staring at the tiled floor. Julia had introduced herself to him the minute she’d come in the door, telling him how much