Jesse didn’t give a shit about the fight. His eyes were on Gemma. Small. Vulnerable. Hurt. What the hell was Cade thinking?
“Holly, hold the door open.” Caleb bent over to lift Gemma up, but Jesse moved into place.
“Doc, please.”
Caleb nodded and allowed Jesse to bend over and lift her up. “I think she’s breathing well enough that we can move her now.”
Nate and Cam were breaking up the fight, throwing their bodies in between the combatants and forcing them apart.
“Jesse?” Gemma’s voice sounded harsh, forced out of her throat.
She looked like hell, and yet he’d never seen anything so damn beautiful as those eyes opening up. “Baby, you’re going to be okay.”
“Gemma, you’ve had an allergic reaction,” Caleb said. “We’re taking you to the hospital. Ty has his truck ready. He has sirens on his truck. We’ll be there in no time at all.” He looked at Jesse. “When we get her to the truck, you can ride along, but I have to be in the back with her. I don’t know if she’s had enough epinephrine. Do you understand? I need to monitor her and make sure she doesn’t have any cardiac problems.”
As it seemed the doc had had enough people getting in his way today, Jesse nodded. “All that matters is her safety.”
“Cade?” She tried to look around. Her face was still swollen, red blotches all across her skin.
Jesse looked over at Cade, who had blood running from his lip. He seemed to be coming down from his volcanic rage.
“I need a doctor!” Patrick was saying. “Take that man to jail. He’s insane. He attacked me for no reason.”
“Cade?” Gemma was insistent.
“He’s fine, baby. He’s just fine.” Jesse looked back at his best friend. Cade so obviously wasn’t fine, but there was not a thing Jesse could do about it now. Cade was supposed to find Gemma, keep her safe. Not place her in more danger. He should have been carrying her out to Ty’s truck, not starting a fight.
Nate looked over at Caleb. “You want to take a look at these two, Doc?”
Caleb just flipped Nate the finger as he charged out the door.
Nate sighed. “Jesse, you tell Ty to come to the station house when he gets a chance. I think they’re fine, but someone should look them both over.”
Cade’s eyes met Jesse’s just before he walked out the door. Pure and utter misery was plain on his bloody face. He didn’t fight as Cam cuffed his hands behind his back and started reading him his rights.
Jesse turned because he couldn’t help Cade now. He had to think of Gemma.
His choice had been made the night before. She was his woman. He would share her with his friend, but he would never put her second.
He handed her over to Caleb and hopped in the truck as Cam hauled Cade out and started walking toward the sheriff’s office.
“Jesse?”
“I’m here, baby. I wouldn’t be anywhere else.”
As Ty took off, lights flashing, Jesse worried for the first time that this wouldn’t work out. And he had no idea how to fix it.
Cade let the cell door shut behind him, utter misery washing over him. What the hell had happened? One minute he’d been terrified about Gemma and the next Cam Briggs was pulling him off Asshole Lawyer and shoving him into handcuffs.
Laura Niles sighed and walked up to the cell with a wet cloth in her hands. “Come here. Let me take a look at that. Rafe, will you get me some ice? Please tell me Cam didn’t do this to you.”
He let her wipe the blood off though he didn’t think he deserved anyone’s tender care. “No. Asshole got in a lucky punch. Are they going to book me?”
The station doors opened again, and Nate hauled in Patrick Welch. The lawyer looked terrible, his formerly pristine clothes a bloody mess. His hands were cuffed behind his back, and he was talking as fast as he could.
“Do you have any idea who I am? You fucking small-town idiots. Do you know what I’m going to do to this town? When I’m done, there won’t be a goddamn town. I will bury this place. I am going to slap you with a lawsuit the likes of which you’ve never seen. Have you ever even heard the term false arrest?”
Nate opened the cell door, giving the lawyer a wide-eyed look. “Now, they might have covered something about that in small-town idiot school. But I never did too well in school, son. That’s how I ended up a sheriff. Ain’t much learning needed here.”
Nate was fucking with the lawyer. Why? Cade had no idea because he’d started the fight.
“Sheriff, you should let him go,” Cade said. The lawyer had been a jerk, worrying about how Gemma looked instead of whether or not she was alive, but he hadn’t started the fight.
“Shut your mouth, son,” Nate warned.
“You should listen to him, Sheriff. He’s the only one talking with any intelligence.” Patrick sat down on the small cot and wiped at his mouth, a sullen expression on his face. “It won’t help you. I intend to sue you for everything you’re worth, you piece of shit.”
Cade stared out at the office. Cam was already writing up a report. And he had no idea how Gemma was because he’d been an asshole who couldn’t control his temper. And as for Patrick taking everything he was worth, well, he wasn’t worth much. He was worth way less than he’d been about an hour ago.
“Do you know how she is?” Cade asked quietly.
Laura stepped up. “I talked to Ty on the radio. Gemma’s stats are good. Her heart rate is steady and she’s breathing just fine. Jesse’s with her. Caleb is taking her to the hospital, but he thinks she just needs some rest and steroids. He’s going to keep a close watch on her. Ty’s coming back here to take a look at you.”
He didn’t want any damn medical attention. He just wanted to sit and rot in the cell and think about what the hell he was doing. He should never have gotten involved. He knew better. He knew what happened when he loved someone. He fucked up and they got hurt.
Gemma almost died. She would never have been in Stella’s without her purse if it hadn’t been for him.
The station doors opened, and Stef Talbot strode in along with his wife, Jennifer. The rumor was Jennifer Talbot was pregnant, but Cade couldn’t tell. The artist looked slender and lovely, following her husband who seemed deeply agitated. Stef Talbot, who some around town called the King of Bliss, wore jeans and a Western shirt, but that didn’t make him an ordinary cowpoke. Stef had power, and he didn’t mind wielding it.
“Does someone want to tell me why my stepmother is crying and trying to tally up the damage to her place of business?”
Cade opened his mouth to talk, and Nate sent him a nasty look.
“I told you not to talk, son.”
Stef stalked his way. “Did you do this, Sinclair?”
Patrick piped up. “He sure as hell did, and I’m going to sue him.”
Jen took a long look at the man in the other cell. “Babe, why don’t we get the whole story before you try to take Cade apart? He’s a damn fine mechanic. We need those around here. The snowmobile is busted.”
“I don’t give a damn about the snowmobile,” he said, never taking those angry eyes off Cade.
Cade was kind of happy for the bars between them.
Jen came up and whispered something in her husband’s ear that had him flushing. He turned back to her. “Are you serious?”
She shrugged and gave him a half smile. “Rach says it works really well. I thought we could get some happy fun time in before I get too big.”
His hand strayed briefly at her belly before he turned back to Cade. “Fine. Talk. You have two minutes before I throw you out of my town.”
“Just do it, Talbot. I was going to leave anyway.” The look in Jesse’s eyes had made that decision for him. Disappointment. Anger. Regret. All directed his way. At least one of them was there for Gemma.