Search And Rescue: In Safe Hands Part 33

Since Ellie asked the question so seriously, Daisy tried to turn the amused sound that came out of her mouth into a cough. "No," she answered after clearing her throat. "You are definitely not a sociopath. I'd be relieved if the person who'd shot me and tried to kill me was dead."

"Um..." Lou sent her a sideways look. "The person who tried to kill you is dead-at least one of them."

Carefully placing her coffee on the counter, Daisy flattened her shaking hands against her thighs, trying to force them to be still. "I'm glad Tyler's going to be okay...physically, at least."

"I guess." The other two looked at Lou, and she grimaced. "I don't wish he were dead or anything, but the little brat burned my truck...and my house. Sure, my stalker probably watched him do it and didn't stop him, but Tyler confessed to being the one who lit the match."

"Why'd he go after you? It's a ways out to your place-how'd he even get there?" Daisy asked.

"Apparently," Lou said, still sounding bitter, "he didn't like that I was investigating Willard Gray's murder. He thought he was protecting his dad. And he's known how to drive since he was thirteen. He stole his dad's truck to drive out to my place. That's how he got out to set the wildland fires, too."

"Wow." Daisy shook her head. "I'm not sure why I'm surprised, though. He did burn and try to blow up mine. He thought he was helping his dad, but there are still some pretty big chunks missing from the kid's moral framework. Deputy Macavoy's parents filed a missing-person report, and no one is optimistic about finding him alive. They're looking into his mom's disappearance, too."

"Tyler's mom?" Lou asked. "I thought she left them voluntarily."

Pity for the kid rushed through Daisy, almost smothering the anger toward him. "There's no proof she didn't, but Rob walked in on his wife abusing Tyler. After that, no one saw her again. It's enough that the BCA is checking into it."

"How sad," Ellie sighed.

Lou made a sound of agreement. "Who told you that?"

"Strepple," Daisy said. "He called to update me on the investigation."

"Where'd they take Tyler?" Ellie asked.

"A psych facility outside of Denver."

Ellie's eyebrows rose. "Which one?"

"I'm not sure," Daisy answered with an apologetic grimace. "Sorry. Strepple didn't share that. Chris's been trying to protect me from knowing details about the case. It's a good thing I've started leaving the house, or I wouldn't know anything."

At that, Lou growled, "Seriously? Why would he think that would help? It makes me nuts not to know stuff."

"Me too. Even my dad is acting all protective, and that's not like him."

"He's still staying with you at Chris's?" At Daisy's nod, Lou scrunched her nose. "Doesn't that get in the way of you and Chris...?" Trailing off, she waved a hand.

"Talking?" Daisy guessed, widening her eyes with mock-innocence.

"No."

"Watching movies?"

"No."

"Cooking brownies together?"

c.o.c.king her head to the side, Lou looked thoughtful. "I guess that could be one euphemism for it."

Ellie wrinkled her nose. "No. No, it can't."

Finally breaking down with a laugh, Daisy admitted, "Yes, when Dad sits on the couch between us, glaring at Chris, it does get in the way of me and Chris"-she imitated Lou's wave-"cooking brownies. Literally in the way. It's just temporary, though. Dad'll be heading out to another job site soon, and he'll find another place in Simpson. Chris's already bugging me to move in with him permanently."

"Are you going to stay?" Lou asked.

"Yes." Living with Chris was pretty much as wonderful as she'd thought it would be.

"Oh!" Ellie slapped her non-latte-holding hand on the counter, startling Daisy. "Speaking of fathers, guess who called me last night?" Positively beaming, she answered her own question before either of the other two could guess. "Dad!"

"Seriously?" Lou demanded, rus.h.i.+ng to round the counter. "And you didn't lead with that?" She grabbed Ellie, who lifted her coffee up out of the way just in time, and squeezed her tightly. "That's awesome, El! I'm so happy for you!"

When Lou finally released her and returned to her spot behind the counter, Ellie bounced on her stool a few times, grinning hugely. "I know! I can't believe I forgot to tell you until now. Poor George. I was so wired that I barely slept last night, and I kept poking him to wake him so I'd have someone to talk to about it."

"That's great, Ellie." Reaching over, Daisy grabbed her hand. "You could've called me instead of waking the sleeping beast." She didn't mention that a call would've woken Daisy, too, since she'd been sleeping a lot more soundly recently.

Ellie laughed, a genuinely happy sound. "George was right there, so I just tortured him."

The bells on the door jangled, and all three women turned their heads toward the sound to see Rory entering.

"Rory!" Ellie was the first to greet her. "My dad called last night! He's in Florida for some reason that he didn't explain very well. I mean, Florida? Really?"

A brief, but beautiful, smile flashed across Rory's face. "Good. He's okay, then?"

"Yep. He's even on his meds. We had a conversation that actually made sense."

"I'm glad." Rory took the stool on her right, and Daisy shuffled hers back a foot so she could see everyone without having to turn her head back and forth.

"Not that I'm not wildly excited that you joined us," Lou said to Rory, "but shouldn't you be watching your store? The guns don't sell themselves, you know."

"I was at the store." She frowned, but looked more baffled than angry. "Ian walked in and said that Derek drove by and saw Daisy walking into the coffee shop, so he texted Chief Early, who mentioned it to Soup, who called Ian."

Lou lowered her head to the counter with a thump that made Daisy wince. "This town."

"Ian said," Rory continued without reacting to Lou's comment, "he was going to watch the store so I could come here and have girl time." She said the last two words as if they were in a foreign language she didn't know. "Is girl time really a thing, or is Ian pretending he knows stuff he doesn't again?"

Lou and Ellie snickered, while Daisy tried to keep a straight face. Rory looked so very bewildered.

"I'm pretty sure it is a thing," Daisy said as seriously as she was able. "Not that I'm an expert, of course, since most of my knowledge of girl time has come from books and movies."

"It is a thing," Ellie confirmed.

Rory nodded. "I have something that I'm pretty sure is girl time appropriate, then."

Three pairs of eyes fastened on her.

"Well, spill it," Lou urged, propping her elbows on the counter and leaning in. "Don't make us drag it out of you. All that training with Deputy Chris has made us a bunch of bada.s.ses, so we could force you to talk if we need to."

Rory was actually blus.h.i.+ng, which made Daisy even more curious.

"Here." Rory slapped a glossy brochure on the counter. All three reached for it, but Ellie was the quickest and managed to whip it away from the others' grabbing hands.

"What is this?" Ellie looked confused as she flipped it over. "Safe rooms? Is that like a panic room?"

Realization hit Daisy, and she shrieked and grabbed Rory's arm. The other women looked alarmed. "He actually did it?"

Leaning back warily, Rory said, "By 'it,' do you mean propose? If so, then yes."

It was Lou's turn to scream as she barreled around the counter for the second time. "He proposed?" She lunged to hug Rory, but then paused in midreach. "Wait. Did you say yes?"

Rory didn't look like she wanted to answer, but she finally gave a short nod. With another shriek, Lou dove toward her and hugged her hard, apparently oblivious to Rory's panicked expression and stiff frame.

"Hold on!" Ellie had to almost shout to be heard over Lou's expressions of happiness. "I don't get it. Did Ian propose to you using a safe-room brochure rather than a ring?"

"Yes." Rory's face softened at the thought. "He said he was going to get me a gun, instead, but he figured I had plenty of those."

"Congratulations!" Hopping off her stool, Ellie dove into the hug, turning it into a three-way. As Rory's expression changed from panic to resignation, Daisy grinned at her and wrapped her arms around the cl.u.s.ter of women, joining in the group hug.

Her laugh burbled out of her, sheer happiness making it impossible to hold back. If this was girl time, then girl time was awesome.

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Run to Ground.

Chapter 1.

The new waitress was hot. Squirrelly, but hot.

Theo always got to Coop's early for the K-9 unit's breakfast and informal roll call. Those fifteen minutes before Otto and Hugh showed up usually were, if not exactly peaceful, at least a little break from having to hide the mess he'd become. This morning, though, he was distracted by the way the dark-haired stranger kept trying not to stare at him. Since she didn't seem to be bothered by anyone else in the diner, Theo a.s.sumed that it was his uniform that was making her nervous. He'd caught himself watching her four times now, and he'd only been in the diner for five minutes.

A mug thumped on the table in front of him, and Theo turned his frown toward Megan. They had a morning ritual: He scowled. She aggressively delivered his food and coffee. Neither said a word.

This morning, though, as Megan was turning away, Theo was almost tempted to break the silence. He barely caught himself before a question about the new server popped out of his mouth. Stopping the words just in time, he s.n.a.t.c.hed up his coffee and took a drink, burning his tongue in the process. He set down the mug with enough force to make it almost slosh over the rim. s.h.i.+t.

Before Theo could stop himself, his gaze searched out the new waitress again. She was delivering two plates of food to a table across the diner. By the look of concentration on her face and the exaggerated care she was taking, Theo a.s.sumed she was new to waiting tables. She was definitely new to Monroe, Colorado. If she'd been around, he would've noticed her. There was no doubt about that.

As she turned away from the table, smiling, their gazes caught for a second before she ducked her head and hurried toward the kitchen. The uniforms at Coop's were designed to be more homespun than s.e.xy, but Theo couldn't look away from the stranger's rear view. He knew he shouldn't take her avoidance personally. Theo had the feeling she would have the same flight response to any cop.

"Who's that?" Otto dropped onto the bench next to him.

Tearing away his gaze, Theo gave his fellow K-9 officer a flat stare. "Move."

"No." Otto stretched out his legs until his lumberjack-sized boots b.u.mped the opposite bench. "I always sit here."

Just for the past two months. Theo didn't want to say that, though. It might've led to talking about what had happened, and he really did not want to discuss it. Still, he couldn't let it drop. "I'm not one of your wounded strays."

Otto made a noncommittal sound that heated Theo's simmering anger another few degrees. Before he could rip into Otto, though, Hugh slid into the opposite side of the booth.

"Hey," Hugh greeted both of them with his standard easy-going grin. "Who's the new waitress?"

"You're not going to squeeze onto this bench, too?" Theo asked with thick sarcasm.

Half-standing, Hugh gave Theo a too-earnest look. "Did you want me to sit with you two? Because I can. It'll be cozy."

Several smart-a.s.sed retorts hovered on Theo's tongue, but he swallowed all of them. All that would do was convince Hugh to change sides, and they'd be uncomfortable and awkward all through breakfast. Behind Hugh's placid exterior was a mile-high wall of stubbornness.

Theo stayed silent.

With a slight smirk, Hugh settled back on his side of the table. "Anything fun and exciting happen last night?"

"Eh," Otto said with a lift of one shoulder. "Carson Byers got picked up again."

Hugh frowned. "That's not fun. Or exciting. In fact, that's something that happens almost every s.h.i.+ft. What was it this time?"

"Trespa.s.s."

"He was drunk and thought the Andersons' house was his again?"

"The Daggs' place, this time."

"Wait. Isn't that on the other side of town?"

"Yep."

"Dumba.s.s."

"Yep."