Sheriff Daddy (Montana Daddies Book 10) by Laylah Roberts (good book club books txt) 📗

He thought she’d lost weight, but now he was starting to grow concerned. She felt lighter than a feather.

“W-what’s going on? W-what’s happening? Put me d-down! No!”

Her scream of fear had him tensing. She started fighting him. Fuck, she was going to hurt herself.

“Georgina, it’s me. It’s Ed. The sheriff.”

“No, no, no, don’t hurt me!”

His heart stopped at her cries. Who the fuck had hurt her? Whoever it was, he was going to kill them. Murder them. Rip them limb from limb.

Nobody touched her.

Opening the door, he set her down on the seat. Immediately, she tried to lunge out and he caught her around the waist.

“Georgina, come back to me. You’re here with me. Ed. In Wishingbone. Nobody is going to hurt you.” He was practically pleading with her and it was making no difference. She pummeled at him with her fists. But she was so physically weak, her hits weren’t much stronger than a babe. That scared him.

He had to get her calmed down and to the hospital.

But reasoning with her wasn’t working. Shit. He was out of other things to try. He placed his hands on either side of her face.

“Georgie, listen to me,” he said in his deepest Dom voice. To his shock, she froze. Okay, then. “Georgie-girl, I need you to calm down. Understand me?”

She whimpered. “He’ll hurt me.”

“Nobody is going to hurt you. Nobody will ever hurt you again while Da . . . I mean, while I’m here.”

Fuck what was he doing? He’d nearly referred to himself as Daddy.

But she was calming down.

“He’s coming for me.”

“Nobody is coming for you,” he reassured her. He’d fucking murder anyone who touched her.

“I don’t want to be hurt.”

Fuck. She was killing him. “Nobody will hurt you. I’m going to take care of you, understand, baby?”

She sniffled. “O-okay.”

“Good girl, you just sit back and relax.” He was worried that she wasn’t shivering. That wasn’t a good sign. He had to get her warm.

She’d slumped over, unconscious again. Fuck. He quickly belted her in then ran to the back of his truck and grabbed a blanket. Opening the door again, he tucked it around her. She hadn’t moved.

Fuck. Fuck.

Racing around to the driver’s side, he got in and cranked the heat up high. Turning the truck, he raced towards the hospital. He radioed in to Wendy and left a voicemail message for Remy.

Then he swung into the emergency bay of the hospital. Climbing out, his heart was beating too fast as he jumped out and ran around to grab her.

Please, please let her be all right.

9

“Is she all right? What happened?”

Ed turned towards Remy, who’d just rushed into the waiting room. As soon as he’d walked in the door with an unconscious Georgina in his arms, a nurse had rushed out at him. She’d been wheeled away on a bed, the nurse giving out orders. And he’d been left standing there, feeling helpless.

He hated feeling helpless. It was something he’d tried to eradicate from his life. The feeling of not having control. But he didn’t have control over this. He had to rely on others.

Fuck.

He’d been shown to this waiting room about ten minutes ago, and now all he’d been doing was pacing and worrying.

“I don’t know,” he barked at Remy. “I found her on the side of the road, she’d collapsed.”

What if he hadn’t driven up just at that moment? Someone could have run her over. Anything could have happened to her.

Didn’t she know how dangerous it was to run at night, on her own? In a strange place?

If she were his . . .

Easy. You can’t do anything about any of that.

Well, he could make sure it didn’t happen again.

How? By giving her a scolding? Yeah, that’s going to work. If she’s not yours, she’s not going to listen to a word you say.

He ran a hand over his face tiredly. He was worn out, hungry, and stressed. None of his thoughts were helping anyone. Least of all Georgina.

“Collapsed? She collapsed?” another voice asked.

Ed glanced around Remy with a frown. “Kiesha? What are you doing here?”

He figured he’d wait until he found out what was going on with Georgina before calling her. Plus, it was getting late. There hadn’t been any point in Kiesha worrying and losing sleep either.

She stepped around Remy, giving him an assessing look. “Wendy called me. She said you brought Georgina in and that she was unconscious.” She slammed her hands on her hips. “What I want to know, is why you didn’t call me? What’s wrong? What happened to her?”

“I don’t know what’s wrong with her. I went to the motel earlier to see if she was still there. Remy said he saw her go for a run. She hadn’t returned, it was dark, and the cold front was going to hit soon. So I went looking for her. Found her out on the Old Road. She collapsed. Brought her in here.”

“Oh God. Why would she go running by herself at night?” Kiesha said worriedly. She ran her fingers through her hair. “I knew something was wrong. I should have broken down her door and forced her to talk to me.”

She looked so distraught. He hated seeing her upset. He held out his arms and she raced into them.

“This isn’t your fault, honey.” He kissed the top of her head, hugging her tight. Damn, she was nearly as drenched as he was.

“I could have done something and now she’s in the hospital!” she wailed.

“You can’t think like that. None of us knew this would happen.”

“You two want me to give you privacy?” Remy asked gruffly.

Ed stared at him in confusion and Kiesha drew out of his arms to frown at Remy. “Why would we need privacy?”

“Just being polite.” Remy shrugged.

“Oh God, he thinks we’re together too!” Kiesha frowned up at Ed. “This is your fault.”

“How?”

“I don’t know. But everyone keeps thinking we’re a couple. It’s gross. Where’s the vending machine? I need sugar.”

“You don’t need sugar,” Ed told her, drawing her