Legally Hot by Leigh, Lora (smart ebook reader TXT) 📗

black on his right haunch. That, and the way he favored it, told Adam that the retriever had been shot.

Fred looked at Adam with thoughtful, intelligent eyes.

Adam gestured in the direction of the neighbor’s home. “Keri climbed over that wall.”

Despite his injury, Fred turned and shot toward the doorway into the house and disappeared through it.

Adam quickly checked the suspect for ID but found none on the man. However, he did locate a cell phone. Rather than turning it in, he shoved it in his pocket.

Responding officers came onto the rooftop and Adam set his gun down and raised his hands. “Detective Adam Boyd,” he said.

After the routine of identifying himself and showing his credentials to responding officers, Adam rushed to find Keri.

By the time Adam got to the courtyard, Fred was barking on the other side of the wall where Keri had climbed over.

Adam jumped up, grabbed the top block of the fence, and pulled himself up.

Before he jumped down he said, “Keri?” He saw her next to a rosebush, propped against the wall.

Fred sat beside her with his head tilted up to look at Adam. He seemed to be saying with his eyes, “Please help her. And hurry.” How the hell did the dog get over the fence? Must have been another way there.

Adam’s heart beat faster when he didn’t see Keri move and she didn’t respond. He jumped down and landed in a crouch beside her.

To his relief she raised her eyes and looked at him. She tried to give a smile, but her entire body was shaking and her lips were blue. It was obvious she was going into shock. Fred whimpered and started licking her face.

Fred backed away as Adam tore off his jacket. He prepared to put it around her shoulders, but he paused. He saw that Keri’s belly was now bare. She was holding one arm with a free hand. Cloth wrapped around her arm was soaked with blood and her hand was covered with it.

“Whoever it was shot me in my arm,” she said, and he heard the clicking of her teeth chattering.

“I’m calling in for an ambulance.” He dialed in to the captain again and told him what he needed.

When he was done, Adam tried to keep his professional calm as he eased his jacket around her shoulders.

She gritted her teeth, holding back a whimper, before she said, “I don’t think it’s serious. Just hurts like a beast.”

“We’ll let a doctor determine whether or not it’s serious.” Adam cursed beneath his breath. “I’m going to carry you,” he said as he eased his arms around her. She nodded and he scooped her up. “You okay?” he asked.

Keri nodded again, looking pale in what light was offered in the night. “Just a little cold and sleepy.”

She felt too light, too limp in his arms. “Stay awake for me, okay, angel?”

“Okay.” Her voice was just a whisper as he charged out of the backyard and toward a waiting ambulance, Fred limping alongside.

*   *   *

  “It’s a flesh wound,” Adam said to Olivia DeSantos over his cell phone, a few steps away from Keri’s hospital bed. “The bullet went through clean. Just wanted to say thanks. If it wasn’t for you tracking her down for me, she would probably be dead.”

“Glad I could help.” Olivia didn’t give a smartass remark like she would have normally. “Get some sleep, Boyd.”

Adam snapped his cell phone shut. Anger burned in his belly as he looked at Keri and thought about the fact that she could have died tonight.

It had been a busy night for the ER, which meant they’d been there for what felt like forever. Eight hours after being taken to the hospital, she sat up on the hospital bed as the nurse gave her release instructions, including how to care for the wound in her arm.

Adam studied Keri as she responded to the nurse. In the bright fluorescent lights of the emergency room, she looked pale, her auburn hair falling out of the now loose ponytail. She held her arm close to her chest in a sling.

Her rosebush landing had scratched and scraped her face and arms, leaving angry-looking marks across her fair skin. Other than that, according to the doctor, she was fine and could go home.

Of course there was no way in hell Adam was going to let her near her house. He’d take her to his own place in Kensington, where he was certain she’d be safe from Carter and anyone he might send.

“Sure you’re okay?” Adam said to Keri after the nurse left.

Keri gave him a little smile. “My arm just throbs and burns a bit. Other than that I’m fine.” Her eyelids drooped and she appeared tired, but he had to admit she did look better than could be expected for what she’d been through.

Adam took her hand and helped her off the bed. “You look like you just got in a fight with a rosebush and lost.”

With a quick grin she said, “I guess I do.”

After he draped his leather jacket over her shoulders and she grabbed her small purse, they walked through the hospital and out into the chilly early morning. It was still dead dark, but it wouldn’t be long until sunrise.

Her smile faded as she said, “Did you find out any information about the shooter?”

“Not yet.” Adam did his best to keep his concern as well as his anger out of his voice. “But we will.”

“How did you know to come back?” she asked.

“A car drove past me on my way out of your neighborhood; it was driving at a crawl. It stopped, then turned around,” Adam said. “I continued heading home, but something about the car kept bugging me. Something didn’t feel right.” He frowned as he remembered seeing the