Stunned, her breath stolen from the impact of hot air, she’d stopped and stared at what was left of the SUV. Jon’s pickup parked so close suddenly exploded. Even from as far away as she stood, she could feel the heat, smell the caustic smoke that rolled up into the winter-white sky overhead.
She tried to breathe, gasping at the horrific sight. Her gaze swung to where she’d seen Jon fall after the sound of the gunshot. She began to run down the road, her throat on fire from the smoke and her sobs. As she started out across the snowy field, she heard sirens over the crackle of the burning vehicles.
Halfway across the field, she saw movement. Jon was trying to get to his feet from where he’d fallen and rolled down to the edge of a frozen creek. She stumbled through the snow, nearly falling time and again until she reached the top of the rise.
She saw him standing there, looking as if it took all of his strength to do so. She could see the blood that had soaked through to his coat. He was holding his left side as he looked up at her. Her gaze met his. What she saw in his brown eyes made her heart swell as the sound of sirens grew closer and closer.
Kate felt tears blur her vision as Jon limped up the hill toward her. She took one step, then another until she was running to him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
KATE OPENED HER EYES. They felt gritty. She had to blink a couple of times to focus. When she did, her gaze fell on the hospital bed and the man lying in it. Earlier she’d called her daughters to let them know she was all right and that she would tell them everything when she could. Then she’d hung up and asked to see Jon.
Now getting up from the chair where she’d fallen asleep, she moved to his bedside.
He looked like a stranger lying there. His face had been split open from where Collin had struck him with the gun. The blow had broken his nose. It was now flattened and cocked a little to one side. The broken skin had been stitched together from his forehead to his jaw line, an angry slash across his already scarred face.
“He is never going to look like the man you knew,” the doctor had told her. She’d assured him it didn’t matter. “That’s if he comes out of the coma.” The paramedics had almost lost him on the flight to the hospital. After that, Jon had gone into a coma. The doctor had warned her that there might be brain damage.
Now as she picked up his hand from where it lay on the white sheet and held it in both of hers, she worried that he was too pale. He’d lost so much blood. But the concussion was what had led to the coma, the doctor had said. His brain had swollen, and if they hadn’t relieved the pressure...
She’d read about comas on her cell phone as she’d sat beside his bed. Some patients didn’t come out of them. Others came out years later. She knew she would wait. However long it took. She’d waited twenty years for this man. She’d wait another.
Most of what had happened after Homeland Security and the border patrol had arrived was a blur. Jon had taken a few steps and collapsed. She’d held him in her arms until the paramedics carried him to the helicopter that had set down in the road. Before he’d passed out, the only word he’d spoken was Katie.
She’d wanted to go with him but hadn’t been allowed. She’d been taken to a Homeland Security office, expecting hours of interrogation. But to her surprise, Earl Ray had arrived and whisked her out of there. Together, they’d flown to the hospital. She’d been by Jon’s bedside ever since.
It wasn’t the large hospital she’d expected. Instead, it was a small private one with only a few rooms. Earl Ray had assured her that a specialized doctor had been flown in to care for Jon. She noticed there were armed guards at the entry to both the hospital and Jon’s room.
“Is he under arrest?” she’d asked Earl Ray, sick with what she’d gotten him involved in.
“The officers are here for his protection,” the older man had said.
For a while, she’d forgotten about the mobsters who wanted to kill Jon. She’d been too worried that he’d die from saving her. She had no way of knowing if Collin had made that call back in Buckhorn to the authorities, telling them where they could find Justin Brown. Were those criminals searching for Jon even now?
“It won’t take much to find him once the story comes out in the newspaper,” she told Earl Ray.
He had shaken his head. “That isn’t going to happen. At least, Jon’s name or yours won’t be in the story. You aren’t going to see anything about this on the news. It’s been taken care of.”
While not sure what that meant, she’d seen that it was all the information she was going to get. Her head still hurt from the two explosions, making it hard sometimes to think.
“He saved my life,” she’d told Earl Ray. “I realize now that he was even trying to save Collin.”
Earl Ray hadn’t looked surprised. “It would be just like Jon to save the fool. That’s just the way he is.”
“I’m here, Jon,” she whispered now and lifted his palm to her lips to plant a kiss in its center. “Come back to me. Please, Jon. Come back to me.”
She looked up to see Earl Ray enter the room and quickly wiped at her tears as she let go of Jon’s hand.
“We need to talk,” Earl Ray said.
Kate’s feet felt like lead weights as they walked down the hallway to a private room. She could tell by Earl Ray’s somber expression that what he had to say was serious. Had there been news about Jon’s condition? The doctor said they didn’t know when he’d be coming out of his coma—if at all. But she had to believe that he would open those brown eyes at any time and whisper her name. Katie.
* * *
“PLEASE, SIT DOWN,” EARL RAY said as he closed the door to the small room and motioned for her to sit.
She felt as if she couldn’t breathe. One look into the man’s kind eyes, and her legs felt so weak that she quickly lowered herself onto the couch.
“I’m not sure how much you know about Jon’s...situation,” Earl Ray said.
She realized he hadn’t said condition even as she asked, “You mean his medical—”
“No, his past.”
Kate nodded. “Collin told me that he was in law enforcement and that there were some killers looking for him because he had busted a bunch of mobsters.” Just the mention of Collin sent a shudder through her. She couldn’t bear to think about the way he’d died. No one deserved that. If only he had listened to Jon. If only he hadn’t done everything he had, including trying to kill Jon when Jon was only trying to save him.
“There has been a bounty out on Jon from before he came to Buckhorn. It’s one reason I’ve had to do the things I have. I’ve had to go out on a limb and call in a lot of favors. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.” He hesitated for a moment. “You need to know what happens next. I’m afraid I have little control over that part. It’s one reason I haven’t wanted you to talk about what happened to anyone. The official news is that both Collin Matthews died in an unrelated car accident and Jon Harper died in that explosion.”