“Cal, as in Cal Scott?” Please don’t let it be that Cal. He was the last person her sister would want as her doctor. Cal and her brother were friends. They’d been joined at the hip when they were younger and Jace was in town. But what her brother didn’t know was that Bri and Cal had dated for almost a year back in the day. Ellie didn’t know why they’d broken up, but her sister had been heartbroken.
“Yeah. He’s one of the best trauma surgeons I know. We’re lucky to get him. He’s the only one I trust to look after Bri.”
“I didn’t know he’d moved back to town,” Ellie said. Her sister was going to kill her. “Jace, you didn’t tell him we suspect that Bri’s been abused, did you?”
“Of course I did. He has to know what he’s dealing with.”
“Ellie, we’ve got trouble,” her grandfather said, leaning against the doorjamb, clearly out of breath.
“What’s going on?” her brother asked.
“I don’t know. Grandpa, what’s wrong?” She put her brother on speaker so he could hear their grandfather’s symptoms. “Are you feeling okay? You’re not dizzy, are you?”
“I’m not having a damn stroke, if that’s what you’re worried about. I went out looking for Jonathan and the boy and spotted Richard coming up the road in his fancy SUV. I had to run here to beat him.”
“Grandpa, go sit with Bri and lock the door,” she said, and walked to the safe.
“Don’t take the pistol, take the rifle.” Her grandfather pointed at the gun case above the safe.
“Ellie. Elliana, don’t you dare confront him with a gun. Call the cops,” her brother yelled through the phone.
“They won’t get here in time,” Ellie and her grandfather said in unison as she took out the rifle and checked the chamber.
“Don’t worry, Jace. Your sister knows what she’s about. I taught her well.” Joe picked up her phone. “We’ll call you when it’s over,” she heard her grandfather say over her swearing brother.
Ellie hurried into the reception area, relieved that Richard hadn’t made it inside. Opening the door, she strode onto the porch and raised the rifle. “Don’t come one step closer,” she said to the man rushing up the walkway.
She caught movement to her left on the road. It was the judge and Ryder returning from their walk. “Ryder, hold on to Toby,” she called without taking her eyes off her sister’s husband. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll leave now,” she told Richard.
He ignored her and kept coming. “You have no right to keep me from my wife. Step asi—”
Ellie widened her stance, sighted the gun, aiming for the spot between his shoes, and pulled the trigger. Richard’s eyes went wide, and he staggered backward. For a second Ellie thought she’d hit him. She didn’t feel bad about that at all. But then she noticed the gouge in the paving stone, exactly where she’d been aiming.
“Next time, I won’t miss.” Once again, she loaded the chamber.
“You’re crazy! Just like your mother said you were.” He stabbed a finger at the door. “That’s my wife you have in there, and you can’t keep me away from her! Do you hear me?” he shouted, walking backward to his SUV. “I know people. People who will make you sorry you ever went up against me. You’ll pay for this. Mark my words, you’ll pay.”
She opened her mind to his thoughts. The developer. Dimitri Ivanov. Richard was going to Bri’s father for help. Except he didn’t know the man was his wife’s father. Which meant Richard wasn’t blackmailing her mother. So had her mother been playing on Ellie’s love for her sister and her father to get her to back down? Richard revved the engine and squealed out of the parking lot. Ellie didn’t relax until his SUV disappeared down the road.
“That was totally badass, Ellie!” Ryder said, hanging on to Toby’s leash with his eyes glued to his screen as they walked to the porch.
“I’d admonish you for your language, son, but I can’t think of a better way to describe what we just witnessed. You, Ellie MacLeod, are a badass.”
Hearing the word out of the judge’s mouth made her laugh. “Thank you.” She narrowed her eyes at Ryder, who was shaking his head, watching his screen with a mile-wide grin on his face. “Ryder, tell me you didn’t film that.”
He lifted a shoulder. “You took a picture of me wearing an apron and doing dishes, Ellie. What do you think?”
“It’s not the—” She broke off as a black jeep peeled into the parking lot.
“Who’s that?” Ryder asked, his eyes going wide when the man slammed out of the jeep. He was almost as big and as broad as Nate and dressed in green scrubs. He had a phone to his ear and a medical bag in his other hand, and he was shaking his head at Ellie. She had a fairly good idea who was on the other end.
“Dr. Caleb Scott. My brother sent him,” she told Ryder, then smiled at the man walking up the steps. “Hi, Cal.”
“Still the same rebel without a cause, I see.” He held out the phone to her. “Your brother wants a word.”
“Trust me, this time I had a cause,” she said, taking the phone from him.
He took the gun from her and gave her a one-armed hug. “I know you did,” he said, then strode into the inn. The judge, Ryder, and Toby followed him inside.
Ellie brought the phone to her ear. “I’m fine, Jace. Richard’s gone.” For how long, she didn’t know. And she was worried that when he returned, he’d have friends. She had to get to Dimitri Ivanov, and she knew the one person who could. She cut off her brother midlecture. “I need to call Mom. I’ll call you once Cal has finished examining Bri.”
Ellie called her mother from Cal’s phone in hopes she’d answer an unknown number. She did. “Mom, Bri’s hurt. It’s bad.” She quickly explained her sister’s condition and what had transpired between Richard and Bri. “You need to get here, and you need to get here as fast as you can.”
“I’m twenty-five minutes away.”
“How? How did you know to come here?”
“Your sister has me listed as her emergency contact. One of her nurses called as soon as they discovered Brianna was missing. The nurse told me, Elliana. She told me they suspected Richard was involved but that your sister said it was an accident.”
“You knew she was in the hospital, and you didn’t tell me?”
“I had no idea. I had no idea about anything.” Her mother choked back a sob. “I should have listened to you, Elliana. I should have—”
“We can talk when you get here, Mom. The doctor’s examining Bri. I need to be with her.”
“Yes. Go to her.”
Ellie disconnected and rushed into the inn, running down the hall to her grandfather’s room. As she went to open the door, her grandfather, the judge, and Ryder hurried out. She could tell by their expressions that whatever was happening in that room wasn’t good. Her grandfather handed Ellie her phone. “You need to call your parents.”
She nodded, pressing her lips together to hold in a sob. What little composure she retained she nearly lost when she entered the room. Cal was on the phone. “I have a code three at Mirror Lake Inn. Yeah, that’s what I said. Hot response.”