Chapter Two
Braden McClintock stared with pity at the bedraggled woman in his arms. Someone had beaten her so badly she was one big bloody bruise. He looked toward the timberline she’d stumbled from and listened, but he didn’t hear anything.
As her words played back in his head, it was obvious to Braden that she was running from someone. She’d seen something—something that had put her in danger—and she’d said the cops were dirty. If he took her to the hospital, they’d call the sheriff’s office, but she was in need of medical help. He suspected her right wrist was broken, owing to the swelling and discoloration. It was obvious someone had hit her on her left cheek. Numerous cuts and scrapes, some of them deep, crisscrossed her body. Her clothing was torn and wet to the touch, which meant she’d walked in the river at some point. The highway was a couple of miles away and if she’d come from there, that meant she’d walked through wolf-infested woods the whole night.
If she was in trouble… If she’d seen something like she’d indicated, then he couldn’t bring attention to her. He pulled his cell phone from his back pocket and hit the first number on the speed dial.
“What’s up?” his brother, Leo, asked on the other end.
“I have an emergency,” Braden answered without preamble. “I’ll meet you at your office.”
He disconnected and slipped the phone into the front pocket of his shirt before carefully lifting the battered woman into his arms. Moving quickly, he walked to his truck and opened the back seat’s door then slowly slid her in. Once he’d secured her, he hopped behind the wheel and quickly turned around then headed back down the road.
About thirty minutes from the ranch and Leo’s office, Braden started glancing behind him at the unconscious woman. It was hard for him to tell what she looked like under the dried blood, dirt and swelling. She didn’t have a purse or wallet so he didn’t even know her name. He wavered back and forth between taking the woman to the hospital and taking her to Leo. He knew what his brother would say—he’d insist that they drive her to the ER—but her words haunted Braden. What the hell had happened? What have I seen?
He was still thinking about what to do when he pulled up to Leo’s office.
Braden turned the engine off and hurried to get the woman out. Cradling her, he rushed into the building. Leo had built his practice on a corner of their family’s property two years ago when the old town vet had finally retired and let Leo take over his workload. He’d filled it with all the latest and best medical gadgets available. Leo still made house calls, of course, but for the most part, his ass stayed firmly on their land.
Leo was waiting for him in the ER bay and Braden gently laid her on the table. Her head listed to the side, exposing her bruised and battered face, the overhead light making it look ten times worse.
“Who’s this?” Leo demanded, looking at the woman on his table. He turned stunned eyes toward Braden.
“I found her on the southern road,” Braden told him as he arranged the woman’s limbs.
“Braden, she needs a hospital, not a veterinarian!”
“I don’t think I can take her there,” he said. “I think she’s in trouble.”
“That’s obvious, but I treat animals with four legs, not two.”
“No, Leo, I mean it. She was conscious long enough to beg me no police and no hospital. She said he would find her and kill her.”
“He who?” Leo demanded. “Her boyfriend? Her husband? Her pimp?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is she dangerous?”
Braden’ shot his eyebrows up. “Does she look dangerous?”
“I meant is she involved with dangerous company. Damn it, Braden—”
“Look,” he interrupted, waving his arm around. “You can take X-rays, you’ve got plaster, medicine and you’re a fucking doctor. I just have this gut feeling she needs protection. So please, do me this favor.”
Leo sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “All right. But if she’s a fugitive or some kind of con artist, I’m calling the cops and kicking your ass. Got it?”
Braden held his hands up in an I give up and agree gesture. Leo reached for gloves and slipped them on to begin his examination. He tilted the woman’s head this way and that before grabbing a pair of bandage scissors.
“I think she was out in the woods all night,” Braden said, as he watched his brother treat her. “Probably went through the river.”
“We need to get her on an IV and X-ray that wrist,” Leo stated. “Hopefully that’s the only broken bone she has. Help me take her clothes off.”
Braden grabbed gloves as well and they both slowly cut her clothing away, revealing bruises over most of her body. Purple contusions covered her side, as well as her hips with more mottling down her legs. Leo probed her ribs and listened to her lungs then gestured for Braden to cover her with a blanket.
“Get the saline on that shelf over there to clean up the dried blood,” Leo ordered. “Find all the cuts that require stitches.”
Braden did as he was told while Leo started an IV drip in her left wrist. As Braden washed her, he realized that the woman was young, probably in her early twenties, with curly brown hair reaching halfway down her back. Of course, leaves and sticks matted her hair, but he’d tackle that job later.
Most of her cuts were minor, needing only antibiotic ointment and Band-Aids. She had only two that seemed deep enough for stitches—one on her thigh and one on her shoulder. He pointed them out to Leo, who left to get a package of suture, gloves and a sterile medical kit. Braden had helped Leo a couple of times in the lab so he snagged some povidone-iodine to clean the area as his brother used a clamp to grab the curved needle which had the thread attached at the tail. Leo sewed with finesse, his concentration focused solely on his work. When he finished, he slipped off his gloves to bandage the two areas, careful of her wrist, before rewrapping her in the blanket.
“Let’s X-ray that wrist,” Leo said. “I want one of her torso too, although I didn’t feel any other broken bones or internal swelling when I palpated. But I must stress that it would be better if she could have a CT scan.” Leo glowered at him.
“Noted, Dr. Leo,” Braden said as he unhooked the safety from the table wheels. The X-ray machine sat in another room behind protective radiation shielding. They laid a small lead vest around her neck to protect her thyroid then moved behind the protective sheeting as Leo activated the machine, snapping several shots of her hand, followed by a couple of her chest. When they were done, Braden removed the neck shield.
“Well, this is good,” Leo said as he looked at the pictures. “No internal bleeding or broken bones that I can see. The break on her radius is clean and the carpus cluster looks fine, which is relief. Of course, I would feel better if a hand surgeon took a look at these.”
“Do you know a hand surgeon?”
“No,” Leo answered. “But I could call over at Riverton and see if they have one there. I know I’d feel a helluva lot better if I didn’t have this on my conscience.”
Braden rubbed his jaw, thinking. “No. Not until we talk to her.”
“Ah hell, Braden. What’s up with this girl? You’re such a levelheaded guy and yet you’re acting crazy right now. Think!”
“You weren’t there, Leo. You didn’t hear her pleading with me, scared out of her mind. Since I don’t know what she witnessed, I can’t take the chance of someone recognizing her if I take her to the hospital. I have to protect her. Now, please…just put a cast on her wrist.”
Leo glared at him. “What if I’ve missed something? What if she needs surgery on her wrist? The decisions we make right now could seriously affect her prognosis.”
“I trust you, Leo.”
His brother gave a fed-up groan, turned and stormed away.
Braden strode back to the woman and caressed her cheek. Although pale and fragile-looking, she was pretty. Protectiveness surged through him and he touched her curls, letting one swirl around his fingers. He’d only talked to her for a moment, but he couldn’t get her terrified expression out of his mind.
“I…won’t tell…w-what I saw.”
“Shh. I’m going to call the police—”
“No! He’ll find me! He’ll kill me! He said…the cops are bad. Please…help me!”
Who was this man who had terrified her, beat her black and blue and left her wandering at night in the forest? A lover? A stranger? Whoever he was, it didn’t take a genius to figure out she was probably in the wrong place at the wrong time and had witnessed something that put her life in danger. Her escape was a testament to her courage, since she’d spent the night running for her life while in terrible pain.
Yet he knew Leo was right. As he wheeled the table back into the lab, he decided he’d give the unconscious woman two days—unless something medically threatening happened. Later, if she played him or if he sensed she wasn’t being truthful, he’d take her in and let the police deal with her.