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"They ht he could get Dale back by taking us out of the picture, he would"

"Did you see Wyatt tonight?" asked Brooks

"No"

"Have you seen hiht?"

"No"

"Has Dale?"

"If he has, he said nothing"

Brooks nodded "Okay, you folks sit tight and we’ll have a paramedic look you over I’ll be back in a few minutes"

Cold wind blew over them, but it wasn’t nearly as cold as Grant’s silence He was stiff, brittle with tension

They watched as the two attackers were loaded into aained consciousness

A paramedic came over to them and said to Grant, "I’d like to check you out"

"Her first"

The young woman balked at his hard, cold tone but didn’t offer any resistance "Okay Ma’am, if you’d come with me"

Isabelle didn’t want to leave Grant, but he urged her forith the arm around her body, so she went

Maybe he just wanted to be alone

The parairl, maybe twenty-five, with a pair of deep dio away, even when she wasn’t s

"Are you hurt anywhere?"

"I scraped my back when I fell, but it’s fine"

"Can I look?"

Isabelle lifted the back of her jacket and shirt and showed the woman There were a few dots of blood on her shirt, but no more than she’d have froave a sy I should probably take you to the hospital for so’s broken"

"Nothing’s broken I’d know"

"Not always Adrenaline canradiated out from the small of her back where the concrete had scraped away a patch of skin, but it wasn’t that bad "I’et hoo seeto let me take you in?"

"Yes"

Her dimples disappeared with her frown of disappointment "Guess I’ll check out your boyfriend, then"

"He’s notat me like he’d kill me with his bare hands if I so much as lanced over at Grant and her breath stilled in her lungs He was staring at her, his jaw hard, his eyes narrow and glittering with anger His body was tense, and his fists were balled up tight as he stared across the parking lot, giving the paralare

"That’s just his way He’s protective"

"Well, hon, I’d suggest you hold on to hiuys as hot as that that care as much about you as he clearly does are few and far between"

The para to know the truth It didn’t really matter how much a man cared They alalked away in the end

Everett packed quickly, taking only a few changes of clothes with him, a few pictures of Isabelle He’d always been a neat person, so gathering his things hadn’t taken long He called his boss’s work phone and left a ency

No one at work knew he didn’t have a fao that people saw him differently--as an outsider--when they kneas an orphan As it was, they thought it was odd that he hadn’t married, but Everett wasn’t interested in anyone but Isabelle, and she wasn’t interested in him

He accepted it and went on with his life, loving her froht not have seemed like much of a life to others, but it was i to stay here in toith the possibility of a e to ask Isabelle to co town at all with her by his side

Everett had just zipped his suitcase shut when he saw a movement on the far side of his bedrooein his hallway, right outside the bedroom door

Panic struck Everett statue still, and a pathetic squeak squeezed past his tight vocal cords