Sawyer looked her over from head to toe as though he didn’t believe her, his big, strong hands gripping her forearms. “What the hell happened?”
“He . . . uh . . . Tim wanted to talk.”
“So he thought that kidnapping you was the way to go? Christ, Kennedy.”
And then there were more.
Kennedy rolled her eyes when her father’s car pulled up behind Sawyer’s. And then Braydon’s truck.
By the time her father, Braydon, and Jessie had made their way over, Tim had joined the group. He didn’t look anywhere except at the ground and she knew he was embarrassed. He should be, she thought to herself.
“You’re under arr—”
“No, Daddy,” Kennedy interrupted. “It’s fine. It was a mistake, okay?”
“He kidnapped you!” Jeff exclaimed.
“Well . . .” When he put it that way, technically Tim had kidnapped her, but she really didn’t want him going to jail for it. “Can we just let it go? I think he realizes his mistake.”
Tim nodded, looking completely distraught, which made Kennedy feel only a little better. He had gone about it the wrong way entirely, but . . . he was human. She got that.
“So, you’re really okay?” Sawyer asked, still looking at her.
“I’m fine,” she said, glancing over at Jessie and giving her a small smile. She knew if it hadn’t been for Jessie’s quick thinking, no one would’ve come looking for her. Maybe the girl needed a raise.
“I’ll take you home,” Sawyer insisted.
“And I’ll take you up on that, cowboy.” Kennedy sighed and glanced over at Tim. “I’m not gonna let them arrest you for this,” she told him. “However, I do have to tell my father and Sawyer what you told me. It’ll be their decision on how to handle things from that point.”
Tim met her gaze and nodded, but Kennedy really didn’t think he knew what he was signing on for. When she told her father and Sawyer that Tim was the one responsible for leaking the details about Mack . . . well, he might want to get out of town now.
BY THE TIME Sawyer got Kennedy back to her house, he was champing at the bit for details, but for the entire ride back, she’d been silent. Aside from holding his hand, she hadn’t shown any sort of reaction to what had happened and he still wondered whether or not Tim had hurt her.
She didn’t look to be hurt. At least not physically.
“Mind if I stay the night tonight?” he asked. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do if she said no, because leaving her wasn’t an option for him. He wanted to be by her side, to hold her and touch her and assure himself that nothing bad would happen to her. Not that he could protect her from everything, but those things he could, he damn sure intended to.
Honestly, his life had changed that day, when Jessie had delivered the news that Kennedy had gone missing, and he hadn’t taken a full breath until his eyes landed on her again.
“Sure,” she mumbled as she unlocked her door and stepped inside.
“You think you’ll be okay by yourself for a little while? I’m gonna go pick up Buster and grab some food, bring it back.”
“I’ll be fine,” she told him. “I’m just gonna take a shower.”
Sawyer nodded and then kissed her softly on the lips, pulling her into his arms and holding her tightly, his fingers twining into her silky hair. If there’d been any question about his feelings for her, there certainly weren’t now. He was pretty damn sure he’d lost at least a decade off his life after this little debacle. The fact that Kennedy seemed so calm only worried him a little. She was tough, he knew that much.
“All right, I’ll be back in a little while.”
Sawyer headed out the front door and to his car, looking back several times before he managed to back out of her driveway and point his car toward town. It wouldn’t take him long, but leaving her was harder than he thought it would be.
He was halfway home when his cell phone rang. He glanced down at the screen and then hit the Bluetooth in his car to activate the speaker. “Hey.”
“How is she?” Braydon asked, his voice echoing through the interior of the car.
“She seems okay for now.”
“Sheriff Endsley’s pretty pissed.”
“Can’t say I blame him,” Sawyer stated. “I’m pretty pissed myself.”
“I bet. Crazy, huh? From what I gathered, Tim really did wanna talk to her. He just went about it the wrong way.”
“I’ll say.”
“Well, I only wanted to check in.”
“Hey, tell Jess thank you for me. That’s a damn smart woman you got there.”