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wheel. His breath caught at the sight of the ugly purple marks on her throat and the gray pallor in her shell-shocked face.
She locked gazes with him for a moment, her eyes huge and haunted. Then she flung herself into his arms.
“I DIDN’T SEE or hear the kids,” Melissa said.
Aaron stood beside her, his hand under her elbow to support her, although she’d stopped shaking soon after she’d hurled herself against him a few minutes earlier. After his reaction to her that morning, he hadn’t been surprised by his body’s surge of pleasure at the feel of her pressed hard against him. But the rage that surged through him when he examined her injuries had caught him completely off guard.
It was taking most of his self-control to stay still while she briefed the deputies he’d flagged down before they raced into a potential hostage situation with sirens blazing.
“As far as you could see, it was just Harris and his wife?” Blake Clayton asked. He was one of the four deputies sent by dispatch when Aaron had put in the call about the assault.
Melissa nodded. She pressed her body back against his, as if seeking his warmth and strength. He tightened his grip on her elbow, his thumb sliding comfortingly against her arm.
“You said you think he could be high?” Aaron asked.
“I know he’s done crystal meth in the past,” she answered. “He’s acting high. Completely out of control.”
“Was he armed?” he asked, kicking himself for taking so long to ask the most pertinent question.
“I didn’t see any kind of weapon. I don’t know.” Melissa looked up at him. “Dinah never mentioned weapons before. I think he just uses his fists.”
His fists were weapons enough, Aaron thought blackly, his gaze dropping to the darkening bruises on Melissa’s throat.
“We have to assume the children are still in the house, even if you didn’t see them.” He struggled to keep his anger in check. “We need to get him outside the house if possible.”
“Maybe I should go back there,” Melissa suggested.
Aaron’s gut clenched. “No.”
She frowned. “He’s angry with me. I hurt him. It could be enough to get him outside.”
“He may have a weapon. I’m not putting you in harm’s way.”
“I didn’t see a gun, and anything less than that, you could get to him before he got to me.”
He caught her arm and turned her to face him, loosening his grip when he saw her wince. He smoothed his hand over her arm where he’d grabbed her. “Someone already tried to set your house on fire,” he said more quietly.
She gave him a dark look. “Y’all thought that was me.”
“If Terry Harris set that fire, he obviously wanted you dead. I won’t give him a chance to get it right this time.” He eyed the other deputies, who were looking at him for direction. Would he ever get used to being the one with authority? “So, how else can we get Harris out of the house?”
“Do we know anything about his family? Mother, father—maybe a sibling?” asked Kendrick Dell, an earnest young rookie fresh out of the county police academy. Aaron gave him a quick look of approval, and the young man beamed with pride.
“His mother works at the chicken processing plant in Cedar Creek,” Melissa offered, referring to a town fifteen minutes to the east, across the county line. “I think they’re close. She was the only one in the family still speaking to him.”
“Would she help us arrest him, though?” Blake asked.
“She’s not blind to his problems. She didn’t stand in Dinah’s way at the custody hearing. He seems to listen to her.”
Aaron turned to Kendrick. “Get on the horn to Sunshine Processing in Cedar Creek. Ask for—” He looked at Melissa.
“Mary Mullins,” she supplied.
“Tell Mrs. Mullins we’ll send a car to pick her up. Don’t scare her. Just tell her we need her to talk to her son. Then go pick her up.”
Kendrick headed to the patrol car.
Riley Patterson arrived, to Aaron’s relief. Even though Aaron had more seniority with the sheriff’s department than his brother-in-law, Riley had more experience as an investigator. He’d been a deputy chief in Wyoming, taking the pay cut and the loss of rank when he chose to move to Alabama to be with Hannah. Riley was damned good at the job, and Aaron’s ego wasn’t so big that he couldn’t look to the man for help.
He pulled Riley aside and caught him up on what had happened. “Melissa thinks Harris’s mother may be able to get through to him. Kendrick’s gone to pick her up.”
Nodding approvingly, Riley looked at Melissa, who leaned against the side of Aaron’s truck, her arms wrapped tightly around herself. “She okay?”
“Seems to be. He did a number on her neck, but she got herself out of there in pretty good shape.” She looked scared and sad. Aaron squelched the urge to give her a hug and forced his gaze back to his brother-in-law, lowering his voice. “I’m worried about the Harris kids. Melissa says the mother doesn’t usually let them out of her sight. But Melissa didn’t see or hear them in the house.”
Riley’s expression went grim. “Not good.”
“I keep picturing—” Aaron couldn’t say the words aloud.
“I know.” Riley laid a hand on Aaron’s shoulder. “But I took a quick look at Harris’s file before I came out here. He doesn’t have a record of hurting the kids.”
“Ordinary guys snap and take out their whole families.” Aaron glanced at Melissa again. “We can’t wait here forever.”
“We can have the A.B.I. hostage negotiation guys here in an hour. Maybe sooner by helicopter, if you think the situation is bad enough.” Riley followed Aaron’s gaze. “Melissa Draper is the closest thing we have to a fly on the wall in there. She knows the lay of the house, right? The players?”
Riley was right. Melissa was their best source. He should be grilling her, picking her brain for anything she might know that they could use to their advantage. He shouldn’t be trying to protect her at all costs—that wasn’t his job.
He crossed to her side. “You said you want to help us.”
She gave a silent but firm nod.
Aaron pulled his notepad from his pocket. “Then walk me through that house.”
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