Before anyone could say anything else, the vet came out. “Sheriff?” They all sprang to their feet to greet the woman. “Roxie will be just fine. Stiches and a limp for a while, but she’s good to go when you are. The nurse can help you with discharge care.”
“Thank you.” Nick shook her hand before she left, then Pepper’s sobbing drew their attention back to her.
“Baby?” Nick asked, placing a hand under her chin.
Waving her hand between them, she said, “It’s fine. Happy tears. I promise.” Her smile was brilliant as she wrapped an arm around each of them.
“No more running off like that, Pepper, you hear me,” Ace said to her.
Even though they hadn’t known she’d run, the not seeing her near when they heard her cries was rough on his heart. So much was happening, and he felt like everything was spinning out of control. With everything to lose, they surely couldn’t handle much more drama.
“I promise,” she whispered as a very drugged Roxie was brought out.
The animal, of course, went straight for her new mistress. Even in her clearly pain-filled state, Roxie checked Pepper over. Sniffing and licking anywhere she could reach from her prone position on the floor.
As the two of them reunited, he and Nick went to speak to the receptionist about after-care for the dog. She gave them a whole slew of information that had his h
ead spinning. The side effects were what worried him most. The woman mentioned keeping Roxie off her leg, keeping her calm. She definitely didn’t know the dog. An impossible task that would be.
“Alright, girls, you ready?” Nick asked as they walked up to the cuddling pair still seated on the floor.
Pepper and Roxie looked at the guys as though they just realized they weren’t alone. For some reason, Ace became insanely jealous of the dog.
“Damn dog,” Nick muttered his same thoughts.
“Injuries in our future,” he only partially joked. If he could get her undivided attention in the same way, he wasn’t above it. Pepper’s blush was fast as she caught his meaning.
In the vehicle, he drove home as Nick helped Pepper keep Roxie settled in the back. While Pepper was more worried about the dog, he and Nick were concerned over her and everything that had happened. The unspoken concerns from Nick and his original thoughts about those cougars made Ace rethink keeping their girl at the cabin.
If her brother came before the two of them made any decisions about how to proceed with her attacker, they might be forced to let her go home with James if he pushed for it. They were two small-town officers to the outside world. No one knew the things he’d done while away other than Nick. No one was privy to the amount of training his cousin had gone through either, so he was prepared for the unexpected.
So many what ifs ran through Ace’s mind as he weaved through the mountain roads. The snowfall was thankfully non-existent which made the dark curves easier to navigate as the sun set. The ride was silent as they were all lost in their own thoughts and unsurety.
Ace could feel a buzzing in the air, same as the day they found Pepper. Only this time, he recognized it as the culmination of their secluded time together. She remembered more as the days came and went. Her confidence in her new self was growing exponentially as the nights passed. And he had to wonder: would she stay, or would she go?
Pepper could recall only two times in her life when she’d been so scared yet relieved at the same time—when her parents had died in front of her, and the day Nick and Ace found her. Or rather, she woke up. They were both vastly different emotional settings; but nonetheless, they’d evoked the same reaction from her. Now, she was feeling it again, with her memories returning at warp speed, she felt like her time in the mountains was commencing.
As they pulled up to the cabin, the moon was just beginning to rise in the sky. The stars were scattered about on the first clear night she’d seen since waking up. To look at them, to know that no matter where she was in the world, they’d still be there, gave her a sense of calm.
Following Nick’s lead out of the vehicle as he carried Roxie to the porch, she asked them, “Coffee? And maybe we could sit outside for a bit?”
A serene feeling infused Pepper’s body as she sat on the railing. There was something to be said about the purity of clean air. The crisp breeze mixed with the fresh springs that trickled down the mountainsides was enchanting. It was one thing she’d never tire of.
She knew her brother would be there the following day, and she was going to have some tough decisions to make as did he. There were still a lot of missing pieces to her puzzled mind. She was getting her memories back in slow spurts, but nothing as overly significant as the death of her parents. Everything else felt very trivial. As though it didn’t matter if she never remembered or not.
What she really wanted was to remember the important things. Her dreams and goals. The things she was passionate about. Why she felt the desire to go away with someone she didn’t even think was an essential part of her life.
If there was one thing she’d learnt about herself, it was that she was a thinker and not a doer. It would have taken some serious convincing in order for her to go so far away from home.
A body at her back drew her from her inner thoughts as Ace’s arms wrapped around her. His scent enveloped her like a glove. Until her dying day, she would never get enough of the seamless way those two men were able to comfort and soothe her troubled mind.
“Deep thoughts?” he whispered with a kiss against her nape.
“I don’t know,” she told him honestly. “There’s so much happening, so much going to happen, and I feel helpless to stop it all. I feel like things are so close to clicking into place, but still so far out of reach.” It barely made sense to her; she didn’t expect him to understand.
“If you fall, Pepper,” he turned her chin to look at him, “we’ll catch you.” His lips lowered to hers. “Always.”
She melted into his touch. His kiss was tender but overrode her senses. She gave him everything she had, and he took twice as much. His tongue sweeping across her lips had her gasping in shock as waves of pleasure ran through her body. His hands caressed her stomach while her back melted into his front. His hardness against her ass cheeks made her feel like a cat in heat as she rubbed against him. His growl of approval made her pulse race.