The Only Solution (Crowley County Series Book 3)

by T. E. Killian

  Daisy was really frightened then. What was that crazy woman going to do with her?

  Suzette didn’t say anything else before leaving and closing the door behind her. Daisy could hear a padlock being attached to the door and locked.

  Well, even if she had the use of her hands, she’d have a difficult time trying to get out of this shed. It wasn’t in as bad shape as the barn or even the house appeared to be. It looked fairly new and sturdy.

  Daisy tried to keep her mind on what was going on outside. She could hear sounds of vehicles coming and going twice. Then she heard loud voices, one male and one female. It sounded as if they were arguing. She recognized the female voice as that of Suzette. She couldn’t be sure but she thought the other voice was one of Suzette’s brothers. He sure sounded unhappy that Suzette had brought Daisy there.

  Then it was so quiet for the next fifteen minutes or so that Daisy wondered if they’d all left the farm.

  She was about to fall asleep in spite of her efforts not to do so when she heard rustling sounds behind the shed. Then she heard hushed voices on both sides of the shed. That was when it dawned on her that the men she heard, and there were several of them, were all speaking Spanish.

  Her high school Spanish was no longer with her so she had no idea what they were saying. Soon, though, the voices ceased and she could tell they had moved on toward the house.

  Just a few minutes later, she jumped when she heard gunshots that sounded like they were coming from the front of the house. Then she heard loud voices shouting in both English and Spanish.

  The shooting went on for at least another five minutes then it grew still and quiet again.

  She would never know how long she laid there on that dirty floor of the tool shed without hearing a single sound. It could have been ten minutes or it could have been thirty minutes.

  All she knew was that she lay there the whole time expecting someone to suddenly open the door to the shed and start shooting her.

  * * *

  Hal was driving slow and cautiously down the lane that went out to the Hollis farm when they heard gunshots, lots of them. Hal stopped the vehicle immediately and Floyd jumped out. He went to the rear of the Tahoe and returned quickly with two ARs. He handed one over the seat to Mike who took it and made sure the safety was on before quickly chambering a round.

  In the meantime, Hal pulled the vehicle forward cautiously as Floyd unlocked Hal’s AR from its mount between the front seats.

  When they emerged from the woods into the clearing where the house and barn sat all seemed quiet.

  Then Floyd pointed out behind the barn and said, “There go two guys who look Hispanic.”

  The men disappeared into the woods.

  They all stepped out of the vehicle keeping their doors in front of them as they leveled their ARs at the rooftop of the house. They waited that way for a few minutes until three more units pulled in behind them. One of them was highway patrol.

  When nothing had happened for at least five minutes, they all fanned out and began to approach the house.

  Floyd was the first one to reach the front porch and as he climbed the steps, he whistled softly. Mike was close behind him but didn’t want to attempt the porch steps unless he had to. He peered over the porch railing and saw five bodies scattered out around the porch.

  It didn’t take much scrutiny to realize that it was Suzette and her four brothers. That was when Mike realized there were two bodies lying in the rose bushes in front of the porch. He looked closer and saw that they were both Hispanic men.

  Others climbed the porch steps and checked out the five on the porch. Floyd then turned to Mike and said, “They’re all dead. How bout those two?”

  Mike didn’t want to have to try to kneel down and was relieved when a deputy stepped up from behind and checked the two.

  He looked up at Floyd and said, “Both dead.”

  Floyd frowned and shook his head. “Well, I guess we need to call medical out just in case we find some more and they’re not dead.”

  Mike knew that standard procedure in a case like this was not to call medical personnel in until the scene was secure, and was about to object when Floyd spoke again.

  “But Hal, have them stop and wait down to where this lane turns off the county road until we’re sure things are secure here. Okay?”

  Hal nodded as he talked on his cell phone.

  Mike couldn’t stand it any longer. He slowly climbed the steps and entered the house to begin searching for Daisy. Floyd was right beside him all the way. They searched the whole house with Floyd searching the upstairs and found no one else.

  Mike was about to give up hope when he and Floyd stepped out the back door.

  One of Floyd’s deputies came up to him then and said, we found one more dead Hispanic male and one who’s still alive but probably won’t last long.”

  Floyd looked down at her and said, “No sign of another white female?”

  She shook her head and Floyd said, “Okay, keep looking. She’s got to be here somewhere. The one who grabbed her is on the front porch.”

  Mike noticed a tool shed straight back from the house. He was trying to decide which to check out first, it or the barn when another deputy came out of the barn. He yelled over to them. No one in here sheriff.”

  * * *

  Daisy was about to doze off again when she thought she heard more truck motors out there somewhere nearby. She listened again closely but nothing.

  She was about to give up hope when she heard sounds of several people moving toward the shed from the house. She began preparing herself for the worst when she heard Mike call out her name.

  She couldn’t answer him with the gag in her mouth but she began to frantically roll her body around on the floor trying to make noise then she moaned as loudly as she could.

  Nothing for another long moment then she heard a screeching sound and the door popped open. Before she could move, Mike was on the floor with his arms around her.

  He pulled the gag out of her mouth and kissed her. She was so relieved that she couldn’t make out what he was saying. Then when she tried to speak, her mouth was so dry that she couldn’t.

  Finally, she worked at it until she could talk.

  “Oh Mike, I thought I’d never see you again. I don’t ever want to be separated from you again.”

  When she realized what she’d said, she blushed but Mike kissed her again and said, “I don’t ever intend to let that happen again either.”

  Mike struggled to get back to his feet and was only able to do so when Floyd pulled him up. Another man who Daisy remembered was the chief deputy, Hal Lewis, helped her up and they all stepped out of the shed and stood there together.

  Daisy remembered all the shooting before. She turned to Mike and said, “What happened here? I heard lots of shooting for a long time.”

  Mike shook his head and said, “Well, it looks like a turf war between the Hollis brothers and that Mexican I told you about, José.”

  He took a deep breath. “Suzette and all four of her brothers were killed out on the front porch. There were several dead Mexicans scattered around too, but no one has found José yet.”

  Floyd and Hal had walked off toward the house and Daisy knew they were giving her and Mike some privacy.

  Daisy was about to say something when a brown arm came around her waist and a hand covered her mouth. “Do not speak woman.”

  Mike who had moved a couple of steps ahead of Daisy turned and his eyes grew huge.

  That was when Daisy felt the cold steel of a knife at her throat. She had never fainted in her life, but just then, everything went black.

  When she came to, she was lying on the ground and Mike was wrestling with the other man a few feet away from her. She couldn’t believe that Floyd nor any of the other police were anywhere near them. In fact, it looked as if no one but her was aware of the life and death struggle going on so near her.

  She started to get up and see if she could h
elp Mike when the other man threw him off and stabbed him with the knife. She could see then that it was a Mexican and she had a feeling it was probably the one they called José. He reared back to stab Mike again but a shot rang out and he crumpled on top of Mike.

  Floyd came running with Hal right behind him.

  When they arrived, Floyd nudged the man with the toe of his boot and Daisy had to turn her head away from what the bullet had done to the man’s face.

  That was when she noticed that Mike was lying very still. She rushed over to him and checked him over. It didn’t take much to see that he’d been stabbed a slashing wound in the upper thigh.

  Daisy’s stomach fell to her feet when she saw the pulsing blood squirting out of his leg. “Floyd, get a sturdy stick or something at least a foot long and do it fast. I’ve got to stop that bleeding or he’ll die.”

  She was glad she still had on her dress from church now. It had a belt on it that was more like a sash made out of a sturdy felt-like material. She quickly pulled it off and wrapped it around his leg above the wound. It was plenty long enough to work. She worked fast to tie knots in it leaving room for the stick.

  When Floyd came running with a hammer in his hand, she took it from him and stuck it in the loop she’d made and began twisting it to tighten the tourniquet on Mike’s leg until the blood stopped pulsing out.

  She looked up at Floyd then. “Is there an ambulance on the way?”

  Before he could answer, a fire department paramedic unit pulled up on the grass near them and two men jumped out and took over from there. They soon had Mike on the stretcher and was loading him in the truck. She jumped up and ran with them.

  “I’m a nurse. I’m riding with you. They didn’t argue but closed the doors and took off.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The next morning, when Mike awakened he had no feeling of anticipation of something happening this time. As he became fully awake, he smiled to himself when he realized that so many good things had already happened to him in the past four weeks that he couldn’t even list them all.

  But the most important of those good things just came through the door. Daisy! She was by far the most important thing that had ever happened to him.

  She grinned at him and said, “Hey!”

  He frowned at her and said, “Hey? When did you go country on me city girl?”

  She giggled and said, “That’s easy. When Lucy and I first moved down here, I told myself that I’d give it three years and if the move didn’t accomplish what I’d intended for it to do, then we’d just have to move back to St. Louis.”

  He lay very still wondering exactly what she would say next.

  “So, just this morning I made the conscious decision to stay in Crowleyville for the long haul. So thus ‘Hey.’ If I’m going to stay here don’t you think I ought to start talking a little more like the people around here?”

  Mike’s laughter was part relief and part happiness. He wasn’t sure what he had been about to say to all that but he was interrupted by Stella coming into the room.

  She took one look at the two of them and with a grin said, “I could come back later.”

  Daisy shook her head. “Oh no, Stella. Come on in. Tell us how soon we’ll be able to break this guy out of here.”

  “Yeah, Stella. This is the third time I’ve been in this hospital and I’m ready to go.”

  Stella went to the opposite side of the bed from Daisy and lifted the covers to look at Mike’s leg. “That’s good. No more hemorrhaging overnight. It does look as if you’ll be able to leave here later this morning.”

  Mike gave a shout and both women laughed.

  Stella leaned over and got right in his face. “But, I know you’re not going to like this especially since you just started walking again, but you’re going to have to stay off that leg for at least a week.”

  She gave him a stern look. “Do you promise that you will, Mike?”

  He looked at Daisy but she giggled and looked at Stella instead. So he looked back at Stella whose face was still only inches away and nodded. “Okay. I have a feeling that Daisy will make sure I do anyway.”

  “You’ve got that right.” And she had the nerve to giggle.

  Stella leaned back and her face grew serious. “Mike, I would say that Daisy deserves a little of your cooperation. After all, she undoubtedly saved your life yesterday. The paramedics said that they probably wouldn’t have been able to get to you soon enough because of all the shooting that had gone on out there earlier.”

  Mike looked up into Daisy’s eyes. “Yes, I know and I would like to spend the rest of my life thanking her too.”

  To that, Daisy blushed furiously and turned her head but not before he saw the grin on her face.

  Stella then turned to Daisy. “Daisy, have you thought any more about my offer?”

  Mike looked from Stella to Daisy. “What offer?”

  Both women ignored him and Daisy looked at Stella before saying, “Yes, I have given it a lot of thought and I was going to turn it down before yesterday.”

  She looked out the window behind Stella. “But yesterday, something happened when I was working on Mike. It was like I was given a second chance to help someone who was very special to me.”

  Tears were streaming down both cheeks now but she ignored them. “So, yes, Stella, I would love to be your nurse.”

  “Wow!” Mike was shocked. “Daisy are you sure?”

  “Yes I’m sure.”

  Stella reached across the bed and clasped Daisy’s hand in hers. “I’m so glad Daisy. I know you will never regret it.”

  She looked back at Mike and said, “Well, I’d better go now. I’ve got a full load of patients to see in my office.”

  With that, she was gone leaving them both looking anywhere but at each other but thinking of each other nonetheless.

  Finally, they both turned at the same time. Daisy leaned over and Mike pulled her down for a kiss.

  “Uh oh, I was afraid I might run into something like this.”

  Both of them pulled back in surprise and looked up to see Floyd standing at the foot of the bed laughing.

  Before either one could say anything, Floyd said, “I just came by to say one thing to you Mike. I sure wouldn’t want to interrupt what you two were about to do for much longer though.”

  He grinned down at Mike and said, “I just wanted to tell you that we’re even now.”

  With that, he left the room as quickly as he’d come in with his laughter disappearing down the hallway.

  Daisy turned to Mike and said, “What did he mean by that?”

  Mike was still grinning “Last January I saved his life. Yesterday he saved mine so now we’re even.”

  She joined him in his laughter but he quickly sobered up and pulled her down for another kiss.

  When she pulled back a little, Mike knew that it was now or never. “Daisy Thomas I’ve never loved any woman in my life before but I love you so much that I don’t know what I’ll do if you don’t love me too.”

  She laughed and again he thought he would love to hear that musical sound for the rest of his life.

  “Yes, Mike, I love you too.”

  “But what about your husband? What about Richard?”

  He could see that she tried to smile but didn’t quite succeed. “Richard will always have a place in my heart but I feel very strongly that he would have wanted me to be happy and if that means with another man, with you, then I’m sure he would approve.”

  She leaned down and kissed him again. “But right now, I have to go get Lucy from pre-school. I’ll be back afterward to spring you from this place though.”

  * * *

  Daisy was so happy that she knew she must be grinning like a baboon. But she didn’t care. She loved Mike and what was even better, Mike loved her.

  Now she had a job in nursing again and she couldn’t be more thrilled. She couldn’t wait to tell her parents. They had never quite understood why she’d left nursing the way s
he had.

  Oh but today wasn’t going to be about looking back. It was going to be all about looking toward the future. And now she felt sure that her and Lucy’s future was going to be with Mike Bates. She knew Lucy would be ecstatic when she found out.

  She picked Lucy up at pre-school and was wondering how she was going to go back to the hospital to get Mike with Lucy along when her cell phone rang. It was Sarah.

  “Hi Daisy. Say I was wondering if you would like to bring Mike home today. I know you just picked Lucy up so I could meet you at the hospital and stay with her downstairs while you go up to get Mike.”

  “Oh Sarah, that would be wonderful. Would you?”

  So she met Sarah downstairs and left a complaining Lucy with her. Lucy couldn’t understand why she couldn’t go upstairs with Daisy to get Mike.

  Finally, Daisy was pushing Mike in his wheelchair into the elevator to go down and on out of the hospital. She was glad she’d been able to talk his nurse out of sending someone down with them since Daisy was a nurse.

  As soon as the elevator doors closed, Mike grabbed her hand and pulled her down so that she was kneeling in front of him.

  “Daisy, I wanted to do this in private but I have a feeling that once we leave this elevator that won’t happen again for hours.”

  She looked into his eyes trying to determine what he was about to say.

  He held both of her hands and looked deep into her eyes. “Daisy Thomas, I love you so much. Will you marry me?”

  She shouldn’t have been surprised but she was. She cried out, “Oh yes, Mike. I will marry you.”

  He pulled her to him and kissed her just as the doors opened and there stood her daughter and his mother giving them strange looks.

  Daisy jumped up and hugged first Lucy then Sarah. She stepped back and said, “Mike just proposed to me in the elevator. Have you ever heard of such a thing?”

  Sarah actually snorted. The prim and proper retired school teacher actually snorted.

  She placed her hands on her hips and said, “Never mind where he did it. The main thing is what did you say?”

  “Oh of course I said yes.”

  Later back at Mike’s house after lunch, the three adults were all sitting around in the living room with Lucy taking a nap in Sarah’s bed.