The Sunstone Brooch : Time Travel Romance Katherine Logan (no david read aloud TXT) 📖

counselor would even believe she was abandoned in 1885, broke her foot, almost died of thirst, nearly killed by a bear, watched the bear maul and kill her horse and Erik, was assaulted, shot at, and forced to kill a man?

It was all too much, but Charlotte would understand. “I won’t put you off, believe me.”

Braham returned with a handful of gauze pads. “What now?”

“Wheel the gurney over here, and let’s get Remy on it.”

“I can walk,” Remy said.

“You can walk out tomorrow. Right now, I’m trying to control the bleeding. So be still.”

“Can ye take care of it?” Braham asked, “or should we take him to the hospital?”

“I can do it. Both are flesh wounds. He got lucky.”

Braham lowered the gurney, and Remy used his forearms to pull himself on it. “Yeah, real lucky.”

“Let me take the brooch and lock it in the safe before it gets lost.”

“Sure,” Remy said, slapping it down on Braham’s palm.

“What can I do to help?” Ensley asked.

“There’s a chart on the wall of the exam room with concussion symptoms. Run through the checklist with Austin.”

“He ain’t got a…con…cussion,” Remy said, slurring his words. “Bastard’s head’s too hard.”

“You’re probably right,” Charlotte said, smiling at Ensley, “but just in case he has a soft spot we haven’t seen before, Ensley should check him out.”

“I don’t need a chart. I learned all the symptoms during my bull-riding days and never forgot them.”

“Bull riding?” Braham asked, giving her an appreciative nod. “That does take balls.”

“I haven’t been on a bull in over a decade,” she said. “My last ride didn’t have the best outcome.”

“But you just rode a bronc,” Austin said.

“I shouldn’t have, but I couldn’t resist the temptation.” Ensley went through her mental concussion checklist and asked Austin, “Do you know where you are?”

“The cleanroom.”

“Where’s that?”

“On the plantation near Richmond.”

“Okay, now follow my finger.” She held up a finger and slowly moved it side to side. “How many fingers do you see?”

“One.”

“Are you sick to your stomach?”

“Not sick. Not dizzy. Just a headache.” He grabbed hold of one of the steel table’s legs and pulled himself up.

“Are you dizzy now?” she asked.

“Nope.” He reached down for her. “Are you?”

“No. I’m good. We’re both good, Charlotte. What else can I do?”

“The shower is over there,” she said, pointing to a door beneath a sign that said Locker Room. “Go get cleaned up. You’ll find everything you need, from scrubs to shampoo. Help yourself.”

Double doors swished open, and David and Kenzie strode in, stopped short, and David’s brown eyes lasered in on Ensley, Austin, and then Remy. “Welcome back, but where the hell is JC?” He then looked at Braham. “And Elliott and his crew?”

“Forget them. I’m shot…in the ass.” Remy flung out his hand. “Hold my hand, Ensley.”

“Leave my girl alone, man,” Austin said, grinning at her.

“Your girl? Fuck… Since when?”

Yeah! Since when?

Kenzie made a beeline to Ensley and hugged her. “I hope it wasn’t too horrible. It seems every new adventure is worse than the last.”

Ensley accepted the warm hug and tried to smile, but her face failed to cooperate. “I made it back, and that’s all that matters right now.”

“How long were ye in the past?” David asked.

“Weeks,” Ensley said.

“Three days,” Austin added.

Kenzie threw shade at Austin. “Three days, and you’re already calling Ensley, ‘my girl.’ Damn, you O’Grady men move fast. You’ve even got Rick beat. Can’t wait to hear this one.”

Ensley tipped her head back so she could look up at Austin. “He’s exaggerating. He calls his horse ‘my girl,’ too.”

“My horse is a stallion, and I’m as straight as that ruler over there.” Then Austin slapped his chest and crooked up a corner of his mouth in a too-knowing smirk. “I thought you had feelings for me. Did I misread your signals?”

Before she could respond with something not too off-color about a holiday romance, fog rose out of the concrete floor next to her. Startled, she forgot about Austin and jumped out of the way before the fog snatched her up and carried her off again. No mulligans for her. No double-whammies. No repeat performances. Her feet were staying safely in the twenty-first century.

A man’s voice yelled from inside the fog, “I’ll kill you if you don’t get off me.”

That’s not just any man’s voice. It’s JC!

David darted over to a storage cabinet and threw open the doors. Kenzie and Braham joined him, and they all grabbed a weapon and extra mags. When Austin and Ensley saw what they were doing, they both reached for guns and mags. Then, taking their cues from the others, they chambered a round. The five of them formed a circle around the fog and took up shooting stances.

When the fog cleared, Elliott was sitting on top of JC, pinning his muscular arms to the floor. Shit! JC had expected the reunion with his father would be testy, but it looked far worse than that.

Ensley lowered her weapon, as did the others.

JC wasn’t wearing a stitch of clothing, but a swath of red fabric was tangled around his abdomen and thighs. Where’d he get those pecs? He looked like one of the bodybuilders who worked out at her gym, complete with bulging veins. But wait a minute… When he stripped off his shirt to wash up that first night at Elkhorn Ranch, he didn’t look like he did now. And that was only a couple of weeks ago.

“Settle down, son, before one of us gets hurt.”

JC pulled up his legs and twisted his upper body, unbalancing Elliott. Then using the power in his legs, he rolled over, reversing their positions.

David shoved his gun into his waistband, came up behind JC, and grabbed him in a chokehold. “JC, calm down before ye hurt yer father or I hurt ye.”

“Let go of me, David. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Stop fighting yer da. Now!”

When David didn’t release his hold, JC flipped him, and David landed on his back.

JC jumped to his feet. “Leave me the hell alone. That means