Chapter 42
Violet
“Callie?”
Shit. Shit. Shit. That monster was calling my name from the bottom of the stairs.
I’d only been up here for a minute. One freaking minute!
I needed something…anything…to give me a chance at getting away.
I frantically pulled out the drawers in the bathroom as quietly as I could, ignoring the burning from my incision.
God, I’d been so numb trying to keep up with him on the walk over here…
I couldn’t focus on what damage had been done there.
I needed to survive whatever the hell he had planned.
His footsteps were loud on the staircase, drumming in half-time to how fast my heart was fluttering. I opened the last drawer, praying there was something more than a few old hair pins and soap bars. Something metallic caught my eye.
Scissors.
Sliding them into my still wet nursing bra, I quickly closed the drawers and pulled the fresh shirt I’d grabbed out of the dresser and walked out of the bathroom.
Ryan was standing in the doorway, rage rolling off of him—until he saw me.
Then it turned into something worse. Something so much darker.
Lust.
Trying not to recoil at his gaze, I walked as steadily as I could manage. I forced myself to smile the closer I got to him.
“Ryan, you came up here so fast! Did the water boil already? I think I’m getting a sore throat from being out in the rain like we were. I’d really love some tea.”
His hand came up, stroking my wet hair, his fingers tangling awkwardly in the strands.
“You didn’t have time to dry this while you were up here?” he asked.
“I didn’t have anything to dry it with,” I answered, sliding past him in the doorway. Come on, Colt. Where are you?
I walked down the stairs, holding my belly against the jostling motion of each step, only to freeze when I saw what he’d done.
The living room was set up exactly like the night Alex and Arianna spent together.
The couch throw pillows were down on the floor, blankets were spread around, and matches were by the fireplace, ready to start a fire.
“Do you like it?” Ryan’s hot breath on my neck made my stomach roll. But I pushed down the nausea and nodded, using my speechlessness to project nervous excitement instead of complete dread.
He pulled my arm back so fast I couldn’t react. I spun, his hand cupping my breast, and I yelped. Ryan’s brows pulled together as his fingers skated over the rough outline of the scissors.
“Are you hiding something in there?”
I shook my head. My eyes dropped to his waist. Where the hell was the gun?!
“You are. Take it out. Now,” he growled. “Let me see, Callie.”
I pulled the scissors out, biting the inside of my cheek so I wouldn’t cry.
“What were you going to use these for?” His eyes went wide when I didn’t answer.
“Ah. You want to hold a weapon against me? I’m such an awful man that you feel the need to protect yourself from me, when all I was trying to do—all I’ve ever been trying to do—is protect you?
Keep you safe from the world and love you? That’s a crime?”
He threw the scissors to the floor and stormed into the kitchen. My parents had two knife blocks, and he grabbed the biggest, longest blade from the block closest to us.
“Ryan…” I held my hands up, my eyes never leaving the knife in his hand.
“Callie. I love you. If you tell me you don’t feel the same, you might as well carve my heart out right now. Take the knife.” The veins in his neck bulged. “TAKE IT!” He thrust the knife at me, my scream cutting through the air.
A split second later, the front door exploded inward. Ryan turned, knife still in his hand, lunging for Colt as he burst through the doorway.
Colt’s weapon was drawn on Ryan in the next heartbeat.
“DROP YOUR WEAPON!” he shouted. Ryan stopped advancing, but held onto the knife. Colt’s eyes flicked to me for one second—but that’s all it took for Ryan to move again.
A second figure was in the doorway, and the bang of a gun going off filled the house. I screamed, covering my ears as I fell to the ground. Hands roamed over my back, down my arms, trying to pry my hands away from my face.
“It’s okay, Vi. You’re okay. I’ve got you. You’re safe.”
My eyes flew open at the sound of his voice. “Are you okay?” I cried.
“I’m fine.”
“Oh, God. Ryan…”
“Jones had every right to fire on him, Vi. He wasn’t going to stop.”
I heard Nate talking into his radio as he held pressure on Ryan’s stomach. The knife was somehow across the floor; he must have kicked it after Ryan was shot.
“I need…I can’t be here anymore,” I gasped. My lungs burned. The place where our son had been cut from my body felt like it was on fire. Every inch of my body shook and I felt like I was going to fall into a million pieces. “C-Colt?”
“I’ve got you baby. It’s just the adrenaline. Take some deep breaths.”
“Connor?” I cried.
“He’s fine. Hawk and Jessie are with him.”
“Beau?”
“He’s good, too. Stubborn as always, but hopefully on his way to the hospital to get his head checked out.”
“Birdie’s not h-here. He n-needs someone.”
“Let’s just make sure you’re okay? How about we focus on that for a minute.”
An ambulance came and took Ryan to the hospital—with about twenty-five deputies who each assured me one hundred times that he would be handcuffed to the bed the entire time he was in there, and promptly charged with a flurry of words I didn’t quite comprehend.
Colt was giving his statement to someone from the sheriff’s department, while I sat huddled on the couch under a pile of blankets.
I just wanted to get home to my baby, but I knew we needed to take a trip to the hospital, too. He’d slipped something in my drink to make me weak, and I wouldn’t risk nursing our son and exposing him until I knew what it was, and that it was no longer in my body.
Nate walked back into the house, his hand coming up to clap Colt’s shoulder a few times before he turned towards me.
“Hey, apple-anche. You good?”
I nodded my head. “Thank you, for having Colt’s back. He was distracted. He looked at me, and I distracted him. Ryan was so close. If you hadn’t…I’m so sorry you had to…”
“No.” Nate sat next to me, his hand resting on my arm.
“I did what I was trained to do. I discharged my weapon to protect another officer from potentially fatal harm. He had a chance to stop. Colt told him to drop the weapon, and he chose his fate. And I’d do it again, Violet. It was the right call.”
I nodded. “Are you going to be in trouble?”
“I’ll have my badge and weapon taken until internal affairs completes their investigation. It’s standard in things like this.”
“So, you’ll be stuck on front desk duty?” I smiled.
“Yeah, I guess I probably will be. But knowing you and Colt are safe…it’s worth it.”
Colt turned from the deputy taking his statement and walked over to me.
“Ready to head home?”
“Yes. More than ever. We just have one stop to make before we can.”
“What?” His face scrunched up. “Where?”
“The hospital,” I said, groaning as I stood. My body felt like it was filled with wet sand. Colt’s hands were on me in a flash, Nate jumping up beside me.
“What do you mean the hospital?” Colt grumbled. “I thought you said you were okay?”
“I am. Ryan slipped something in my drink earlier. I don’t feel as weak as I did immediately after I sipped it, but I’m worried about nursing Connor.”
Colt bent down, one arm going behind my knees as the other slid behind my back.
“Oh God!” I yelped. My arms wrapped around my husband’s neck. “You don’t have to carry me.”
“Yes, I do. Nate, get a ride back to the station with one of the other deputies. I’m taking your vehicle.”
Nate chuckled from somewhere over my shoulder. “Sure thing.”
“Don’t do that to me, Vi.” Colt’s voice was filled with emotion as he set me in the passenger seat of the patrol car. “Don’t downplay something serious. I need to know. I could have had you at the hospital already.”
“I’m okay.”
“Promise me. I almost…” He pressed his forehead against mine. “You are the most important person in my life, and I almost lost you tonight. Forever. I can’t…”
“Hey,” I said, pulling back so my hands could frame his face. “You found me. You came for me. And you saved me. I’m okay because of you.”
I pressed my lips against his.
“I’m okay because of you,” I repeated, knowing he desperately needed to hear those words and much as I needed to say them.