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Paul leaped at the criminal. His knife flashed as he shoved it into Carl’s stomach. Carl screamed in anguish. Paul gripped and twisted Carl’s hand that held the pistol. It fired as Paul and Carl slammed into the ground, Carl’s body underneath Paul’s. The gunshot reverberated through Belinda. Her ears rang.
More screams rang out, and Belinda feared Paul had been shot.
Paul yanked back from Carl, holding the pistol. Carl wasn’t moving, blood blossoming from a bullet wound on his chest and the knife protruding from his stomach. Belinda was grateful Paul had saved her, but she couldn’t look at the body.
The other two convicts watching over the prisoners both shouted in surprise that their friend had been killed and not Paul. They raised their guns, ready to fire.
Shots rang out from out from somewhere to the right, back up the trail. The two guards were both hit. They hit the ground and neither of them moved.
Paul stood, taking aim and shooting at the men down by the beach. One went down and the other darted for cover in a cave.
Belinda’s ears rang from the gun discharging right next to her, but she wanted to cheer. Four bad guys gone and one in hiding. Where was Abe?
She looked to see who had shot the guards and come to their rescue. Jag plowed into Abe as the leader rushed out of the trees at the commotion. Jagger picked the criminal up with his forward momentum and slammed him to the ground, using his own body to add to the impact. Somehow the man still had some fight in him, and they rolled around trading punches.
“Jag!” she cried out, jumping up. “You came!”
“Stay down,” Paul cautioned, pushing her back down.
He aimed a shot down toward the beach again and then cautiously moved in that direction. She stayed down but pivoted on her knees to watch Jag fight Abe.
Jag ripped the man’s gun from his hand and tossed it into the forest.
The convict’s leader fought like a cornered badger. Desperation had to be driving him onward. He had nothing left to lose.
Jagger connected with brilliant punches, the muscles in his back and arms on fine display as he pinned Abe and decimated the man’s resistance. He flipped the guy facedown and yanked his arms behind his back so hard Belinda heard a crack and a squawk of pain. She’d never wanted someone to feel pain before, but Abe was the leader of these awful men. Men who would break out of prison for whatever crimes they committed there, kill the boat owner and probably other people on the boat they stole, then take all of them hostage.
“Does anyone have rope?” Jagger called to the group.
“For sure, man,” one of the young guys answered, jumping to his feet and hurrying for a tent in the woods.
The rest of the group stood cautiously, murmuring amongst themselves and looking around at the bodies and Jagger pinning the leader. Where was Paul?
Belinda focused on Jagger. He looked glorious. He met her gaze and everything about him softened. “Bee … you’re all right?”
“Thanks to you,” she cried out, clapping her hands together and beaming at him.
Jagger grinned at that.
“‘The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack,’” she quoted Timothy, lit up with happiness. God had rescued them and sent Jagger to help Paul be their avenging angel.
The hiker hurried to Jagger with a length of rope. The young man helped pin Abe down as Jagger tied him up tight. The criminal grunted in pain. Jagger braced his broken arm in front of him with a stick and a T-shirt that the other well-built young man hurried to bring him when he asked. He trussed Abe with his good arm behind his back, his legs secured together and tied to that arm and him lying on his good side, then tied him firmly to a tree.
Finally, Jagger stood. He had smudges of dirt on his arms and tears in his shirt and pants. His strong build and the way he’d rescued them shouted safety and protection. He was the hero of every one of her dreams, and after fourteen long years, he was here to rescue her and love her.
He met her gaze with a heated, longing look, his bearing full of the confidence of a warrior who would always be the victor and come for his lady. A lady who needed to thank him and love him. Right now.
“Yes, sir!” Belinda yelled.
Everybody but Jagger probably looked at her strangely as she ran across the distance to him.
Jagger’s grin transformed his face from handsome to carved by angels as he caught her in his arms.
“You’re my hero,” she said before pressing her lips to his and showing him exactly how grateful she was and how incredible and impressive he was.
Jagger only took a moment to shove his pistol in the back of his waistband, and then he returned the kiss. He swept her off her feet and kissed her. Sparks swirled in the air, music played, and passion and love intermingled in the warmth of Jagger’s delicious lips.
They had to be together. She couldn’t very well dump the hero of her dreams because of some misunderstanding in the past.
