Page 153 of Running to You

“It’s not ideal, but—”

“Don’t.” Sam heard the warning in his tone. He needed his brother now. He needed him to be the voice of reason. “Mikey.”

He didn’t miss the way his brother winced at the old nickname.

Sam swallowed a lump in his throat. “Help me protect her. Please. I need you to be on my side.”

Michael looked away. Shook his head. When he turned back to Sam, his expression was softer. Like maybe he was listening. “Two mornings ago… Thirty hours ago, you woke me up from a dead sleep, bursting with news.”

Sam remembered. He hadn’t been able to wait.

“Bro, wake up.”

Michael’s eyes had popped wide. “What? What’s wrong?”

“He’s mine. He has my curly blond hair and Eliza’s wide eyes, and he’s the cutest kid that ever lived.”

Michael had blinked a few times, slow to process. “Levi? He’s yours?”

Sam had plopped on the opposite bed, nodding, swallowing all the emotions he was still trying to get under control. And then the strongest one rose to the surface.

Terror.

Michael watched him now. “You remember what you said? ‘You have to help me get him back.’”

Of course Sam remembered.

“That’s what I’m doing,” Michael said. “I’m helping you—”

“Not at the expense of the woman I love!”

Eliza’s hand slipped around his biceps, but he shook her off and stormed out of reach.

“He’s not going to kill her,” Jon said. “She’s his only link to the money, and she won’t have it. They’ll have to keep her alive.”

“They could hurt her. They could torture her. They could…” The images were strobing on the walls of his mind. “There has to be another way.”

“I reached out to a contact at ATF.” Michael stood, took a step toward Sam but stopped a few feet away. Maybe warned off by the fury radiating from him. “They have Keller on a watch list. He’s been amassing weapons.”

“In Utah! We’re in Maine.”

“It’s a two-day drive.” Michael’s voice was far too calm. “Eliza disappeared on Friday. Five days ago. The SUVs have Utah license plates. They drove here. The question is, what were they hauling? Men? Guns?”

Was this supposed to be convincing him to send Eliza in?

“I’ll go.” He looked at Michael, then at Grant and Jon. “I’ll…I’ll just walk up to the door. I’ll get myself captured. They’ll bring me inside, and I can get whatever information you need.”

“Sam.” Eliza reached for him, but he couldn’t handle her touch right now, those soft fingers on his skin while she was choosing to walk to her death. He couldn’t even look at her.

“That’ll work.” Sam’s gaze flicked from man to man. “That’ll get me inside and—”

“Killed,” Michael said. “That’ll get you killed, maybe before you set foot in the door.”

“Better me than her!”

Michael flinched.

“And then they’ll know we’re there,” Jon said.