Page 182 of Running to You

And fired.

Keller fell to his knees. Still alive. Shot but alive.

He roared with shock and fury.

His arm came up, aimed toward his wife.

Sam fired again. And again.

Keller fell forward, his head bouncing off the pavement.

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

Sam checked on Lola, who’d draped herself over Keller’s body. As crazy as her husband.

He grabbed the gun he’d tossed and Keller’s, unwilling to give Lola any chance to take revenge. Then he shut off the car and ran to Eliza.

She wasn’t moving. “Sweetheart. Please be okay. Tell me you’re okay.”

She looked up at him, eyes wide. “Is it over?”

“Yes.” Thank God.

He tried to help her up, but she winced in pain. No surprise, considering the separated shoulder and who knew what else.

So, ignoring the dead body and the woman weeping over it, he lay down beside Eliza and wrapped an arm around her, careful of her injuries. He relished in the warmth of her, her breath against his cheek. He brushed hair away so he could see her face. “What hurts?”

“Is Levi really okay?”

“He and your mom are fine. Our son is…” For the first time, he allowed himself to think about that sweet little curly-haired boy. The weight of him in Sam’s arms. “He’s amazing.”

“Like his father.”

Father. Sam could hardly comprehend it.

* * *

The next few hours were a blur. Sam’s brothers showed up right after the police in the lot behind the little dollar store. Daniel, Michael, Grant, and Derrick arrived first. A few minutes later, Bryan joined them. All alive, most sporting injuries Daniel had already patched up. Hughes and the rest of the bodyguards who’d come to help were answering questions and tending the wounded at the campground.

Eliza and Sam rode to the hospital in the back of a squad car. They were ready to see Levi, but the cops wanted their statements first. While Eliza was treated for her injuries, Sam sat in a small conference room in the Augusta hospital and gave his statement, recounting the events.

Seeing Keller trying to escape.

The harrowing chase on the dirt bike.

And the realization that finding Eliza and freeing her were two very different things.

“You tossed your gun away and stepped around the building, even though you knew the guy was going to kill you?” The detective, a heavyset woman with a dirty-blond ponytail, sounded skeptical. She sat catty-corner to him at the small table. A uniformed cop was taking notes at her side.

“I had another gun.” Sam explained about the man who’d tried to shoot him from the window and how he’d taken the man’s pistol, just in case.

“So then what happened?”

Sam replayed the scene in his head.

Lola had done everything Keller demanded—except get in the car. She’d popped the trunk, started the engine, then slammed the door from the outside.

She’d crept close to her husband.