Page 117 of Back To Our Beginning

I ran to the kitchen. As I did, I heard Bruce pounding on the front door. I didn’t like leaving Beau.I

He’s a Marine Raider, Maddie!

I wished that calmed me down. I immediately went to the Patterson’s kitchen door. I put my hand on the deadbolt and got ready to turn it.

“Maddie, let me in.”

I jumped. It was Roan’s voice through the comm. I’d forgotten we were all linked.

I unbolted the door and let him in.

“Stay here,” he said as he skirted around me.

“Whatcha got?” he asked into his mic.

“Bruce is still pounding on the door, but I see him getting ready to break in the glass beside the door,” Beau answered.

“He’s got a gun,” Simon said.

He must have been at the house's front, watching Bruce.

“I see him,” Beau acknowledged. “I’m good.”

Roan left the kitchen with a gun in his hand.

I heard glass breaking.

“He’s reaching in and turning the doorknob,” Beau whispered.

I really wanted to see what was happening at the front door, but I wasn’t going to look. My job was to stay put and not get myself accidentally shot like a dumbass.

“As soon as he crosses the threshold of the house with a gun, we’ve got him,” Roan whispered.

“He’s mine,” Beau growled.

He sounds sexy when he’s all growly.

I heard a loud noise, then a grunt, and something that sounded like a crack and a thump.

“I’ve got his gun. He’s down!” Beau yelled.

“Hands behind your head!” Roan yelled.

“He’s out. He can’t move, Roan,” Beau laughed.

“Can I come see?” I asked.

“Yeah, baby. You can come out now,” Beau said. I could still hear the smile in his voice.

When I sprinted out into the hallway, I saw Roan putting zip-ties around Bruce’s wrists.

“Is it really over?” I asked Beau.

“Oh yeah,” he said as he put his arm around my shoulders and kissed my temple.

Simon walked through the front door. He was putting his phone into his back pocket. “The police will be here momentarily. Good job, everybody. He’s going to go away for a long time.”

I looked down at Bruce again. Lying on the floor with Roan, Simon, and Beau standing over him, he looked insignificant. I really wished Eli could see him like this, and know that he was really just a bug, and he would never hurt him again.