She dove to the floor and covered her head with her hands. Pain rippled through her.
“You think you can just run out of here? That I won’t keep chasing you?” The man staggered down the stairs. A slight limp slowed his progress, and blood flowed down his face. He aimed the gun at her, the weapon bouncing in his unsteady hand.
“Just leave me alone,” she screamed, frustration boiling inside her. “I don’t even know who the hell you are.”
He stopped and scratched his chin with the barrel of the gun. “You don’t remember the last time you were here?’
“Yes, but what does that have to do with you?”
“You left here and ran to Daddy. Told him everything that was happening, and he sent the cops after me. I was arrested that night and thrown in jail. I lost my business and my freedom. I lost fifteen years of my life in that hellhole. All because of you.”
He aimed the weapon at her again, and she curled into a ball. The coldness from the linoleum seeped into her skin. Maybe if she just laid here and took the bullet meant for her, it’d end her quickly.
He continued down the stairs. “Maybe once I’m done with you, I’ll go back for the boy. I missed out on my own kid’s life, and now she wants nothing to do with me. It’s only fair I repay the favor.”
Something inside of her snapped. She could take her share of abuse, but the moment her son was threatened she had no choice but to fight back. He was already battered and weak. She just had to get the gun away from him before he used it on her.
She needed to keep him talking.
Raising to her feet, she kept her palms in the air. “I’m sorry for your troubles,” she said, the apology bitter on her tongue.“But I never told my dad about that night. I wanted to forget it ever happened. I was scared of what I saw at that party and terrified I’d get in trouble if my dad found out I was there.”
He sneered. “You think I believe that? You’re just trying to save your own ass.” He heaved out a labored breath and leaned against the railing of the staircase.
“I promise. I had nothing to do with it.” She wouldn’t add that if he was selling drugs to teenagers, he deserved exactly what he got. Something told her that wouldn’t help her case. “If the police showed up, it wasn’t because of me.”
“Lies!” he screamed, the gun bouncing even more in his grip. He was feet away.
It was now or never.
She channeled every ounce of fear and anger and frustration and catapulted herself forward. She wrapped her arms around the man’s waist and slammed him to the ground. They bounced down the rest of the stairs and landed in a pile on the hard floor.
The gun blasted against her eardrum. Pain ripped into her side. She shoved it away and scrambled for the weapon.
The man struggled under her, squirming and bucking until his body pinned her into place. Laughing, he shoved the weapon in his waistband and circled his hands around her neck. He applied pressure, stealing her breath. “This is much better. Now I can see the life leaving your eyes.”
She clawed at his hands and twisted her body to get him off. Her strength leaked from her system. Dark spots dotted her vision and her raw throat labored to bring in air to no avail. Tears leaked from the corners of her eyes.
This couldn’t be how it ended. Away from everyone she loved on a dirty floor, a madman’s face the last thing she saw before taking her final breath. She had a son who needed her. She had a life waiting for her.
She had Cody.
An image of Cody holding Ollie in his arms crept into her mind’s eye. She clung to the picture, urging it to stay in focus. To stay with her as she edged closer to death.
In a flash, the man pinning her down was off her, his hands no longer around her throat. Was this death? Had everything around her floated away as her soul left her body?
“Katherine, stay with me honey. Look at me. Take a breath. Please, baby.”
Cody’s pleas reached her ears, and she gasped against the fire blazing a trail through her neck. She blinked open her eyes and stared up into the most beautiful baby blues she’d ever seen. “Cody?” The name was so sweet on her lips even if it hurt like hell to speak.
He cradled her in his arms and smoothed a palm along her jawline. “I’m right here. You’re going to be okay. I promise.”
Commotion caught her attention from behind Cody. Owen slapped a pair of handcuffs on the man who’d tried to kill her and dragged him to his feet. “She did a number on you, huh?”
The man growled but hung his head.
Her dad grabbed a fistful of the man’s hair and forced him to meet his eyes. “You’re lucky my son’s the sheriff. If it was just me here, I’d kill you for hurting her.”
Tommy rested a hand on Mike’s shoulder. “Come on, Dad. Let Owen get him in his cruiser. We need to call an ambulance for Kat.”
