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From the radio at the corner the first gunshot sounded.
Sienna’s eyes widened.
“Fuck! Fuck! Where did they come from? Where did they come from?”
Terror filled her face. The gun shook in her hand.
“I’ll kill you!” she screamed back at Noah.
“You have a one-shot chance,” he told her, opening his arms. “Go for it.”
She smiled, coke-bright eyes glittering as she turned the gun on Sabella. Sabella’s fear raged through the room, silent, filled with the rasps of her breath, the terror she was holding inside.
Noah tensed, jumped as the shot rang out and Sabella screamed. And Noah cried out, “Bella.”
He landed against her, driving her back against the wall, tightening in preparation for the bullet that didn’t come.
He jerked around to see Jordan and Rick Grayson in the entrance. Rick’s weapon was drawn, and Sienna lay stretched out on the floor, blood massing beneath her neck.
The sheriff stared down at his wife, his face expressionless, his eyes dead, as he bent and picked up the rifle Noah had dropped. He turned and left the cavern as Noah quickly cut Sabella’s bonds.
“Noah. Oh God. Noah.”
His arms were around her, holding her to his heart.
“I knew you’d be here,” she whispered, her fingers digging into his chest, holding on to him as he closed his eyes against the hard core of agony that resonated inside him. “I knew, Noah. I knew you’d be here.”
He kissed the top of her head as Jordan stepped forward.
“Take her home,” he told his uncle.
Jordan nodded. “Rory’s there too, and Grandpop. I’ll stay with her.”
“No!” She jerked back, stared up at him.
Her eyes were like thunderclouds. He’d never seen them like that. Shock and fear filled them. Her face was paper white. Her body shuddering.
“Don’t you leave me!” She gripped his shirt and tried to shake him, tears falling from her eyes. “Don’t you leave me, Noah.”
His head lowered. He touched her lips with his and knew this woman held the best part of him. The memories of the husband he had been, the man he had been. He couldn’t destroy that. He refused to.
He pushed her to Jordan slowly, loath to let her go. To release her. Knowing that releasing her was the only way to save the memories she held.
“Don’t you leave me!” She screamed the order, eyes blazing, her lips trembling as tears fell and hysteria threatened to overwhelm her. “If you leave me, Noah Blake. If you don’t come back when this is over, don’t bother coming back at all.”
He touched her cheek. Ran his thumb over her lips. “You’re the best part of me,” he whispered. “Always remember that, Sabella. The very best part of me.”
Before she could grab him, hold him to her, he pulled away, grabbed one of the rifles Mike had laid on the table across the room, and left.
Nik was wounded and the militia members were scattering like rats on a sinking ship. It was time to contain them. It was time for death to take its toll, and Noah was the hand that would deal the devil’s deck.
He strode from the cavern, her sobs in his head. He shouldn’t have had to hear her crying for him. It sliced through his senses, through his control, but not the ice that filled him. Every man in the militia Gaylen had brought together had threatened his wife. Risked her life. Risked her world. They wouldn’t have the chance to do it again.
Sabella let the tears stop. She pulled out of Jordan’s arms and stared at Mike Conrad’s and Sienna’s dead bodies. The cave stank of death, of blood. She pressed her hand to her stomach, to her child.
“Take me home.”
Noah had left and a part of her knew he wasn’t coming back. She wanted out of here. She didn’t want her child exposed to this scent, to the atrocities that had been committed in this cave, any longer. She swore she could hear the screams of the innocent people who had died here recently.
