Page 132 of Running to You

He paced between a sea of sedans and SUVs and sports cars. He shouldn’t have said those things. Obviously, she’d been pulled into the cult. All that crap about how she hadn’t known what was going on, how she’d been focused on the business and not paying attention to what the Kellers were doing with those girls. Lies. They had to be.

No wonder she hadn’t told Sam about Levi. She was embarrassed she’d fallen for Keller’s trap. Embarrassed she’d fallen for him.

It was a cult. Jed was a master manipulator, and Eliza had been vulnerable. Vulnerable because she’d seen Sam with Kylee. This was as much his fault as hers. It was just a lot easier to be mad at her than to deal with his own issues.

“Bro!”

He spun, and as Michael marched up to him, Sam said, “I know—”

“What is wrong with you?” His brother’s words were laced with rage. “The woman you love is falling apart, and you walk away?”

“I know. I just need—”

“This isn’t about you. Two of the people she loves most in the world are in the hands of a lunatic, and you’re out here sulking because—”

“Did you know?”

He saw it, the truth on Michael’s face.

“That’s what you were talking about when I was shopping.”

“I didn’t know anything about the kid except that she had one.”

“And you didn’t think I needed to know that?”

His eyebrows shot up. “Really? I’m supposed to tell you that she has a child? How is that my business?”

“How is any of this your business?” He turned away, took a breath. Lifted a hand when Michael started to speak. “I know. I know you rescued her. I know all you’ve done for her—for me. But a warning would have helped. I’m just trying to…” Process. Figure out how to live with it.

“You have a choice here.” Michael’s tone was measured. “You can get back in the car and work with us, or you can hightail it back to your life. Then I’ll be the hero who saves her—again—and you’ll be the jerk with all the money and nobody to share it with.”

Sam could do that. He could go back to his safe, pathetic life. His lonely, lonely life.

“What’s it gonna be?” Michael asked. “You gonna abandon her because of something that happened after you two broke up? Because she needs you, and I can’t do this by myself.” Michael stepped closer and dropped a hand on Sam’s shoulder. “I love you, bro, but get your head on straight. Focus on what matters right now. You’ll figure out the rest as you go.”

Michael was right. Sam was being a jerk—again. All his anger was just masking how he really felt. Sad and heartbroken and betrayed.

Sam started for the car, but Michael stopped him and wrapped him in a bear hug. “This doesn’t change how she feels about you. When she needed help, she ran to you. When I insisted she go straight to the FBI, she refused. She had no idea who I was, but she told me she needed to make things right with you first. She loves you.” He slapped Sam’s back a couple of times, then stepped away. “Try not to screw it up.”

“That’s not as easy as it looks.”

Michael chuckled, but Sam didn’t think anything was funny.

He marched toward the rental, praying with every step. He had no idea how to rescue three people surrounded by guards and keep the woman he loved safe at the same time.

And he had to do all that while not getting sidetracked by the fact that she had a kid…a kid whose father was a psychopath.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Eliza should have listened to Michael. Now, her secret was out, and Sam wouldn’t even look at her. She couldn’t blame him.

And that didn’t even matter because her mother and her son were in danger.

“Take the next left.” Sam was directing Michael, but she had no idea where they were going.

Jed wouldn’t hurt Levi. He doted on him, adored him. But he had no such feelings for Mom. And Nicole was there, too, sucked into his madness simply because she’d befriended Eliza.

Please, Father, keep them safe. Please.