Page 151 of Sheltering You

He’d watched her walk across the grass. Watched her stop and refuse to go another foot.

Finally, Grant had said, “Quiet. Everyone. Derrick, repeat.”

“Qasim has her. They’re headed to the cliff.”

If she hadn’t stopped, they’d have been motoring away before Derrick and his brothers closed in. By the time they got the keys to the boat and set out to follow, they could easily have lost them. There were so many inlets in this sea—in Maine and all the way up the coast into Canada.

She could’ve been lost forever.

He inhaled her scent, breathed in the very aliveness, the thereness of her. “You were so brave.”

She backed up so she could see him. “I remembered I have God on my side, and you and your family. And I think…I think even Khalid knew it, at the end. That no matter how many men he’d brought, he was outmatched.”

Outmatched, maybe. But things could have gone very differently.

“…satellites over my location?” Michael was saying.

Derrick angled and saw his brother walking toward the cliff, on the phone with someone. “There’s a speedboat headed east-north-east. One person. He just killed a terror suspect and tried to kill the man’s wife.”

Whoa.

Had some of those bullets been meant for Jasmine?

“Nova Scotia or somewhere in Canada would be my guess.” Michael listened, then said, “Get back to me.”

He was standing, so it must be safe.

Derrick sat up and helped Jasmine do the same. “Are you all right? Did I hurt you? Did he?”

“I’m not hurt. Who was that?”

“No idea.” He twisted to where Grant was leaning over Khalid. “Is Qasim…?” Derrick was afraid to ask the question. Afraid to hope. “How is he?”

Grant stood. “Dead.”

“What?” Jasmine pushed to her knees, gazing out at the water. “You’re sure? Is it safe?”

“Shooter’s long gone.” Grant scooped up Qasim’s weapon, looking at Derrick. “Quick thinking, getting her down. I couldn’t have gotten there in time.”

Derrick swallowed the image his brother’s words raised inside him. Had that man really been trying to shoot her?

Jasmine’s hand snaked around his arm. “I wasn’t thinking, but you…you saved my life. Again.”

“Maybe.” He cleared his throat of sudden emotion. “Just instinct.”

“Good instincts,” Grant said.

Derrick wasn’t ready to process that or…any of this. He stood, trying to hide the dizziness caused by the sudden motion, then helped Jasmine up, keeping a hold of her hand even after she gained her feet. “How are you, really?”

“I thought you were dead.”

“Just a little woozy. It took me a few seconds to get my wits back. By the time I did, the door opened, and I wanted him to think I was out, that I wasn’t a threat.”

Her head dipped, but her gaze flicked to the man lying in a pool of bloodstained snow.

Grant was there, his focus on the terrorist’s handgun. “Huh.” He closed the chamber and shoved it in his waistband. “Guy had guts, I’ll give him that.”

“What do you mean?” Derrick asked.