Page 99 of Still Afraid

Poirot had leaned up against Aaron, who’d put his arm around the dog. His hand was covered in blood. His breath caught for a moment.

Josh hollered back to Lance, “Found them!”

Chloe rotated but didn’t get up. “Josh!”

He rushed toward her, and that’s when he saw Chloe holding pressure on Aaron’s leg. Josh knelt down next to her and ran his hand across the top of her back before resting it on her far shoulder. He resisted the urge to kiss her with abandon.

She leaned into his hug. “You found us. How?”

“One of Aaron’s buddies gave us a good lead.”

Josh squeezed Aaron’s ankle. “Glad to see you’re both okay.”

Aaron nodded toward something beyond Josh. “No thanks to that guy.”

He spun and saw Richard Montego taped to an exposed stud. “You guys caught the bad guy. I’m impressed.”

“You knew it was him?”

Josh nodded and pointed at Aaron’s leg. “How bad is it?”

“He needs to go to the ER. It’s not too bad, but it no doubt needs a good cleaning and stitches. One end is decently deep, but seems to get shallower farther down.”

“Any other injuries?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Chloe, he stabbed you first.”

Josh followed her gaze as it shifted to her leg. Blood soaked her jean shorts and oozed down her thigh.

“Eh, it’s not that bad.”

Lance placed his hand on Chloe’s head. “Good to see you.”

She leaned back and smiled up at their friend. “Likewise.”

He lifted his phone. “Calling an ambulance. Josh, you call Gabe.”

Josh pulled out his phone as Lance suggested. Once he’d dialed Gabe’s number, Josh turned on speaker and held it out for Chloe to do the talking.

An anticipatory giggle escaped from Chloe as the phone rang.

“Where are you?” Gabe didn’t even say hi. “Find anything?”

“He found me.”

“Chloe!”

“Hey, big bro. I’ve got our baby brother here too.”

“Hey, Gabe.” Aaron’s voice was strained with pain. “I screwed up, man.”

“I know, but we’ll deal with that later.”

Josh gave Gabe their location and a status update on Aaron’s injury. And let him know Richard was securely restrained.

The next twenty minutes were a whirlwind as police and EMTs flooded around them. A pair of uniformed officers took Richard into custody. Gabe arrived about the same time as the ambulance. Somehow he got a hug from Chloe before Josh did. Josh didn’t mind.