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What? Oh, God, what’s happening?
Becca spun, her leg burning. She was staring straight at Hudson, one arm in a sling, a large pistol in his right hand. He walked forward quickly, the nose of the gun aimed directly at Justice’s slithering and twisting form. Hudson’s face was a mask of fury, his eyes dark with murder, as if he intended to empty every round in the gun into the man who had nearly killed Becca.
“Don’t!” she warned as sirens screamed over the wind and Mac burst out of the end unit of the motel. “Hudson, don’t!”
Mac screamed, “Put the gun down, Walker! Now!” His sidearm was aimed not at Hudson, but the wounded man. “We want this fucker alive. He’s got a lot of explaining to do, and he can start with Jessie Brentwood.”
Hudson lowered his gun and Becca nearly collapsed against him. “It’s over,” she whispered as his good arm held her tight. “It’s finally over.”
The sheriff’s department seemed to appear by magic. One moment Hudson was holding Becca and Mac was staring down the writhing monster on the ground, gun aimed at the man’s chest, the next a swarm of armed men were running across the grounds.
Becca pressed her face into Hudson’s chest. She heard him swear softly. “We need to take you back to the hospital,” he said.
“I never want to go there again.”
“You’re hurt.”
“But alive. He didn’t hurt our baby. He wanted to. He wanted to hurt our baby.”
“He’s sick.”
“It’s something to do with Siren Song, Hudson. He wanted to kill everyone from Siren Song.”
Her teeth were chattering. Hudson didn’t wait any longer. He led her toward Mac’s Jeep. “Gotta get you help,” he murmured.
Mac materialized out of the gloom. “I’ll call an ambulance,” he said, glancing at Becca. “We’re ordering one for the woman in the cabin.”
“Madeline? She’s alive?” Becca turned toward him.
“Barely. But she’s breathing okay.”
“I can go in the Jeep,” she assured him.
Hudson said to Mac, “You want to stay, I can drive.”
Mac nodded and handed him the keys.
“Thank you,” Becca said to him, heartfelt.
Mac paused. “I should be thanking you. I put you all through hell for a long, long time. And none of you were responsible for Jessie’s death.”
“Becca and my baby are alive, in part because of you,” Hudson said, helping Becca into the passenger seat. “We’re all even.”
With that Hudson slid in the driver’s seat and turned away from the motel and Deception Bay and toward Ocean Park Hospital once more.
“I love you,” he said into the sudden quiet. “I love you so much.”
“I love you,” she breathed.
“You don’t have to answer now, but I want you to know, I plan to marry you.”
She almost smiled.
“What?” he asked, and she could tell he was glancing at her with concern in the darkness of the Jeep’s interior.
“I’ve been planning to marry you since high school. I just didn’t think it would ever happen.” She felt him relax a little. “You’re sure you want me? With my visions and physical anomalies and possible ‘cult’ connections?”
“I want you,” he said, and it was decided.
