Page 112 of Lost Lake
“Engage! Engage!” the commander shouted.
Gunfire erupted, sharp, deafening, controlled. Echoes of gun reports reverberated across the quiet lakeside property.
Gabe curled over Lucy, one hand cradling her head, the other braced against the ground. “You’re okay,” he muttered, though he couldn’t hear his own voice over the chaos. “You’re okay.”
Then—
Silence.
Abrupt. Heavy.
“Suspect down,” someone called.
“Hold! Hold!”
Boots thundered across the brick. Hands were on Gabe, lifting, checking. “You hit?”
He shook his head, breath ragged. “No. She’s…she’s good.”
Lucy clung to him, still shaking, but alive.
Gabe pressed his cheek briefly to her hair, eyes scanning ahead where Trent lay motionless.
“It’s over,” he said again, sitting up, but facing away from Trent’s fallen body and placing her on his lap. “He won’t come near you ever again. I promise.”
She looked up at him and held up her little finger. “Pinky swear?”
He locked his little finger with hers. “Pinky swear.”
Her expression turned serious. “That’s a forever promise. Mommy told me that.”
“And I mean it, sweetie. Forever.”
“Did that man kill Mommy, and she’s in heaven?”
“Yes.” Gabe couldn’t put off an answer she’d probably wanted for days. “She’s in heaven.”
“Heaven is special, but I’ll miss her.”
“Me too,” Gabe said, trying to keep his emotions in check.
“That means I’m gonna live with you. Mommy said if I couldn’t be with her, you wanted me to live with you.”
“Mommy was right. I do want you to live with me.”
She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tight. Thankfully, he was already sitting or his legs wouldn’t have held him.
El came charging across the bricks and fell to her knees beside him, her gaze going from one to the other. “Are you both really all right?”
“We are,” Gabe said, feeling that despite the SWAT team rushing around him and the life taken from another man, his life was right for the first time ever. Something he’d wanted for many years, and finally, finally it was going to happen for him.
For them. Forever.
El couldn’t take her eyes off Gabe as he shared the details of Trent’s confession, but he was called away to sit with Lucy in the ambulance as the medics gave her an IV to increase her fluids. They soon departed for the hospital, Gabe riding along. Once there, she knew he would also check on his brother.
El promised to join them as soon as she could, but first she needed to question the guy who’d been holding Lucy. Mina had cuffed and secured him in the back of her car and learned he was named Justin Ward. Shockers of all shockers, he was the guy who’d broken into El’s house before he took over watching Lucy from another guy.
Now, Mina sat in her front seat, door open as she checked his record.
