Page 147 of Yours to Keep
One on his knees.
My heart stops. Even from this distance, I know him.
Eli.
My Eli.
The world narrows to that single image: the man I love kneeling in the sand, and the man who took him standing over him.
Deck sees it too. I don’t need to say a word. His face changes instantly.
* * *
We run.
We hit the path to the beach, boots slamming against cold ground, faster than thought, faster than fear can form into anything useful. Every second drags me backward, away from him.
What if I’m too late again?
Eli’s face keeps flashing in my mind. His smile. The way he says my name. The way he reaches for me like I’m his home.
I can’t lose him. Not after finding him. Not after getting this close.
Deck runs beside me, silent, locked in, carrying the same fear I am. We don’t speak. We don’t need to. We both know what we’re running toward.
Then it cuts through everything.
The gunshot.
We stop for half a beat on the gravel path.
Everything inside me screams one word.
No.
Not him.
Not my Baby Boy.
Not my Eli.
I’m moving again before the echo dies. Deck is right beside me. Neither of us speaks. There’s no time for anything except reaching him.
The beach explodes into view.
Moonlight spills across the water. Ice-white reflections scatter under our feet as we sprint.
Two figures near the shoreline, just as we saw from the house: one kneeling, one standing over him with a gun raised.
Adrian.
And Eli.
My brain doesn’t catch up with my eyes. I heard the gunshot. I saw him from the house. What I’m seeing now shouldn’t exist.
My Baby Boy is alive.
My knees nearly give out. Seeing him alive feels like being punched and saved at the same time.
