Page 136 of Secret Baby for My Brother's Best Friends

I can already sense the danger skittering up my spine. Desperation pours out. "Don't do this, Claire. You're better than this. Better than me."

Her response to that tells me that she's already too far gone.

"Maybe with you gone he’ll finally love me."

Oh fuck.

The crunching of leaves has us both tearing our heads to the side in time to see a dark figure emerge. The outline tells me it's Sam.

Relief and terror clash inside me. Because the fact that he's here means he's also in danger.

He starts barreling towards me, and my mouth opens in a silent scream as she swings the gun at him.

Before the breath bursts out, she lets out one shot, then another. He weaves around the first, but the second bullet hits him somewhere around the thigh area. He jerks, but he doesn't stop moving. He keeps running, his eyes laser-focused on me.

"Sam, no!" He needs to stop. She's going to shoot him again. He needs to drop to the ground and get out of the way.

But he doesn't.

He doesn't stop running for me.

I'm so focused on him that I don't see the attack coming from the other side.

I don't see Adam tackling Claire to the dirt, or Jake grabbing hold of me, crushing me to his chest, asking if I'm alright.

I tear away from him.

The silence pounds as I reach for Sam, who collapses beside us. I run my hands over his body, immediately searching, scanning for the wounds he might have, harsh, desperate pleas flying from my lips.

"It's okay," Sam says, cupping my cheeks. "It's okay."

"How can it be okay?" My voice breaks in a harsh whisper. My hand comes away with blood. "You just got shot."

"Yes, but it's just a flesh wound, I'm pretty sure."

"Pretty sure?"

"Well, I've never been shot before so I can't tell you."

"Not the time for jokes, Sam," Adam says as sirens sound in the background. I think I hear Jenna calling my name as well, and Claire throwing a tantrum on the ground, but I don't care.

“Don’t ever do anything like that again." I look at all of them. “All of you. I don’t know what I would do without you. I love you all so much, do you hear? So, so much. If anything had happened...Idon't think I could live without you." All the feelings I've been trying so hard to suppress push to the forefront, coming into acute focus. It leaks out amidst the tears. "I love you."

I can't see their faces, but I can feel their joy, their chuckles. The love in their kisses as they go one by one, pressing relieved lips against mine.

"We love you too, Chels," Jake whispers. "So fucking much. We would have fucking died without you."

It's a messy environment for a love confession, not romantic in the slightest. It's dark. Sam is bleeding all over the place. There's a snarling psychopath on the ground and Jenna chewing her out. But all I care about is my men.

I tell Sam, "I can't believe you took a bullet for me."

"Well, to be fair, the others were fighting over wanting to play the role of the distraction, and I kind of went around them by going for it anyway."

"Which was stupid by the way," Adam said. "That could have gone very wrong."

"But it didn't. I wasn't going to let you or Jake do it. It would have brought back bad memories for you, and Jake would have gotten special treatment for the second month in a row if he got another injury." The jealousy in his voice is palpable, but it's not the bitter, angry type. More so the competitive type.

Which allows me to joke, "So you decided to get yourself shot so you can get special treatment?"