Page 82 of Home Again

“Who’s there?” Sebastian demanded to know.

“I don’t know.”

“You say one wrong thing, and I won’t start with your kneecaps, I’m aiming for your dick, you got it?”

Sebastian pulled in as close as he could to shore and anchored the boat.

A voice came from the shack. “Bradley? Darnell? I got here as fast as I could. I did good, right?”

Well, that answered that question. It was Linus.

Sebastian watched a man walk out of the cabin. He couldn’t see if he was holding a weapon, so he just let him come closer. “I don’t think she’s all right.”

Sebastian’s gut clenched.

Linus kept coming closer. His hands were at his sides, empty. “I gave her some water and food like you said, Brad, but she threw it up.”

He came closer. Sebastian aimed and shot a bullet right in front of his feet.

Linus jumped. “What? Are you trying to kill me?”

“Get down on your knees, put your hands behind your neck. Do it now.”

Linus crashed to his knees. “Please don’t shoot me.”

Sebastian got out of the boat with the duct tape. When he got to the man, he kicked his face down into the mud, then taped his wrists together. The absolute second he was done he ran up to the cabin and shoved open the door.

His heart stopped.

Matted hair. A tied-up, contorted body that was so still. He dropped his gun and grabbed his knife out of his boot.

“Gianna. Cher. Wake up,” he crooned.

He sawed the ropes off her wrists and ankles, desperately trying not to cause any more injury, all the while whispering to her, begging her to wake up, telling her how much she meant to him. Pleading with her to open her beautiful eyes.

Sebastian picked up his gun, then gently picked her up and carried her out of the cabin. He so wanted to kill the two men who had hurt her, but he didn’t. He splashed through the marsh and placed her gently on the bottom of the four-man airboat where Darnell was still sitting. He would have loved nothing better than to leave him behind like Linus, but he needed his help guiding them out of the swamp. He needed to get Gianna to a hospital as quickly as possible. He kept her cradled in his arms as he piloted the boat back to the landing, all the while checking his cell phone for coverage. When he finally had a signal, he called 9-1-1.

* * *

When Sebastian got to the landing, Neil, the O’Malley brothers, and the rest of the boys were there, as was an ambulance. It wasn’t until he saw Gianna rushed past the emergency room bay doors that he was able to turn to Neil and ask him how he knew to be there. Neil explained that a woman named Jada had called him.

“Neil, call her back. Tell her what’s happening.”

Sebastian grabbed the arm of a nurse. “What’s going on back there with Gianna?”

“Who?”

“Gianna Prentiss? She came in the ambulance five minutes ago with a head injury. She’s alive but unresponsive. They took her back there. What’s going on?”

“Are you family?”

“I’m her fiancée,” he immediately lied.

She looked over her shoulder, then looked back at him. “I’ll see what I can find out.”

Sebastian paced the length of the emergency room lobby, blocking out all of the other people. He didn’t know how long he had been walking back and forth until Fergus O’Malley grabbed his arm and forced him into a chair. “You’re not doing anybody any good this way.”

“Somebody needs to get their ass out here and tell me what is going on.”