Page 129 of Betrayed

Chapter Forty-Seven

AJ held tight to Logan as Megan drove the boat back. She was alive and safe. Her brain couldn’t quite process that. She had almost died. She’d fought so hard, but it had gotten too difficult to get to the surface again, and she’d run out of air.

Thank You, Lord, for getting Logan there in time. Any later and …

The thought of seeing Jesus face-to-face and holding Bree again had made the idea of death not so bad. She wasn’t scared of dying. But she was a little scared of what losing her would do to Logan.

She squeezed him a little harder. God was good and knew what Logan needed. And if it had been her time, she trusted Jesus would have taken care of her husband.

Megan pulled up to the dock where the moon illuminated Will and Zara standing there, holding one another.

AJ lifted a hand and waved.

Zara’s face lit up.

Once the boat was moored, Logan stood and offered his hands to AJ. She was too weak to stand on her own, so she let him lift her to her feet. He helped her out of the boat and onto the pier.

She fell into Zara’s arms. Her friend held her tight. “I was so scared.”

“You’re telling me. I was tied up under a bridge in the water.”

Zara held her back and looked in her face. “For real then, huh?”

AJ nodded. “What happened here?”

Zara said, “Your husband outsmarted the bad guy.”

AJ turned to Logan, who half shrugged.

She shivered.

Logan took her hand. “Let’s get you warm.”

They took the hike up the 150 billion stairs. Her body did not like it, but she pushed and tried not to let Logan see that she was struggling. But the exhaustion was too much.

She wasn’t able to lift her foot high enough and tripped on a step. She landed on the stairs.

Logan stooped down beside her. “Are you okay?”

“I’m so tired. I’ll be fine. Just need a moment.”

They sat there for a minute until she regained a tiny bit of energy, then finished the trek up. The patio was filled with police officers. Adam and Amelia were in full-detective mode until they saw AJ.

Both of them ran to her and gave her hugs and expressed their relief that she was safe.

Amelia rubbed AJ’s arms. “Go get dry and warm. You let us know when you’re ready to give us your statement.”

The detectives stepped away, and that’s when AJ spotted Miles lying on the ground in a pool of blood.

She gasped. Emotions hit like a freight train, one car after another. Horror. Relief. Guilt for feeling relief. Grief—he had been their friend.

She couldn’t breathe.

Logan wrapped his arm around her shoulders. She turned into him and sobbed. The pent-up tears from the last twenty hours released in a storm.

But they were safe. Both her and Logan. Miles was gone and would never torment her again.

When her sobs let up, Logan led her away and around to the front of the house where an ambulance waited. They climbed in the back and accepted space blankets from the EMTs. Logan rested his hand on her back, while the medic listened to her lungs and examined the wounds on her wrists.