Page 120 of Rescued Heart

“Something like that.” She veered down a rocky drive with no trees lining the path. Eddie spotted another gravel road toward the right, but she kept going straight. The truck bumped along the drive until a cabin with a lone light on the porch welcomed them.

Riley shut off the truck.

“Did Bianca say how she ended up here?”

Riley narrowed her eyes on the cabin and then pushed open the truck door. “I was just told I needed to get out here right away.”

Eddie exited the truck as a man walked onto the porch. So Nathan was still here too? At least the police would have more witnesses to whatever came out of his mouth.

“This isn’t the reinforcement I was expecting.”

Not Nathan.

Roger Pointe’s chuckle didn’t make Eddie smile. “It’s even better.”

Another woman came out of the cabin. Her stern expression looked the same as the last time Eddie had seen her. Only her outfit had changed. Conroy had been right. The mayor’s assistant, Janice, stood next to Roger Pointe.

Riley stomped toward the porch. “Where is she?”

Roger stepped forward, and the porch light hit his face. “I guess tonight would be an excellent time to talk about your youth center after all.”

He held Eddie’s gaze before resting back on Riley. But he didn’t get a chance to speak before a stocky man barreled out of the open cabin door and struck Roger on the back of the head with a shovel.

Janice screamed.

Beside Eddie, Riley didn’t gasp. Instead, she raced forward. “Finally.”

Finally?

Something cool slipped into his hand. Eddie spun to find Bianca’s hand in his. All Eddie’s firefighter training that would usually urge him to step toward Roger, who now lay motionless on the porch, vanished.

She pressed the rest of her body into the shadows of the truck as she tried to pull him toward her.

Her face was pale. Eyes wide. Blood stained her dress, and she mouthed one word.

Run.

TWENTY-SEVEN

Bianca tightened her hold on Eddie’s hand and tugged harder. He shouldn’t have come. But she had a better chance of survival with him. Only now, Eddie’s life was in danger too.

The gunshot plus the shouting from Janice, the gunman, and Roger had changed her course to head back toward the gravel road. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have seen Eddie arrive.

When she’d spotted the headlights coming up the drive, Bianca had tucked behind a tree, waiting to see if the newest arrival would be more trouble or not.

Now, as they ran, Eddie didn’t resist her hold. “Bianca, what’s going on?” His whisper still made her tense.

Had they heard?

She tucked them behind a tree.

The moonlight sprinkled down through the trees. Branches scratched at her arms, but they couldn’t stop. Except her arm jerked backward, and the next thing she knew, she was being hugged up against Eddie’s heaving chest.

He had his back pressed up against a tree. As much as she wanted to fall against him, she couldn’t. “We’ve got to stay hidden and find a way out of here,” she whispered and leaned out of his arms. “They killed Nathan.”

“Killed? ‘They’ who? Carter thought?—”

“That guy who hit Roger kidnapped me and Nathan. Then I think Janice shot Nathan. But it could have been Roger who actually pulled the trigger. I don’t know where Janice ran off to after she screamed.” She squeezed her eyes shut, but it didn’t help the memory of Nathan being shot.

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