Page 67 of Some Saviors Can Break You

She had a gun in her hands, and it was pointed at a man with dark hair going gray, who appeared to be in his late forties.

He’d seen the same man leaving the building the day he found Florence lying unconscious in her apartment.

Florence’s stalker.

The Coffin Killer.

Seemed the guy had finally surfaced and he knew what he wanted.

What he wanted was the one who had gotten away.

Florence.

The serial killer had a gun in his hand, it was pointed at Florence, but the second he entered the apartment it swung in his direction.

Before he had a chance to react, Florence had moved so she was between him and the weapon.

What was she thinking?

Shewas the one the killer wanted not him.

“Ah, Eli Lennox, we were just talking about you.” The man shot him a smile. It wasn't pleasant.

“Eli, this is Toby Lane,” Florence said without looking over her shoulder at him. Her weapon never wavered, and although he hated that she had put herself between him and a potential bullet, he had to admire the fact that she would so confidently and selflessly put her life on the line for him.

“Toby, huh? aka the Coffin Killer, I presume,” he said trying to move so that he could get closer to Florence. It probably wasn't his smartest move, but he couldn’t stand the idea of her indanger. So even though she was the cop and he ran a real estate company, he couldn’t not want to protect her.

Without even turning to look at him, Florence seemed to know where he was and where he was going and adjusted her position accordingly. “This doesn’t really have anything to do with you, Eli, this is between me and Toby. I want you to leave, Eli. Go right back out the door and go to work.”

“I don’t think so,” Toby said.

“This is nothing to do with him, Toby,” Florence said again, her tone was calm and controlled, smooth like she knew she was in control and didn't have to yell or argue to get her point across.

“Actually, this is everything to do with him because he’s the one who ruinedeverything,” Toby growled. “You were mine, you were always mine, and thenhecomes along, and now you think you belong to him.”

“Florence doesn’t belong to me,” he said, incensed by the notion. “She’s not a piece of property, she’s a person. A person who is free to make her own choices and decisions.”

“Eli, stop talking,” Florence ordered.

Ignoring her, he continued, “And she wasn't yours, she was never yours. You two weren't a couple, you didn't date, you were involved with her mother and used that to assault and try to murder her. You drugged her, you put her in a coffin, if she hadn't woken up and run away you were going to bury her alive.”

“Eli, leave,” Florence hissed.

That wasn't happening.

There was no way he was leaving her alone in here with an armed and dangerous man.

“He. Doesn’t. Leave,” Toby said, over-enunciating each word. “This is what you're choosing over me? You might be the only one who survived, but that doesn’t make you any less mine than the others. I was your first, I'm the one who claimed you. You know that you’ve always been mine, that’s why you’ve beensingle all these years, and if the only way to make you single again is to take this guy out of the equation, then that’s what I'm doing.”

“Don’t make things worse for yourself, Toby. At the moment, all we have on you is that you broke in here and held a gun on me. We don’t have any proof to tie you to the coffin murders. You shoot someone, and that changes. Eli is going to walk out of here, and you’re going to put your weapon down and your hands behind your head,” Florence said.

“He is all that is standing between you and I being together. He has to die.”

7:04 A.M.

As far as Toby was concerned, there was no other option.

Florence was his, and Eli Lennox was getting in the way.

---