Page 74 of Rescuing Josiah
More than that, hewantedto do this. No matter how much the idea of taking off his vest terrified him beyond words, the thought of losing Chelsea scared him more.
Since he wasn't sure he could talk without his voice trembling, Josiah just stripped off the vest, then tugged it over Chelsea’s head. It was a little big for her, but it would still do the job, affording her more protection as she left the relative safety of the maze for the large expanse of garden she’d have to cross to get to the house.
“Josiah,” she whispered his name, her voice heavy with emotion. “Thank you.”
Those words ran deeper than just a thanks for the vest. She was thanking him for fighting against his past, for trying to beat his demons, for giving her a chance.
Nodding in acknowledgment, he leaned in, touched his forehead to hers, and then slipped his T-shirt back on.
There was no coming back from this, no pretending that he hadn't made this sacrifice because he was prioritizing her over himself, over his past, over his fears and guilt and anger. Giving her the place in his life she always should have had because he finally accepted that not having Chelsea was worse than being scared of losing her.
“I love you,” she murmured, pushing up onto tiptoes to press a kiss to the corner of his mouth as she pushed his weapon back into his hands.
She started toward Phantom and Gumby, and he had to clench his fingers around the cold steel of his weapon to stop himself from reaching for her. There would be time later to talk things through when there wasn’t a scared child, and a desperate criminal mastermind hiding in the maze.
“Chelsea!” A little voice called out at the same time a small child wriggled out from under the hedges and bolted toward Chelsea.
“Bridget.” Chelsea breathed in relief as she took a step toward the girl.
“She’s all I have left, no one is taking her from me. You keep trying. You keep trying to stop me, to shut down what I’ve built, but doing that will kill my baby girl. I tried to make you stop, I tried to make you back off, I warned you, and when you kept coming after me, I knew you all had to die. Everyone who gets in the way of me saving my daughter’s life has to be punished, they have to die,” another voice screamed, as a figure barreled through the hedges.
Reaching for the child, Chelsea shoved Bridget behind her right as the shot rang out.
As Chelsea cried out in pain, Josiah was already flinging himself toward her.
With the second shot came a wave of white-hot agony blasting through his body.
More shots tore through the night. Someone was sobbing, someone was screaming, all he cared about was getting to Chelsea.
He had to know that she was okay.
Ignoring the fiery pain pulsing inside him, Josiah crawled the short distance to where Chelsea lay on her back. Her eyes were open, staring up at the sky, and for a second, he thought it was too late.
She was dead.
He’d already lost her.
But then she took in a ragged breath, and his fingers began to skim her body in search of the injury.
A hole in the Kevlar right above her heart told him exactly how close to losing her he’d come.
If she hadn't been wearing the body armor, she’d be dead.
No ifs, ands, or buts about it.
Dead.
That bullet would have pierced her heart instead of being stopped by Kevlar, and he would have lost her.
His decision to prioritize light over darkness had saved her life.
Dizzy with relief, he sank down onto the ground beside her, vaguely aware of voices shouting around him. What they were saying didn't matter, the only thing that did was that Chelsea was alive.
A muffled grunt of pain caught his attention, and he turned his head to see Chelsea struggling to sit up, a man beside her rubbing a hand over his jaw.
Not any man.
Cole “Rex” Kingston.
