Page 221 of Hold Me Until Morning

Brooke.

Cody.

I rocked, unable to sit still beneath the atrocities that ravaged me like the squall of a hurricane.

“Personally, I think your father never should have allowed Cody to live, but he’s always been a little on the soft side,” Pruitt continued, completely casual.

“We kept an eye on him for years, waiting for him to step out of bounds. And he finally did. Don’t worry, though, sweetheart, I made sure to put an end to that problem.” Pruitt’s mouth was at my ear, his voice turning vicious. “He had to die just for the fact that he touched you.”

“No!” I screamed it. “I’ll kill you.”

Pruitt laughed and sat back in the seat, his easy words tossed at my father. “Maybe she’s more like you than we thought. I guess it’s a good start.”

FIFTY-ONE

CODY

Ezra came running back up the road just as I was lumbering out the front door. His gun slack at his side and regret on his face. “He got away.”

Rage boiled my blood, and I gritted my teeth against the agony as I stumbled down the porch steps.

Worry cut into Ezra’s brow as he ran my direction, and he shouted, “Just sit, man. I called for backup. An ambulance will be here in five.”

“Yeah, that’s not going to happen,” I said as I shuffled down the walkway, leaving a trail of blood behind me as I went.

The shot that had struck the outside of my thigh had saturated my sweats, and I had my hand pressed to the one that had hit low on the left side of my abdomen.

“Fuck, Cody, you need to sit.” Ezra tried to stop me when he got to me, panic whirring around him, and I shrugged him off as I headed toward my truck.

“Have to get to them.”

“We’re going to, I promise you, but we need to get you taken care of first.”

I spun on this guy who was more a brother than a friend, my hand flying out to his shoulder. I squeezed it in emphasis. “Don’t ask me not to fight for them, Ezra. You were in this exact position not that long ago, and there was not a goddamn thing in this world that could have stopped you from going after Savannah. From protecting her. Don’t ask me not to do the same.”

“But you’ve been shot. Were almost killed yesterday. You can’t?—”

“I might be bleeding, Ezra, but they’re the blood in my veins. They’re the ones who’ve made me whole. And if something happens to one of them? That’s what would be the end of me. That’s what would destroy me.”

Ezra’s exhale was heavy, his nod slight as he came to acceptance. “Fine, but I’m driving, and you’re staying in the truck and going to let me do my job.”

I didn’t take the time to argue with him, I just hobbled as fast as I fucking could to his SUV and slipped into the front passenger’s seat just as he was hopping into the driver’s. But it was Lolly yanking at the back handle that had him pausing.

“Lolly,” I breathed. “Fuck. Go back inside.”

“Open the door, both of you. Those are my girls, too. And I won’t sit idle until we have them back.”

Ezra looked at me in reluctance, and I winced, every inch of me on fire, and I gritted through the words, “There isn’t any use arguing with her. She’s as stubborn as they come. And we need to go. Now.”

Ezra unlocked the door, and Lolly was shouting as she hopped in, “Get to Wagner Ranch. There’s no chance my son isn’t involved in this.”

Ezra tore out of the neighborhood with his lights flashing, on his radio giving instruction for any deputies in the area to be on the lookout for the black SUV that had been peeling up the street when he’d rushed out to try to stop the intruder.

To proceed with caution as it held a four-year-old little girl who’d been abducted.

My guts twisted in a vicious knot as he gave her description.

Maddie.

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