Page 64 of Unlikely Guardian

LILLY THOUGHT she couldn’t have possibly been more frightened, but she wrong. Her fear went up a significant notch when she saw Jason step into the hall.

Another minute or two, and this could possibly have been avoided.

Of course, another minute or two, and she might have been dead, but at least Jason wouldn’t be in danger.

He was definitely in danger now.

Jason stood there. Not frozen. Not panicking. He inched toward them, his gun aimed and his wrist bracketed with his left hand. He was ready for anything.

Well, maybe not this.

There was no way he could be ready for this.

“Put down the gun,” Jason said, his voice hardly more than a whisper. Probably so that he wouldn’t wake up Megan. Lilly was praying the same thing. She wanted to keep her daughter sheltered from this.

“I can’t,” the woman behind Lilly answered.

Now, that stopped Jason. Lilly completely understood his reaction. She’d experienced a similar reaction about ten minutes earlier when she first realized that someone had gotten into the house.

And who that someone was.

“Erica?” Jason questioned.

Behind her, Lilly heard Erica’s breath shudder. Not good. While Jason seemed relatively unruffled, she couldn’t say the same for Erica. It wasn’t just the woman’s voice that was shaking. Erica was shaking, too. Lilly didn’t care much for a jittery person with an equally jittery hand holding a gun to her head.

“She’s trying to kidnap me,” Lilly confirmed, not surprised that her own voice was trembling. Oh, she was scared. But she was even more frightened of staying put, where Erica could do heaven knew what to Jason or Megan.

There were worse things than dying.

Lilly knew that now. And losing Jason and Megan would be far worse than anything Erica could do to her.

“Is Megan okay?” Jason asked. No calmness that time. He had to get his teeth unclenched so he could speak.

“She’s asleep,” Erica volunteered. “I wouldn’t hurt her.”

Not intentionally, anyway. But Lilly knew if bullets started flying, then good intentions weren’t worth anything.

“Put down the gun, Erica,” Jason warned, the grip tightening on his own gun.

“I can’t. Not now. I have to stop this. I have to stop her.”

“None of this is Lilly’s fault. All she did was wake up from a coma.”

“All she did was ruin my life,” Erica snapped. “I love you, Jason—”

“Put down the weapon,” Jason repeated. “And think this through. Megan is in that room right next to where you’re standing with a loaded gun. If she wakes up, she’ll be scared. Is that what you want?”

“No.” Erica repeated it several times, her voice becoming edgier with each syllable. “All I want is to leave. With Lilly. I have to take her with me.”

“You don’t have to do anything but put down the weapon and step to the side.” Jason inched closer.

“Stop,” Erica said, pushing the gun even harder against Lilly’s temple.

Jason stopped, and Lilly could almost see him thinking this through. She only hoped he had a better solution than anything she’d been able to come up with—which was exactly nothing. If she fought back, Erica might shoot and accidentally hit Megan. If she remained passive and cooperated, the same might happen.

“How did you get in here, anyway?” Jason asked Erica.

Lilly shook her head, indicating that she didn’t know. She’d literally come out of the playroom to discover that she was looking down the barrel of a gun.

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