Page 46 of When He Protects

The child seemed locked and intense on her goal. Esme’s mouth dropped open when she realized that the teddy bear the child had been clutching was on the pavement near the store’s entrance. The girl was going straight for it.

And an engine was growling.

Esme’s head whipped to the right. A big, souped up truck raced forward—rolling right toward the bear andgoing far too fast in the parking lot. What looked like a teenager was behind the wheel, but his head was turned and he was laughing with a friend who sat in the passenger seat.

Everything seemed to happen both incredibly slowly and incredibly quickly.

The little girl ran forward with a burst of speed. A mad dive for the bear.

The truck’s engine growled as the big vehicle barreled straight ahead.

Esme screamed and the sound just seemed to echo and echo in her own head even as she lunged forward. Her arms were outstretched as she tried to grab the child.

Then she heard the screech of brakes. The wail of metal. And she felt the bone-jarring thud as her body slammed down onto the pavement.

Chapter Ten

“There’s blood everywhere!”A yell.

Tyler’s head whipped up.

A frantic teenager rushed toward the line of registers.“Call the cops!” he blasted. “A lady needs help outside!”

Tyler dropped the chocolate chips. He raced toward the front doors and shoved through the crowd of customers who were suddenly all scrambling to get out. As soon as he cleared the doors and erupted outside…

Esme, Esme, where are you?

A big truck had slammed into one of the pillars near the entrance to the grocery store. A buggy had gotten pinned near the truck’s massive grille. The buggy was smashed and bent and…

Red.

Everywhere. Red waseverywhere.

For a minute, Tyler could have sworn his heart stopped. The contents of the buggy…His mind clicked through them. The ice cream. The coffee. The freaking angel hair pasta.Esme’s buggy.

Only there was noEsme to be seen.

“I’m so sorry!” It was the teenager. Bobbing and weaving and shaking near Tyler. “I-I didn’t see her. She ran right in front of me!”

Tyler shoved the kid away from him. Heart now racing in a double-time rhythm, Tyler leapt to the opposite side of the truck. A small throng of nervous onlookers had gathered over there. He recognized the doctor in her scrubs and?—

Esme.

On the ground. Curled in a ball. Tyler didn’t realize he’d roared her name until she turned slowly and looked back at him.

I’m okay.He couldn’t hear those words from her. Not over the thunder of his heartbeat, but he saw the movement of her lips and the world stopped imploding. At least a little.

Tyler rushed to her just as Esme opened her arms and a crying girl lurched out of them. The girl flew at her mother.

And Esme fell back against the black pavement.

“I’m really okay,” she told Tyler as he came to a shuddering halt beside her. “The driver looked up and saw me at the last second. He rammed into the pillar instead of hitting me and the kid.”

“You saved my girl.” The doctor clutched her daughter tightly. “You saved her!”

Tyler swept his gaze over Esme. He could see blood on one of her hands. And her jeans were torn at the knee. More blood. “Sweetheart?”

She lifted a hand toward him. Except that hand clutched a decidedly beat-up-looking teddy bear. “Give this to her, would you?”

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