Page 72 of Emi's Hero

“You think I’m stupid?” Warren snorted. “No way I’m letting her go. I’m getting out of here, and this brat is my get-out-of-jail-free card.”

Emi pushed back the rage building at Warren’s words and moved closer. Three more feet, and she’d be close enough to make her move.

She could tell the moment when Kalea spotted her moving in the shadows.

The other woman’s eyes briefly flared before she locked down her expressions behind a poker face.

“I need the kid,” Warren was saying. “But I don’t need you.” He shifted his aim from Sara’s temple to point the gun at Kalea’s chest.

When a twig snapped beneath Emi’s foot, she froze for a second.

Then Sara turned and sank her teeth into the hand holding her arm.

Warren shrieked and lost his grip on Sara.

As she darted away, Emi sprang out of the shadows and swung the tree limb like a baseball bat, channeling eight years of pent-up hatred into it, aiming for the bastard’s head.

Warren shifted at the last minute. Instead of hitting him square in the back of the head, she landed a glancing blow off the side of his head.

Warren staggered forward and fell to his knees.

Kalea kicked the gun out of his hand and then kicked him in the face. “That’s for threatening a child.”

The man dropped to the ground and lay still.

Emi dropped the heavy limb and looked around, searching for her daughter. Just like she’d taught her from a very young age, she’d hidden when the bad man had come near. “Sara. Sara, baby. It’s okay. He can’t hurt you. You can come out now.” Herbreath caught and held as she waited for Sara to come out of hiding.

A movement in the shadows to her left caught Emi’s attention.

Sara eased out of the darkness, her gaze going to the man on the ground. When he didn’t move to grab her, she ran, flinging herself into Emi’s arms.

Emi hugged her daughter close, tears streaming down her face. Her baby was alive and in her arms. And they were free.

The tears flowed as she realized she never had to go back to that horrible cell. She never had to live in fear of a monster beating her or forcing her to do things she didn’t want to do.

She and Sara would be free to walk in the sunshine, run across vast fields or lie in the grass and stare up at the clear blue sky. She couldn’t wait for Sara to meet George. Emi wanted her to know there were good men in the world, and George was one of them. He could teach her how to laugh and play in the water and take her for rides on ATVs.

Emi buried her face in her daughter’s silky hair. “Oh, baby, I love you so much.”

So caught up in holding her child and dreaming of the beautiful future they’d have now that they were free of Fallon Vance, Emi didn’t hear the footsteps pounding toward her on the gravel road. She didn’t know she and Sara were in any kind of danger until she heard, “Emi! Look out!”

She looked up to see that while she’d been loving on her daughter, Vincent Warren had crawled over to where his handgun had landed. He grabbed it, rolled onto his back and aimed toward Emi and Sara.

At the moment he pulled the trigger, someone dove between Warren and Emi.

Fully expecting to feel the pain of a bullet ripping through her, Emi sat in shock, her hands patting her chest and abdomen, looking for the bullet hole and blood.

When her gaze connected with the body that had passed between her and Warren, Emi gasped. “George!”

He lay so still that movement beyond him drew her attention.

Warren was aiming his handgun at her again.

“Emi!” Kalea yelled. “Look out!”

Emi shoved Sara to the ground and flung her body over her child.

When no shot rang out, she raised her head and looked toward Warren.

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