Page 80 of Rescued Faith

The shadowed clump separated, one man slowly moving to his feet. “It’s okay, boss. I’m fine.” Zack’s voice was strained, but the other man didn’t move. Bryce stepped closer, his eyes glued to the man in the grass with a knife sticking out of his chest. He wasn’t going anywhere.

“Go get the girls!” Zack said as he bent over.

Bryce didn’t need to be told twice. He ran to the front door and paused. Anything could be on the other side of it. He opened it cautiously. A scuffle sounded from another room, grunts and groans, and from the sound of it, punches being thrown.

A particularly feminine voice screamed.

Penny! Bryce ran in, the toe of his boot catching on the pistol lying in the middle of the hall. He scooped it up and rushed in.

Libby lay on the floor, but the man with dark hair had Penny in a choke hold. He also held a gun and was in the process of bringing it up to her head. Bryce didn’t hesitate when he saw the clear shot. He pulled the trigger once.

The man’s grip around Penny’s neck loosened. He fell to the linoleum.

Bryce leaped over to catch Penny. “Are you okay?”

She pushed him away and instead grabbed the man by the lapels of his jacket. “What is the plan? What are you doing here?” her voice screamed. Libby roused.

But the man’s stare went from panicked to vacant as the life drained out of him. A pool of blood spread below his body.

Penny lowered him and looked up at Bryce.

“We needed him alive!”

Seriously? She was mad at him? “He had a gun. He was about to kill you.”

“I had it handled.” She stood up and glared at him.

She hadn’t had it handled. She probably knew she hadn’t. But if he’d learned anything tonight, it was that Penny desperatelyneeded to feel a sense of control. So he’d bite his tongue for now. Saying anything would only push her away.

“Penny?” Libby’s weak voice sounded. She sat up.

Penny ignored Bryce and knelt next to her sister. “Are you o?—”

Her words were cut off as Libby grabbed her in a tight hug. Bryce didn’t want to intrude on the sisters’ private moment. He moved and stood over the man he’d shot.

It wasn’t Alonzo Sosa.

Obviously this wasn’t over.

TWENTY-FIVE

Her worlds were colliding and not in a good way. Penny couldn’t keep the walls up between work and family and…whatever Bryce was. She swung from wanting to strangle the man to remembering that kiss in the nightclub parking lot, wishing for more moments like it.

What was wrong with her?

At least Libby and the kids were physically okay. Penny paced the wide hospital hallway, the utilitarian linoleum polished to a harsh shine. After being trapped in the pantry, she would gladly pace as much as she wanted with plenty of space to move while she waited for Libby to be discharged.

Bryce and Jude walked toward her. Both men looked a little haggard. Bryce’s pants were torn and bloody. One leg of his jeans was cut off completely from where he had been stitched up from a knife wound. Jude’s clothes were rumpled, sweat-stained.

“They okay?” Bryce asked.

She nodded toward the closed door where the doctor was still with Libby. “The kids are fine. Libby has a bump on the head and a black eye, but she’ll be okay. Dan is on the way home.”

Jude stood in front of her. “So that was the lead you were following? Tracking down your sister and her kids?”

She shrugged. “I told you I didn’t take the kidnapping of women and children lightly.”

“You could’ve told me.” He stared her down.

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