Page 57 of Crossroads of Betrayal
An overturned golf cart was jammed between two Evergreen trees. A crumpled body sprawled on the ground. But all that passed by in a flash as he spied Grace standing with a large stick in her hand, Joan sitting on the ground with a gun pointed at her chest.
“No!” he screamed, running downhill. “Lincoln, hurry the hell up. And call for help!”
Joan jerked around to face him, weapon still fixed on Grace, and Grace swung the branch.
The gun went off as Grace connected her weapon to the top of Joan’s head.
Joan collapsed.
Grace staggered backward, eyes wide, and clutched her side before her knees buckled.
Momentum pushed him faster down the incline. He sidestepped fallen limbs and upturned roots. “Grace!”
She reached for him then fell to the ground.
Terror squeezed all the air from his lungs. He raced past a motionless Joan and slid to a stop at Grace’s side before dropping to his knees. “Grace, honey. Can you hear me?”
She moaned and cracked open her eyes. Blood seeped through the side of her hoodie. “Zeke? Joan killed Tessa. She killed Shelly and shot Darrin.” A cough overtook her body, and she winced. “I hurt so bad.”
“I know, baby,” he said, swiping away a strand of hair from her forehead. “Help’s on the way. I’m right here with you. Just be strong.”
“I’m cold.”
He shrugged out of his jacket and draped it over her. “Everything will be fine.”
“Not for you,” Joan said.
The raspy, weak voice raised the hairs on the back of his neck. He glanced up, and the gun pointed at Grace made his stomach drop.
“Say goodbye to your girlfriend.”
He dove over Grace.
Bang!
He stiffened his body, prepared for the familiar bite of pain to rip into him. Nothing came. Maintaining his protective position over Grace, he pivoted to face Joan.
She lay face down on the ground, blood pooling from her head.
Lincoln stood behind her. His gun dangled at his side.
Relief crushed down on him, but it was short lived. He scrambled off Grace. Her eyes were closed. Her body limp. Her breaths shallow.
No, no, no!
He cradled her cheek in his palm and wiped away bits of dirt with the pad of his thumb. “Grace, baby, come on. Talk to me. Please. Wake up. I can’t lose you. Not now. Not after everything we’ve been through. Everything we worked through.”
Desperation clogged his throat and tears rimmed the bottoms of his eyes. Footsteps thundered toward him. Lincoln’s voice carried to him on the wind.
But he didn’t care. All that mattered was Grace and everything he’d never told her. He pressed a kiss to her forehead, unwilling to wait a second more to tell her exactly how he felt whether she heard him or not. “You can’t leave me again Grace. I love you.”
CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO
A sense of agonizing déjà vu encased Grace as she struggled to crack open her eyes. Florescent lights poured down on her and a steady beep nearby increased the throbbing in her head.
“You just couldn’t stay away, could you?” Cliff, the nurse, said, flashing her a wide smile as he checked the numbers blinking on the machine beside the hospital bed. “I’d prefer spending time with you outside of work, though. Not taking care of you after you were shot in the side.”
“Calm down there, Romeo,” Zeke said, his voice low and a bit menacing. He sat in a chair he’d pulled next to the bed and held onto her hand without the IV.
