Page 82 of The Grave Between Us
Ian jerked back. He stood and faced Noah. Sneered and then reached into the back of his jeans, pulling out a black Glock .40—
Noah fired.
His first shot grazed Ian’s cheek, ripping off two inches of skin and exposing his cheekbone, a shock of white and red against his tanned skin. Ian howled, and his hand came up to his face. His eyes flared, and took a step toward Noah—
Noah fired again. Ian took another step, this time toward Cole, reaching for his unmoving body in the water. Noah kept firing, unloading his weapon until it clicked, all his ammo spent. Ian staggered, and he dropped the gun at the river’s edge as his mouth opened and his hand rose. Blood spilled over his lips, streamed down his chin.
Noah had put fourteen rounds in the center of Ian’s chest, sent him stumbling into the river with the force of his shots. His eyes locked onto Ian’s, staring into his twin voids, what seemed like the edges of the world in their depths. He inhaled, held his breath—
Ian collapsed, falling backward with a cannonball splash. He hit the water and stared at the sky, unmoving, his arms and legs flung to the sides as the current tugged at his body.
Noah raced to the riverbank. Cole hadn’t moved. He should have moved, should have scrambled out of the river when Ian let go of him. He flipped Cole over and dragged him up the rocky shore. Cole’s face was pale, his lips blue, his chest still. “Cole!” Noah shouted. He slapped his lover’s cheek once, twice.
Jacob appeared beside him, ripping Cole’s jacket open, lifting his shirt. He laid his head on Cole’s pale chest, listening to his heart. A moment later, he laced his hands together and pressed on Cole’s chest, pumping. Cole jerked like a doll, like every thrust of Jacob’s was a punch.
“Breathe,” Jacob ordered, pausing his compressions. Noah grabbed Cole’s jaw and tilted it up. He pinched Cole’s nose, opened his jaw. Pressed his lips to Cole’s and exhaled.
I want forever, Noah. Forever with you.
Death is forever.
“Cole.” Noah ran his hand through Cole’s hair, stroked his fingers over Cole’s face. Jacob paused again, and Noah pressed his lips to Cole’s. Exhaled. Breathed his air into Cole’s lungs.Don’t leave me, Cole. Don’t show me what happiness is and then leave me all alone.
Jacob grunted. “Come on, Cole! Come on!” He was putting his whole weight into each thrust. Sirens wailed in the distance, the cavalry he had alerted roaring up the highway. Every sheriff, deputy, and police officer Noah knew was on the way, according to the radio.
They weren’t going to become an escort for Cole’s dead body. They weren’t going back to Des Moines with Cole’s corpse. They weren’t.
Jacob paused, and Noah pressed his lips to Cole’s again. He breathed out and felt Cole’s chest rise—
Cole sputtered, coughing. River water and mud came out of him, burbling over his lips and his cheeks and spattering Noah’s face. Jacob roared and pushed Cole onto his side, rolling him toward Noah.
Cole’s eyes were unfocused and terrified. He thrashed against Noah, trying to lurch away.
Noah lay in the mud as close as he could get to Cole. “You’re okay, you’re okay. He’s gone.” He cradled Cole’s cheeks in his hands. Brushed away the river’s muck on his lover’s face. Cole’s tears fell, almost scalding against Noah’s cold fingers. He wiped them away with his thumbs.
“Ian,” Cole croaked. He scanned the river, the woods, the clearing behind them, struggling to move, but still restrained. Jacob cursed and tore Cole free with his bare hands, snapping the zip ties with a tug and then going to work on the tape binding Cole’s legs.
Trembling, Cole grasped Noah’s arms and dug his fingers into his sleeves. “Where is he?”
“He’s dead,” Noah breathed. “He’s dead.”
Cole crumpled against Noah, wailing as he buried his face in Noah’s neck. Noah grabbed him, dragged him into his arms, rocked him in his hold. The river lapped at their feet, but he held on to his lover, whispering in his ear that he loved him, that it was over, that they were safe. That he wasn’t ever letting Cole go. That they were together. Forever.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Jacob tookcommand of the river scene, along with Sophie, who’d driven up with Sheriff Clarke. Michael followed, trailed by his entourage again, like ducklings following their mother. He stood quietly at the edge of the woods, watching.
Deputies swarmed the river and the tree line, processing the scene, staking off the riverbank and the clearing where Ian had tortured Cole. They bagged the gun Ian had pulled, too, and showed it to Noah before he left in the ambulance with Cole. It was his weapon, the one he’d lost when Ian had ambushed him and Jacob.
He rode back to Des Moines with Cole in his arms, the lights and sirens wailing. Cole wasn’t in mortal danger, but Noah didn’t begrudge the paramedics their haste. Cole was shivering and in danger of hypothermia, and the paramedic thought he had more than a few cracked and bruised ribs thanks to Jacob’s CPR. But he was alive. Alive and in Noah’s arms. Cole leaned against Noah for the entire drive, his eyes closed and his body limp, his face pressed to Noah’s neck.
Cole insisted he didn’t want to stay at the hospital, and he signed himself out with wrapped ribs and a bottle of antibiotics at four p.m. His clothes were evidence, so all he had on was a set of scrubs. Noah protested, but Cole asked him to please take him to the high school, and all Noah’s arguments evaporated.
Dale had dropped off a car for them, and Noah drove as Cole stared out the window, lost in the silence and darkness Ian had opened inside him. Noah didn’t know what to do or what to say, so he just held Cole’s hand, hoping his love was a tether Cole could cling to.
They got to the high school right before the final bell. Noah pulled into the emergency parking zone and turned on the red-and-blues. Cole slipped out of the passenger seat and waited, watching the building doors, chewing on his thumbnail. Noah came around the front to join him.
Katie came out three minutes later, and when she saw the car, then Noah, then Cole, she screamed and ran straight for him. She ditched her cheer bag and her backpack on the sidewalk and flew at Cole, wrapping him in her arms as she buried her face in his shoulder. Cole grunted, and Noah caught his wince of pain, but he didn’t let go of Katie. They went to the ground together, Cole sobbing, Katie crying, clinging to each other in a heap on the pavement. Cole reached out, blindly seeking Noah, and Noah joined them, sinking to his knees as he wrapped Cole and Katie—the loves of his life, his family—in his arms.
