Page 28 of In The Darkness

Fighting back tears, she nodded. “Well, in medicine, you sometimes have to remove a part of the body to save the person. Maybe if we look at it like that we won’t both feel bad about it someday.”

Thinking about forcing himself on her as like amputation probably wasn’t going to help him feel any better about it now or in the future, but if that worked for her, he could handle it. As long as she knew that he had done it to protect her and not hurt her.

He smiled and nodded, but just then a noise outside drew his attention. Jumping to his feet, he stepped in front of her. “Stay behind me.”

As his heart raced, she stood up and they backed up away from the window. Nick pulled his gun and prepared to shoot whoever was out there. He’d protected Persephone before, and he’d do it again.

And he didn’t give a damn how many of them he had to kill.

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Chapter Ten

The sound ofsomeone jiggling the handle on the back door of the cabin made Persephone’s blood run cold. She’d foolishly convinced herself that she and Nick had gotten away from those crazy militia guys and this cabin was a safe place for them.

Even after all she’d been through, hope still insisted on making a fool of her. So much for wishful thinking.

Nick pressed the back of his body against hers and whispered, “If someone comes through that door, don’t worry. I’m not going to let them get to you.”

Terrified, she pressed her hands to his back and felt the muscles in his shoulders coiled tightly together as he waited to see if whoever was outside would try to come in. For the first time, she saw him holding a gun. Part of her couldn’t help be thankful he had one, but another part of her worried if the person outside came in shooting, they’d all end up dead.

“Please don’t get killed, Nick,” she whispered behind him.

He didn’t respond. A second later, the door opened and she saw a figure she recognized standing there. The light from the lantern barely showed his face, but she’d know those horrible tattoos anywhere.

“You should have run farther, man. It took nothing to find you,” Drist said in his usual terrifying tone that made her feel sick to her stomach.

“Turn around and leave,” Nick said flatly. “There’s nothing for you here.”

Drist closed the door behind him and waved his gun in front of his face. “I’ll tell you what. I don’t have to kill you, Nick. I get it. You fucked her and now you want to protect her. I don’t get why you give a fuck about this one, but I guess I get it. But she’s got to come back. We need her. You know that.”

Nick stuck his arm behind him to squeeze Persephone’s hand. “You can’t have her. Go now or you’ll end up with a bullet in your head.”

For a moment, Drist looked surprised to find a gun in Nick’s hand. Then his eyes narrowed and he shook his head. “I had a feeling you were too good to be true. You’re not one of us, are you? Her daddy sent you in to get her, didn’t he?”

Persephone clutched onto Nick’s shirt and felt his body expand beneath it as he took a deep breath. “Leave now or you’ll be leaving in a body bag. Whichever, but you can’t have her.”

Drist took a single step into the cabin and aimed at Nick standing in front of her. Instinctively, she closed her eyes tightly as the sound of the gun going off was met with another from the gun in Nick’s hand.

She didn’t know how long she stood there cowering behind him, but when she opened her eyes, he was still there standing in front of her, protecting her. Had he been shot? Had Drist been shot?

“Nick! What happened?” she cried out as she clutched tightly onto his shirt, afraid to let go.

Slowly, he turned around to look at her. His eyes focused on her face for a long moment, and then he said flatly, “We need to get out of here.”

Her attention moved from him to the body of one of the men who’d held her hostage for the past two weeks. Drist lay on the floor just inside the back door in a pool of blood.

“Are we just going to leave him there? He might still be alive,” she said, fighting every instinct she had as a nurse to attend to his injuries.

“He’s not alive, Persephone.”

“How do you know? If he’s still alive, we have to find him help. No matter how evil he is, we can’t leave him if he can be saved,” she said as she watched Drist’s chest for any sign he still lived.

“He can’t be saved. I shot to kill,” Nick said quietly without a hint of emotion in his voice.

Rushing around him, she ran over to where Drist lay. Crouching down, she pressed her fingers to his throat to check for a pulse. She felt nothing. The amount of blood and brain splatter on the door behind him told her Nick had been right.

“We have to go, Persephone. Leave him there.”

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