ALEX JERKED OUT OF Liam’s hold. Jenna was thirty yards away, her blonde hair gleaming in the starlight.

“You’re going to get her killed if you run in there,” Liam whispered.

Alex hated to admit that his instinctive reaction was not the right one. Not this time.

“Headset. Trevor and the cavalry are almost here.” Liam released his arm and dug into the canvas bag. The shaggy ghillie suit would make Liam a thing of the forest, near invisible given their conditions.

“The—what?” Alex reached into the back seat of his truck and snagged the SWAT headset. He had a sneaking suspicion he’d played into a trap. “Trevor told you to come with me.”

“Yup.” Liam’s voice echoed through the comm. “Good thing he did.”

“Alex,” Trevor’s voice crackled, but was still clear enough to be understood. “We are approaching dark from the main entry.”

“You won’t make it in time.” Alex slung his vest on. He’d like the tactical rifle, but someone had to act as bait to draw William’s attention away from Jenna. The guy was going to deliver his last words to the woman who’d scorned him—and he thought he was going to get away with it.

They had to ruin those plans.

“Yes, we will. We’re almost there,” Trevor insisted.

“Approach with lights and sirens.”

“What? Why?” Liam stared at him from under the hood.

“We need a distraction.” Alex shoved his gun into his waistband, a plan forming in his mind. “Liam, I’m going to bait him. You get the shot—you take it, understand?”

“Alex—Liam—just wait. God damn it. Turn the—” Trevor’s voice cut out.

Alex hated stepping on his friend’s toes, but it was time to act.

In the distance, sirens wailed, growing steadily closer. The distant treetops were bathed in red and white flashing lights.

“Get into position.” Alex pointed at Liam, already slinking off, between the trees with his sniper rifle in hand.

“What are you doing, Alex?” Trevor’s voice was clearer now. They had to be in the recommended range.

“You’re going to draw his attention and I’m going to be bait.” Alex sprinted for the entrance to the bird rescue.

Since he wasn’t going for a quiet approach, he switched on his flashlight, lighting his way. The front gate was secured with a simple lock. He didn’t pause to try to break through it, the others would have to do that. Instead he tossed the light over, leapt and grasped the top of the fence, hauling himself up and over by brute strength alone. The edges of the chain link snagged his jeans and shirt. He threw himself over. Fabric ripped and his body rotated mid-air. He barely managed to get a foot down before he hit the ground, one foot, then his ass. Alex rolled to his back and blinked at the sky.

The birds were awake now, squawking and making a fuss. He caught the barest sound of a man yelling through the sirens and bird calls.

If Alex got the opening, he’d kill the son of a bitch.

He pushed up to his feet, grabbing the flashlight as he went, and took off at a jog, sticking close to the perimeter fence. Behind him, the parking lot filled with SWAT and first responder vehicles.

“Alex? Alex, hold your position,” Trevor said into the headset.

“He’s got a gun on her and she’s injured.” Alex could see them now.

“He’s pointing the gun at her,” Liam whispered.

“Damn it. Fine. We’re going to be right behind you Alex,” Trevor said. They must not have gotten one of the other SWAT Team Leaders to make call if Trevor was still the officer in charge of the scene. By Trevor’s own admission he didn’t contribute his best work to SWAT in that capacity.

Alex slowed to a walk as he approached the enclosure William had retreated into with Jenna. The habitat was large, maybe thirty feet across and tall. Several trees cast deep shadows, obscuring the two people inside. Alex couldn’t make out what kind of bird was in there with them, but whatever it was, it was big.

He needed to get in there, to draw William’s attention.

“I’m going in.” Alex released the catch on the fence and the gate swung open.

“Stay away!” A man yelled from inside.

“Alex—” Jenna grunted.

A truck moved into position outside the rescue perimeter and shone a floodlight at William and Jenna.

Alex curled his hands into fists. There was mud and blood on Jenna’s face, her eyes were wide and full of fear, her face was puffy and swollen, the left leg of her jeans was soaked and the way she held her right arm was all wrong.

“I want to talk.” Alex stepped through the gate and closed it behind him. He prayed that whatever birds were in there—they weren’t the attacking kind.

“You stay right there.” William extended his arm, pointing the gun at Alex while keeping his other around Jenna, using her as a human shield.

“Talk to me, William. You don’t want to hurt anyone.” This wasn’t Alex’s forte. Outside of patrol, he was a take-the-bad-guy-down-any-way-possible kind of guy. They had negotiators who knew how to work the situation, say the right thing to get into a suspect’s head. He prayed he didn’t cost Jenna her life.

“Do you have a shot?” Trevor said in Alex’s ear.

“No, he’s got Jenna too close,” Liam replied.

“Hear that, Alex? Get him away from Jenna.”

Alex nodded, lifted his hands and took a few steps toward William.

“You stay right there. Stay. Right. There!” His voice broke as he yelled.

William hauled Jenna back, deeper into the habitat, until they were under a two sided shed. There was nowhere else to go. No avenue of escape.

William was cornered. And cornered animals were always the most dangerous.

“I just want to talk,” Alex said again. He took a single step forward.

“I’ll shoot her. I’ll fucking shoot her!” William curled his arm around, pressing the gun to Jenna’s chest.

The idiot didn’t realize that if he shot her like that, the bullet was likely to rip through her chest and go straight into him. Or maybe that’s what he wanted. To kill them both. Wouldn’t be the first time a stalker went out like that

“You’re angry at me, William.” Alex patted his chest, taking a measure of comfort from the unyielding vest under his shirt. “I stole her away. It’s me you want to get even with. Don’t punish her because I’m the bad guy here.”

“Alex—no. No, Alex.” Jenna shook her head.

“Yes, it’s my fault. You should kill me instead.” Alex stared at William. He couldn’t look at Jenna, not with her face so twisted in fear—for him. Out of the corner of his eye he could see a dozen figures clothed in dark green creeping up the pathways, hanging close to the fences. If there was an opening or a way, they’d save her.

William remained silent, staring at Alex with the kind of mad hatred that couldn’t end well. Was he considering Alex’s offer? It stood to reason that William wanted Alex out of the picture. William had reported them at work and dug up Alex’s skeletons as ways to drive a wedge between him and Jenna. And all William had succeeded was making Alex’s bond with her stronger.

He edged closer. He needed to grab Jenna, to wrestle her or the gun away from William.

“You don’t want to kill Jenna, William. You love her, right?” Alex was fifteen feet away, but it could have been a mile for all the good it did her.

“You stole her away!”

William’s eyes widened, and he snarled profanities as he swung his right arm out. He took a slight step forward, shifting his weight.

Alex dodged to his right on instinct.

Jenna screamed. She grabbed William’s arm, grappling with him for the gun.

“Jenna!”

The life Alex could have had with Jenna played through his mind in a flickering reel of images. Stills in a future they’d never have if William got his way.

Alex lunged toward them.

Time slowed

Jenna and William both had their hands around the gun, clenched between them.

Alex’s foot slid in the muck.

Liam and others repeated the same refrain in Alex’s ear of, “I don’t have a clear shot.”

Alex was there. Right there.

“Someone get in there!” Trevor shouted.

Bam.

Bam.

Bam.

For the span of a second, the world stood still.

No one moved.

Alex didn’t breathe.

Jenna and William stared at each other their bodies so close, Alex couldn’t see the gun or who was shot.

“Jenna?” William’s voice was hoarse air whistling through his teeth.

“Oh my God. I’m sorry.” Jenna shook her head and took a step back. “I’m so sorry.”

Blood splattered her shirt, arms and face.

But the gun was in her hands.

William slumped to his knees.

Jenna was alive.

“Jenna...” Alex crossed to her, grasping her by the shoulders. She continued to stare over his shoulder, face frozen in terror. “Look at me.”

The fence rattled and the first SWAT team swarmed the habitat. William was their responsibility, not Alex’s and definitely not Jenna’s.

“Is she okay? Alex? Alex—is Jenna okay?” Trevor repeated the same questions over and over.

“Jenna?” Alex cupped her cheek with one hand and wrapped his other around the gun, tugging it from her hands. “Look at me, Jenna, not him.”

“I—he couldn’t hurt you. I didn’t mean to—oh my God.” She covered her mouth with her left hand, her breath wheezing as she sucked in more oxygen. Her legs buckled, and she fell.

Alex caught her and swung her up into his arms.

“Medic! I need a medic over here,” he yelled.

The gurney weighted down with William was already on its way out but what about Jenna?

“EMTs are on their way in for Jenna,” Trevor said through the earpiece.

She shook. There was a lot more blood on her than he’d realized at first. Was it all Williams? Or had she been shot, too? What could he do for her? How did he fix this?

The SWAT unit parted for him. He jogged as fast as he dared toward the entrance. A gurney and an EMT team headed by Aziz met him halfway.

“Jenna, Jenna where are you hurt?” Aziz pushed Alex out of the way as he did a quick inspection of her.

Jenna’s breath came in short, labored pants.

“She’s allergic to birds. The feathers. She needs an epi pen,” Alex blurted. Why hadn’t he thought of that earlier? He knew that.

The female EMT dug in her bag for a moment before producing a pre-packaged syringe. She ripped it open and before Alex could get to Jenna’s side to grab her hand, the nurse jabbed it into Jenna’s thigh.

She sat up off the gurney, gasping. Alex grabbed her hand.

“Gun wound to the thigh, it’s clean through. I don’t see any other injuries,” Azis said, his voice level and calm.

“You’re okay. You’re going to be okay,” Alex chanted, both for himself and her. He bent closer and kissed her cheek. “I love you, you’re going to be okay.”

She squeezed his hand tighter.

“Alex—Alex we need to move her now.” Aziz pushed at Alex’s shoulder.

“I’m coming with you,” he said and strode along next to her.

She reached for him, her hand mangled and swollen. He didn’t want to hurt her, but he also wasn’t about to deny her the touch of the living.

“Does your hand hurt?” Aziz asked as the medic team rolled through the front gates. They hung from the hinges, obviously rammed by the ballistic truck sitting in the entry to the park.

“Yes,” she wheezed. “Broke. Thumb. Trying to—get—away.”

“Okay, don’t talk. We’ve got you.” Aziz patted her shoulder.

It was all a blur. The walk to the ambulance. Handing off the gun to evidence. Getting in the ambulance. It passed by in a haze of action.

All that mattered was that Jenna was alive.

She was safe.

“THEY DIDN’T AMPUTATE a leg, you know?” Jenna twisted in the front seat of the truck to face Alex standing in the street outside his house.

He simply looked at her with that thousand yard stare. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that neither of them would be sleeping tonight. Not after the day’s events. Good thing there were all night re-runs and the morning news.

“Arm.” He hooked one arm under her knees and pulled her gently off the seat and lifted her into his arms.

She hooked her right arm around his neck, careful of the brace.

“I got the door.” She pushed the truck’s door shut and settled into his hold for the short walk up to the house. “What about Genghis and Mittens?”

“They’re still at the cabin. Liam’s mom is probably over feeding them as I speak.”

Jenna was grateful to Liam’s family. Even scooping a litter box was beyond her at this point.

It was so late that it was officially early. Exhaustion weighed her down, but at least the pain was at bay. For now.

They navigated the front door without too much trouble. Alex skipped the living room and went straight to his bedroom, setting her on the side of the mattress. It was a minor miracle he’d allowed her to hobble to the bathroom earlier on her own. The next few weeks were going to be pretty damn awkward if he insisted on this level of hovering. But then again, with William dead, her house was safe. She could leave, go back to being on her own.

She gripped the comforter and stared at the floor.

The idea of being alone set her pulse to a sprint.

“Jenna?” Alex went to a knee and reached for her good hand.

“Sorry, had a moment there.” She pushed a hand through her hair. It still felt tacky and not quite clean despite the shower she’d insisted on taking at the hospital.

“That’s okay. You’re here. You’re safe.”

“I know. Thank you” What would she have done if it weren’t for Alex?

“You’re going to be okay, Jenna. You didn’t even need us tonight.” The joke fell flat.

“Are you kidding?” She rolled her eyes.

“No. You’re pretty capable.”

“Alex, if you hadn’t got there when you did...He’d have killed me.”

“He didn’t. Want anything?”

“I think I’d like to just lie down.”

“Okay. You can do that.”

“Thanks for the permission.”

“That’s not what I meant.” His frown was pretty cute.

He’d said he loved her.

Jenna had shoved that little tidbit deep down. In the midst of so much happening, she couldn’t deal with that confession. She couldn’t handle Alex saying it in the heat of the moment, not when her emotions ran deep and had for so long.

She shoved her left hand up the back of her borrowed scrubs and tried to grasp the catch on her bra. At this point she wouldn’t bother with the rest of her clothes. She could sleep in them, but not the bra. That evil thing had to come off.

“What are you doing?” Alex’s frown deepened.

“Looking for the off switch.” She scrunched up her face as if that would help her with this task. Wouldn’t it be nice if she could simply flip her life off, then back on again to reset everything? To make this night go away?

“Want...me to—help?”

“Fine. Yes.” She let her hand drop back into her lap. “I just want my bra off.”

“I think I can do that.” One side of his mouth lifted. The almost-smile was a much needed breath of fresh air.

He circled her waist with his arms and she lifted her arms while he got a hold of the tricky hook-and-eye. Alex had his face turned sideways, one eye screwed shut. Unlike the other times he’d taken her clothes off, this was so not sexy or hot. It was sad and sweet.

“What are you laughing about?” Alex muttered. “There.” He sat back on his heels, watching her.

The elastic around her ribs relaxed, and she dropped her arms, shaking the tingles out.

“Nothing. I’m just tired.”

“Need anything else?”

“No.” She shimmied the bra off and tossed it on the floor. Her shoes had been ditched back in the ER so she wiggled the socks off and that was it. She was ready for bed. “Do—do you mind if I stay here?”

“I wasn’t going to let you go anywhere else.”

Alex pushed up, giving her some space, and headed for the bathroom.

She waited until he was out of sight to get more comfortable. Her luck he’d want to help with that, too. As grumpy as she was being inside about all his assistance, she couldn’t imagine limping home on her own like this.

What would she do without him?

Her breath caught in her throat. She laid back and stared at the ceiling.

William could have killed Alex.

Yes, Alex was wearing a vest and William was a shitty shot, but at that kind of range it didn’t take good aim to kill someone. She could have lost Alex tonight.

Jenna covered her mouth to muffle the sob.

She hadn’t meant to kill William. Not like that. The only thing she could think about was getting the gun away from him. If she could disarm him, then SWAT would be all over him and it would be over. But he’d had a better grip than she expected and then...then she’d just tried to keep the muzzle facing away from herself.

“Jenna?”

The bed dipped. She blinked through the tears at Alex’s face.

Well, damn. There he was. Alive. Breathing. So beautiful.

She reached for him, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him down to cradle against her chest. The tears, those she couldn’t stop. She could have lost Alex, and to save him she’d done something horrible. Something that went against what she stood for as a medical professional. William wasn’t the first person she’d been forced to kill, but this wasn’t combat.  She’d been close enough to see the spark in his eyes sputter. She’d seen the moment he died.

For a long time they lay like that, Alex’s body over hers, her arms around him. He didn’t try to sooth her tears or stop her, he just let her get it all out.

“Better?” Alex pushed up to his elbows.

She nodded.

“Good.” He used the top sheet to wipe her face. “You’re going to feel a lot of guilt, and that’s okay. It makes you human. But also remember, he was going to kill you. No one is going to say otherwise. We were all there. If you hadn’t pulled that trigger...” Alex’s gaze slid off her face and to the pillow.

“He was going to shoot you first. He wanted to kill both of us.”

“I know.”

“I couldn’t...I just...I couldn’t lose you.”

“It was a bad situation, Jenna. There was no good way that was going to end. We both know that. We’ve seen it before.”

She squeezed his hand and nodded. The difference was, this time she’d pulled the trigger and not William.

Alex rolled to his side, but kept his hand wrapped around hers.

“You should get some sleep,” she said, because it was the right thing to say.

“You think you can sleep?”

“No.”

“Neither can I.”

They lapsed into silence, staring at each other.

She’d almost died tonight. If William had killed her, Alex would have never said he loved her, and Jenna would never get the chance to say it back. What, exactly, was she waiting for?

“When the gun went off...” Alex’s eyes unfocused and she could see him reliving that moment in the minute muscles of his face.

“I love you,” Jenna said.

Alex blinked and closed his mouth slowly.

The words felt right.

“I don’t know if you meant to say you loved me after, but—I love you. I’m pretty sure I’ve been in love with you for a really, really long time. So long it’s a little pathetic if I think about it.”

Alex shook his head, his smile growing into a toothy grin. He leaned over her and pressed a kiss to her lips.

“We’re the blind leading the blind.” His hand cupped her waist. “I love you, Jenna Martin.”

“I love you, too.”

This time, the tears were happy.