Gabe rounded a corner and slammed on his brakes. Nash’s truck was blocking the road. Gabe pulled off to the side in case a quick getaway was needed. Draven was already opening the door as Gabe got out.

The town seemed eerily quiet. People down at the café were staring at him. Gabe caught a glint of a rifle on top of the building across the street from Southern Charms. The door opened and all the hair on his body stood at end. Sloane was in danger.

---

“You brought the feds?” Her mother dug the muzzle of the gun deeper into her skin. Years of torture and abuse had taught Sloane to keep quiet and not react. Because of that, Ryan had no idea her mother held a gun to her stomach.

“And the sheriff’s department,” Matt Walz said calmly as he cocked his pump-action shotgun from the door to the hat room. “Step away from Sloane and lie down on the ground,” Matt ordered.

Sloane looked around the room briefly and then at her stomach. Her mother tightened her hand on Sloan’s arm. In that split second, two things crossed her mind. First: her mother was going to die. The looks on Matt and Ryan’s face told her that much. Gone were the nice men she’d laughed with. They had been replaced by stone-cold lawmen. Second: she would die, too. Even if they shot her mother, Lisa would pull the trigger and take Sloane down with her.

Her mother moved so fast Sloane almost stumbled over her. She pulled Sloane and herself against the wall, spinning Sloane so she was facing her friends. Her mother had the wall to her back and Sloane as a shield. Matt and Ryan stepped closer with their weapons raised.

“It’s Chanel. Sloane Holiday doesn’t exist,” her mother spat. “And Chanel will die unless you back up. Go ahead and tell them what Mommy has pressed against the base of your skull.”

“She has a gun. Probably her .357,” Sloane answered. She didn’t plead with her eyes when Matt and Ryan looked at her. “Shoot me,” Sloane said instead.

“They’re not going to shoot you. They’re going to walk out of this room slowly as we follow.” Her mother kept the gun steady against the base of Sloane’s head. “Tick-tock, gentlemen. I want you out of this room in three seconds, or we’ll all start shooting.”

Ryan gave Matt a nod, and while they kept their guns trained on them, they backed out of the room. Her mother pushed her forward and hunkered down behind Sloane’s body. One hand was wrapped tightly around her collar, and the other was pressing the gun to Sloane as they made their way out of the hat room.

“Huh, the saleslady fooled me. Didn’t take her for a cop.”

“I’m no cop, but I have no problem shooting you either,” Paige Davies Parker said from behind her rifle. Paige and her husband, Cole, stood with guns raised in the front room between Sloane and the door.

“Then you’ll have to shoot this innocent woman, too,” Lisa challenged. “Now move. Over by the stairs, all of you.”

Paige and Cole looked at Sloane. “Would someone please shoot me?” Sloane shouted as Ryan and Matt moved to the staircase. Reluctantly Paige and Cole moved to the stairs as Sloane shook her head.

“I’m sorry. I can shoot your mother, but I can’t shoot you. Dani would kill me.” Paige kept the rifle aimed at them in case Lisa poked her head out.

“It’s time to go home, Chanel.”

---

Gabe saw Nash behind one potted decorative tree and Miles behind another one, framing the entrance to Paige’s shop. That meant it was probably Cy at the sniper position. Ahmed and Bridget stood in the doorway one building down with their police dog. Gabe looked around and saw Cade and Annie across the street hidden in the doorway of the insurance office. Sophie stood on the street, looking in the window nearest her parents. Next to her was Sydney with Robyn happily sitting on the bench next to them wagging her short tail.

Nash made eye contact and didn’t look happy. Well, guess what? Gabe wasn’t happy either. Before Gabe could head toward Nash, the door to Southern Charms opened and the back of a woman appeared as she hid behind . . . Sloane!

Gabe didn’t think. He reached across Draven and grabbed the decorative cavalry sword. Gabe unsheathed it in one swift motion and charged the woman holding Sloane hostage. Nash and Miles stepped on either side of her as Ryan, Matt, Cole, and Paige followed out of the shop.

They fanned out forming a semicircle around Sloane and Lisa. If Gabe hadn’t been blinded by fear, he would have seen DeAndre, Sophie, Sydney, Annie, Cade, and about half the town’s population closing in from behind. Instead, Gabe could only see the gun pressed to Sloane’s neck.

“You have a sniper aimed right at your head. There’s no way out alive unless you put down the gun and lie on the ground,” Ryan told the woman with a steady voice. As if hearing Ryan, Cy moved the red dot of the laser to Sloane’s head, right in front of the woman’s view.

The woman whipped around, and Gabe made his move. He slammed the ornate solid gold handle of the sword against the woman’s head with a fierce hook punch. As she was struck, Gabe shoved Sloane away as the sound of a gun echoed off the quiet street.

---

Sloane screamed as she felt herself being shoved to the pavement from behind. Burning pain on her calf coincided with the sound of a gun going off as Sloane fell onto the rough pavement with her own gun still in her hand. Her knees stung as the breath was knocked from her.

“Are you hurt?”

The person on top of her had to repeat the question several times before Sloane could understand it through the fog in her brain. Adrenaline pumped into her system as she tried to focus on just one thing. Since no one was shooting her mother, Sloane had reached down to her thigh and pushed up her skirt as her mother dragged her from the store. Her hand had closed around the butt of the gun Annie had given her. Then a second later, her mother turned, loosening her grip enough for Sloane to fire. However, there was so much movement and shouting around her it had taken Gabe rolling her over and placing her face between his hands for her to understand his question. She was too focused on what had happened to her mother to hear any of the chaos around her and make sense of his words.

“H-h-hurt?” she stuttered as she saw her mother being shoved up with her hands cuffed behind her. A red mark bloomed on her mother’s shoulder and blood trickled down the side of her face.

“Yes. Are you hurt?” Gabe yelled at her, forcing her to look back at him.

“I shot her,” Sloane said with disbelief as her mother began shouting at her daughter with pure rage and vitriol.

“My leg. Something happened to it, but now I don’t feel anything.”

Sloane stared at the anger in her mother’s eyes and heard the threats of death to her and the entire town. Gabe started to run his hands over her. “Dr. Emma! Sloane’s been shot!”

“I’ve been shot?” Sloane asked, tearing her eyes away from her mother’s.

Sloane saw Aniyah running toward her in a knee-length pencil skirt and white blouse. She was channeling her inner Veronica as a gun dangled from her bright red pointy nails.

“How do you run in those heels?” Sloane started to feel a little lightheaded.

“Lord help me! I shot you! Please don’t die!” Aniyah cried and lifted her hands to the sky as her large breasts swayed with every step. It was mesmerizing. “The one time I hit something other than a toe.”

Aniyah crashed to her knees at Sloane’s head and pulled her head onto her lap. Sloane was about to tell her she’d be fine when Aniyah leaned over, trying to cradle Sloane’s head and began to pray. Unfortunately, that put Sloane’s head smack in the middle of Aniyah’s suffocating breasts.

“Baby, she can’t breathe.” Sloane heard DeAndre a moment before air whooshed back into her lungs.

“She’s stopped breathing?” Aniyah cried, dropping Sloane’s head to the pavement with a thump and shoving Gabe away. Sloane groaned and closed her eyes as her head throbbed. “We’re losing her! I know CPR.”

“No, baby, she’s—”

Sloane opened her eyes right as a pair of plump puckered red lips pressed onto hers. Sloane went to tell her she was alive when a rush of air pushed into her. She tore her lips away, coughing and more dazed than when she hit her head.

“She’s alive!” Aniyah screamed, pulling Sloane up and shoving her head against her breasts once again. Since the breasts were no longer suffocating her, Sloane had to give it to Aniyah—they were nice. Soft, warm, and they smelled like fresh lemons. “Praise Jesus, I saved her!”

Sloane tried to move, but one hand kept her pressed firmly in place. She saw Gabe next to Aniyah, looking hilariously caught between fear and laughter. DeAndre appeared and tried to pry her from his girlfriend’s grasp.

“You did good, baby. Let’s celebrate you improving your aim with a pie at the café,” DeAndre coaxed.

“This here is a miracle! Did you see it, Father Ben?” Aniyah asked as she finally surrendered Sloane over to Gabe.

Warm strong arms surrounded Sloane as Gabe pulled her into his lap and held on for dear life. “I’m okay, Gabe,” Sloane finally managed to say as Aniyah cornered Father Ben.

“No, you’re not. You’re shot!”

Sloane looked down at her leg. “Where?”

“There!”

Sloane looked closer. Maybe she’d hit her head harder than she thought. All she saw was a scratch. She licked her thumb and washed away the small smear of blood.

“See, it’s gushing,” Gabe said, waving over a woman with short curly hair who looked to be close to sixty. “Dr. Emma, can you stop the bleeding?” Gabe asked frantically.

“Hi, dear. I’m Dr. Emma. Can I have a little look at that leg?”

Sloane nodded as Gabe clutched her hand.

“I think I hit my head because I don’t see any bleeding. Am I in shock?” Sloane asked.

Dr. Emma shook her head as she opened her bag. “Good news. I can stop the bleeding,” she said as she put the Band-Aid on Sloane’s leg.

Sloane looked at Gabe’s white face and decided not to get mad or laugh at him either. He’d saved her from her mother and overreacted about her injuries only because he loved her.

“I am glad to see you were brought back to life from your serious injuries,” Draven said with a wicked smile on his face. He bent to pick up his sword.

“Are you dressed up for some reenactment or something? You look like George Washington in that painting where he’s crossing the Delaware River. Of course, you’re wearing more medals than he did. You gotta get your facts rights if you’re going to represent the best of American history,” Aniyah lectured as she started plucking medals from Draven’s chest.

“I’ve been telling you those medals look ridiculous,” Sloane said with a smile as Dr. Emma stood. Gabe stood too, his face having a little more color to it now as he bent over to help Sloane up.

“They’re dignified,” Draven defended as he snatched them from Aniyah’s hand.

“They’re gaudy.” Aniyah put her hands on her hips and stared the king down. “I like bling as much as anyone, but sometimes less is more. Now you just look like you’re trying to overcompensate for a small penis.”

Sloane choked on the bubble of laughter. Others gasped. She felt Gabe suck in a breath behind her and begin to shake.

“The Royal Member is not small!” Draven was turning red and reaching for his pants.

“Mmm-hmm.” Aniyah didn’t seem to believe him. “Anyone who has to name it his Royal Member is definitely compensating for a small penis. Just like someone who names it Big Johnson or the Woman Pleaser. Now, when a man tells you his name for his winky is Little Johnson or Li’l Man, that’s when you know there’s nothing little about it.”

“Baby,” DeAndre groaned. “Let’s not insult the king’s penis. Some men can’t help having small penises. It’s not their fault.”

“Oh no,” Sloane gasped. “He’s going to blow.”

Draven was so red he looked like a giant apple adorned in gold medals—a giant apple who dropped his pants and flashed all of Keeneston.

“He’s not a king. He’s a reenactor. What king would wear that getup?” Aniyah turned to Draven as Miss Lily pushed her way to the front to snap a picture of a pantsless king. “If you want to get women, I wouldn’t tell them you were a reenactor. That’s not hot. Instead, I’d just whip out your willie and tell them its name is Little King. That’s impressive right there.”

“Oh. My. God.”

Sloane looked next to Aniyah to see Nikki drooling.

“You think so?” Draven asked, standing proudly with his hands on his hips as he talked to Aniyah.

“Yes,” the entire female population of Keeneston answered.

Nikki rushed forward, elbowing fellow Belles out of her way as the single women of Keeneston converged on Draven. Sloane shook her head and leaned back into Gabe’s embrace. She had her own prince.

“Hey, guys.” Ryan said, pulling off his FBI windbreaker. “Mrs. Malone is secure in the town’s jail. Dr. Emma is attending to the gunshot wound as every agency under the sun fights to talk to her. I’m going to have a talk with her before she gets transported out of here. Do you want to watch?”

Gabe looked to Sloane, and she shook her head. “I don’t want to see her ever again.”

“All right. I’ll let you know what I find out. I’ve talked to the prosecutor and he’s on a plane to Chicago as we speak to dig up your grandfather’s backyard. The recording we got was enough evidence to get the warrant and to seal your mother’s fate.” Ryan looked over her shoulder at Draven, standing in the middle of a horde of single women and shook his head. “Makes me glad to be married.”

“Did you find my sister?” Sloane felt the fear creeping back into her body.

Ryan frowned and shook his head. “Not yet. We have an alert out on her. We’ll get her.”

Sloane wasn’t so sure, but before she could worry about it, friends surrounded her.