One minute I was flying through the air at my intended target, and the next, I was on the floor, searing pain radiating in my side, while chaos hit at full strength in the small room. Bullets were flying, yet I didn’t recall seeing any other guns, other than the one I now remembered was still tucked into my pants. It was useless anyway, considering I could feel the lights dimming, my eyes having grown heavy.

Grunts, fists against flesh…hisses and the coppery smell of blood filled my senses.

Then nothing…

Disoriented was one way of putting it. Consciousness regained, I kept my eyes closed until I heard a disgusting crunch of what my only guess was bones breaking and a man wailing.

“S-she was mine, first,” came sputtered.

“I’ll ask again,” I recognized Shane’s growled voice. “Why?”

“S-she was m-mine l-last,” Casen’s teeth chattered.

With another sickening crunch, my stomach wanted to revolt.

“I should eviscerate you like you’ve done to those women.”

“It won’t change a thing,” Casen said. Fist against flesh resounded in the air, followed by spitting and very low laughing. “I would know. The lure of the spilt blood only gets stronger. You’ll come to see it in time.”

Oh dear, God, this guy was sick. No sane person could get their jollies by harming another human being.

“I’m done,” Shane declared, and in the next second, my eyes snapped open simultaneously with a gun going off.

It was over.

Lana Rose was safe.

Emberlyn—my heart ached—was safe but would need medical attention. She’d hit that floor pretty damn hard.

And Casen Dodge was no more.

Staring at the brain matter spattered all over the office space, I was brought back to the present when a hand grasped my ankle. My first instinct was to kick out at the son of a bitch that was trying to get to me, but my mind snapped my reasoning into focus so fast, I’d realized that there was no more danger.

Peering downward, I took in the pale form of the woman I loved with my whole heart. Thank fuck Dalton had made away with Lana Rose when he did. Suffice it to say, our plan hadn’t worked out the way we’d intended it to, but we’d come out on top, albeit a little banged up.

“Rosie,” she whispered.

The one word had me collapsing onto the floor beside her, brushing the hair out of her face. “She’s safe,” I told her.

A sigh escaped from her lips as her eyes closed, her lips forming a grimace. “I think I might need an ambulance.”

It wasn’t until I inspected her more closely that I noticed the large gaping gash on her side, right below her ribcage.

“Oh fuck,” I said, my voice hoarse. Putting pressure on her wound with one hand, I reached into my back pocket for my phone. My hand, barely able to function from the slew of punches I’d thrown at Dodge earlier, made things difficult to dial 911.

“911, what is your emergency?”

“My girlfriend’s been stabbed. I think her lung may be punctured,” I explained. “She’s not breathing right.”

“Okay, sir. I need an address.” I provided it. “Stay on the line until the medics get there.”

Dropping my phone to the floor, I leaned down into Emberlyn’s face. “Stay with me, sweetheart. Please stay with me.”

“Always,” she whispered, then her body went entirely limp.

“Will she be okay?” Lana Rose asked as I found myself in the hospital waiting room for the second time today.

“The paramedic seemed to think so,” I answered. I hoped the man had been right on that front. By the time we’d reached the hospital, Emberlyn had looked as white as a ghost from the loss of blood that had surrounded us on that disgusting garage office floor. They’d suspected internal bleeding was the culprit.

The waiting room was filling up quickly with everyone we knew: Rex, Cade, Brycen, Will, Captain Dodge, and a few other guys from the precinct. Dalton was here too, but he was going between floors to spend time with Devolin and their new baby boy, Carter. I’d even seen Skylar, Dalton’s sister, pop by; then again, she did work here.

“Any news from your mom?” Brycen asked.

That was another thing that was bothering me—her lack of contact after numerous tries.

I shook my head to indicate the negative. “I want to send someone over to the house to take a look inside,” I told him.

“I’ll go,” he volunteered.

Removing my house key from its ring, I handed it to Brycen. “Thanks, man.”

“No problem.”

An hour later, a nurse approached us to let us know that Emberlyn was out of surgery. It turned out that the knife had nicked an artery, and the bleeding had ended up pooling into her chest cavity, compressing her lungs.

She’d be sore as hell, and she’d have to work on breath training for the next little while, but she’d be fine.

“Can my daddy and I see her?” Lana Rose asked.

The nurse eyed me suspiciously, then turned to my daughter before crouching down to her level.

“And who might you be to her?”

“She’s my mommy,” she stated plainly.

This was the second time that I’d heard her say that about Emberlyn, and it warmed me to the core, despite leaving me feeling a little sad. All of this time, I’d known that she’d been searching for a mother figure, and I’d denied her. It made me wish that I’d found Em a lot sooner. Then again, I had; I just had been too caught up with work and vengeance that I couldn’t see past those things for the gem my mother and daughter had discovered.

A tug on my hand and a, “Come on, Daddy,” had me snapping out of my musings.

Following the nurse, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when we reached Emberlyn’s room, except what I did see had me cursing.