LOGINLandon's POVI pulled the truck up to Tyler’s driveway just before midnight. My side burned like someone had a hot poker pressed into it, but I didn’t give a shit. We’d made it. That was all that mattered.The drive itself had been a special kind of torture. Kasey’s morning sickness—though at this point it was more like all-day-and-night sickness—had us pulling over every twenty minutes so she could throw up on the side of the road. Each stop dragged the trip out longer and longer, and with every mile my side hurt so hard but neither of us complained. We just kept going.Somewhere a few miles back we’d forced ourselves to stop at a shitty little diner. Neither of us was really hungry, but we knew we needed something in our stomachs. Kasey only managed to eat half of her food but she kept it down, and after the day we’d had, that felt like a small victory.Now here we were, standing on Tyler’s porch in the dark. Kasey reached out and pressed the doorbell again and the chime echoed insi
Kasey’s POV Landon dialed Tyler's number, and I watched the screen as it rang once, twice, three times. Finally, a hoarse voice picked up on the other end. It was Tyler, and he sounded half-asleep, but the surprise in his tone was clear right away."Landon? Is that you? Are you guys safe? What about Kasey? Is she okay?" Tyler fired off the questions without pausing for breath. "Please tell me you're okay."Landon glanced at me and sighed. "Yeah, Kasey's fine. I got shot, though. They did surgery on me, and I just woke up a little while ago."There was a brief silence before Tyler spoke again."You were shot? What happened?" He paused, then siged loudly. "Actually, never mind. I think I can guess how things went down. I just hope the bullet didn’t hit anything important.""Nothing major," Landon said. "The bullet went in below my ribs. It missed all the important stuff, thankfully."I leaned closer to the phone and rested my hand Landon's arm. I needed to hear Tyler's voice myself, to
Landon's POV It wasn't until fifteen hours later that I woke up after the surgery. The anesthesia hadn't knocked me out completely during the operation, so pieces of it were still burned into my memory. I remembered the bright lights above me, the cold metal table under my back and the surgeons muttering as they worked on the bullet hole under my ribs. Hearing them talk about it, about how bad it was, made it impossible to drift off. I forced myself to stay conscious, clinging to the only thing that kept me grounded; thoughts of Kasey. But once they finally stitched me up, my body gave out.The last thing I remember before everything went dark was asking about her. I wanted to see her right then. The nurses said she was waiting outside the operating room, but my eyes wouldn’t stay open.Now, as I blinked in the dim hospital light, she wasn’t there. The bed next to me was empty, and the chair in the corner was empty too.Had those assholes who were chasing us found her? Or worse, ha
Headlights from the other car washed over the road we had just left. I could see the glow through the leaves and branches around us. I sank lower in my seat and held my breath, afraid even the smallest movement would give us away.The car slowed. Then it stopped. Right where we'd been."They went this way!" one of them shouted. "Check the ditch!"So they really were looking for us. My mind raced as a hundred questions crashed into each other. Who were they? What did they want from us? Were they the same people who had attacked Darren’s house? And if they were… then who had they actually come for?My heart pounded so loudly I was sure they could hear it.In the darkness beside me, Landon’s hand found mine. His fingers closed around them weakly, but the touch still made my chest tighten. I squeezed his hand back, holding on to him while I prayed they wouldn’t look our way."There's a blood trail. They're hurt so bad." One of them said."Spread out," another voice barked sharply. "Find
"No, no, no," My hands shook as I reached for him. "Landon, look at me. Please."He wasn’t moving at all.Panic rose in my chest. His blood was everywhere; on my hands, on his shirt, on the seat. What if he passed out? What if he wasn’t breathing? What if he was… dead?"No," I whispered, my voice breaking as I grabbed his shoulders and shook him lightly. "Landon, please. Wake up. Please don’t do this."My heart was pounding so hard it hurt. I couldn’t lose him like this. No. I was not going to let that happen. "Please," I whispered, shaking him gently. "Just open your eyes."His eyes fluttered and found mine."Kasey." He whispered. A breath I didn’t even realize I’d been holding rushed out of me and my whole body sagged with relief."You’ve been shot." My voice cracked as I looked at him. "You’re bleeding. We have to—""Get out," he rasped. "Run. Go somewhere safe.""I’m not leaving you." Hot tears streamed down my face as I pressed my hands over the wound. Blood soaked through my f
Kasey’s POVI froze. Completely. My whole body locked up like someone had flipped a switch and cut the power. For a second, I genuinely thought I had misheard him.He loves me. And our baby.Did he really say that out loud? Maybe I just imagined it. Maybe the orgasm had messed with my head and I was hearing things that weren’t actually there.A small, choked sound slipped out of me. "What?"Then I said it again, louder this time because I needed to hear it one more time. I needed him to repeat it so I could be sure I hadn’t imagined it."What did you just say?"His hands, which had been gripping my hips so possessively, came up to cradle my face. His thumbs brushed over my damp cheeks and those intense, smoldering eyes, held mine with a terrifying certainty."I said I love you so much. You. And our baby."My heart didn’t just sink. It dropped hard, like a stone falling into the cold pit of my stomach. The sweat on my skin suddenly turned cold.So I didn’t imagine it. He actually said







