“This gun, you mean?”
Aaron spun around, protecting her with his whole body without thinking. She cowered behind him. She wanted to help, but she feared Benning might take the shot he had missed the first time.
“This little reunion is nice, isn’t it?” he said, sneering at the two of them. Bailey heard such cruelty in his voice, she had no idea how she had been able to miss it before. All of it seemed so obvious to her now, the reality of what they had done, how far they had gone. That they would kill her and Aaron if they got the chance.
“Stay away from her,” Aaron snarled, and Benning cocked the gun. The sound of the click echoed through the air around them, a threat.
“You going to make me?” Benning asked.
Before Bailey had a chance to hold him back, Aaron dived at Benning again, shoving him to the ground and picking up right where he had left off with the fight.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Aaron reached for the gun, managing to knock it out of Benning’s hand for a moment. Lee was stirring next to him, coming back from the hit Aaron had dealt him to the back of the head with a rock he’d found on the road. He had to subdue them both, and keep them away from Bailey. He knew one thing for damn sure: He wasn’t going to let them get away with this anymore.
“Damn,” Benning snarled as he rolled out from underneath Aaron and scrambled back toward the weapon.
“Aaron!” Bailey yelled from the van, but Aaron held his hand up.
“You stay right there,” he told her. “I can handle this.”
He gritted his teeth, and repeated the same thing to himself. Hecouldhandle this. He just had to keep pushing forward, keep doing what he could to bring this nightmare to an end.
All he could think about was the way Bailey had been trembling in his arms. He didn’t want her to feel that fear for another moment, and he would do anything to end it. She didn’t deserve this, and the only way he could stop these men from hurting her again would be to take them out for good.
Lee was on his feet again, and Aaron rounded on him, pushing him back against the van, next to Bailey. He crashed into it, still woozy from the blow he had taken to his head, and his entire body shuddered with the pain.
But he had a knife, and he reached for it quickly, pulling it out and flashing it at Aaron. Aaron sprang back, and Lee raised the knife, ready to swing down again.
Until Bailey swept his feet out from under him. Lee seemed to have forgotten she was there, and Aaron nodded to her in thanks. Just like old times, he knew he wouldn’t have been able to do it without her by his side.
He turned his attention back to Benning again, his face tightening as he glared at him. Benning had managed to get the gun trained on him again, and Aaron ducked just in time to feel a bullet whizzing over his head. It hit the van with a loud clang, and Bailey let out a yelp of surprise. Aaron turned to make sure she hadn’t been hit, but she was out of the van, her arms wrapped around Lee’s neck as she held him in place and pushed the air out of him to subdue him once more.
She had him covered. Even though she was scared, and injured, she could still fight for herself. He lunged at Benning, who fired off another shot in a panic. There were only so many bullets in that magazine, and it wouldn’t be long before he ran out entirely. And when he did, Aaron would make his move.
He dove into the tall grass for cover, making it so Benning couldn’t see him to fire off another shot. His chest pressed to the ground, his whole body was rigid as he waited to make the next move. He didn’t even know what he was going to do, but he had to do something.
He crawled along the ground as Benning paced around at the edge of the grass, trying to spot him. He probably would have just shot blindly if it hadn’t been for the limited amount of ammo he had right now. He didn’t have the support of the others, and he knew Aaron was well trained in how to handle himself and what he should do in these situations.
Only problem was, so was Benning. They’d likely been through the same training, and Benning was far more practicedwhen it came to a showdown like this one. Aaron shuffled through the grass, trying to make as little noise as possible, until he reached Benning.
He grabbed his feet and yanked hard, knocking the other man off-balance and sending him crashing to the ground. Benning let out a yell, but there was nothing he could do to fight it. His whole body fell like cement, landing with such a thump the air was knocked out of him.
Aaron used the moment he had before Benning got himself back together to dive for the gun and take it from him, then tossed it as far as he could into the tall grass behind them. He just wanted that thing away from him, away from Bailey. When he had seen Benning pointing it at her, that was the only thing he had been able to focus on.
Once it was gone, he scrambled away from Benning to get to Bailey again. She had Lee passed out at her feet, and she jumped up as soon as she saw him getting close. He threw his arms around her, pulling her in against him, pressing his face into her hair. He needed this. He needed her. He needed them together, no matter what he had to do to make it happen, no matter how hard it might be.
“You’re okay, you’re okay,” he told her again. “I’ve got you. We can get you back up to the lodge, get you patched up—”
But before he could say another word, a sound rang out behind them. He stiffened—a gunshot. He could hear it burning in his ears. He should have kept the gun, but he had been in such a rush to get back to Bailey, he couldn’t think about anything else.
And it might have just cost him everything.
“Aaron!” Bailey exclaimed as she pulled back. There was blood on her shirt, staining through, and for a second he thought somehow she had been shot. But then, as she reached out her hand to his torso, he realized that wasn’t what had happened.
It was him who had taken the bullet.
“Aaron, get down,” she pleaded, but he turned to shield her, refusing to let Benning take her down, too. The pain was starting to set in now, radiating through his body. He glanced down and saw the thick, wet rivulets of blood running down his jeans. He could hardly see straight, dark spots clouding his vision, but it didn’t matter—he had to keep her safe. It was the only thing he could think of, regardless of what was happening to him. He wouldn’t let anything happen to her.
