She's quiet for a moment, then she lifts her head and meets my eyes.
"I know," she says softly. "That's why I love you."
I carry her to the truck and settle her gently in the back seat, climbing in beside her.
Runes takes the wheel, gunning the engine before the door is even closed.
Gravel sprays as we pull away from the farmhouse, tires squealing on the dirt road.
As we pull away from the farmhouse, I look back one last time.
At the place where I almost lost everything.
At the white clapboard walls now splattered with blood.
At the body of the woman who tried to take my family from me.
She's gone now.
The threat is over. Dalla is safe. Our baby is safe.
And I am never letting either of them out of my sight again.
Runes catches my eye in the rearview mirror. "The hospital in town is twenty minutes out. They'll have questions about the injuries."
"I don't care about the questions. I care about making sure the baby is okay."
He nods slowly. "We'll handle the questions. Just focus on her."
Dalla's hand finds mine in the darkness of the back seat.
She squeezes, and I squeeze back, and I don't let go for the entire drive.
Twenty minutes.
Twenty more minutes until a doctor can tell me that everything is okay.
The longest twenty minutes of my life.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Dalla
The ultrasound wand is cold against my stomach.
I'm lying on a hospital bed in a private room, a thin gown covering the worst of my wounds, while a technician moves the device across my abdomen.
The cuts have been cleaned and bandaged—shallow, the ER doctor said, won't even scar if I'm careful.
The bruises on my face are already darkening, purple and yellow blooming across my cheekbone, but none of that matters right now.
All that matters is the screen.
RJ stands beside me, his hand gripping mine so tightly it almost hurts.
His face is pale beneath the blood that still spatters his shirt—he refused to leave my side long enough to clean up.
His jaw is clenched, his eyes fixed on the monitor like it holds the answer to every question he's ever had.
