Sampson groaned, drawing the man's attention.
Jonah reached behind him, doing his best not to move so much the enemy noticed. If he could just touch metal…
The unmistakable click of a gun cocking shattered the tense silence.
"Don't move." Patsy's voice rang out, hard as steel.
Jonah's heart leapt. He risked a glance in her direction. Shestood in the shadows, his rifle aimed steadily at their attacker. Even in the darkness, Jonah could see the determined set of her jaw.
She was alive. And fierce. And so beautiful it made him want to weep.
He shifted his gaze back to the man, whose surprise morphed into cruel amusement. "You don't have the guts."
"Try me." Patsy's tone didn’t waver.
The man's gaze darted between Patsy and Jonah. His fingers flexed on the knife.
Jonah tensed, ready to intervene if necessary. He wouldn’t let this killer get near her.
In a blink, the man spun and lunged toward her.
A blast split the air. The killer jerked. His expression changed to shock, his eyes going wide as he was thrust sideways by the impact of the bullet. He lurched through the air, and as he struck the ground, his head flopped, then dropped forward, his nose touching the ground.
His body stilled.
Jonah blinked, sucking in a breath as he stared at the lifeless body.
The man was dead. At least, it certainly looked that way.
Patsy. He pushed to his feet and turned to her.
She lowered the rifle, her chest heaving. Their eyes met, and the steel lacing her eyes melted into relief. "Jonah."
CHAPTER 17
Jonah crossed to her in two long strides, pulling her into his arms. "“Are you all right? Are you hurt?”
“I’m okay.” She looked past him. “Your brother.”
He spun to where Sampson still lay curled on the ground.
Patsy strode forward and dropped to her knees by his side. “Can I see it?” She pulled Sampson’s wrist forward to get a better view of the gash across his lower arm.
The mass of blood made Jonah’s middle churn, and he forced his gaze away to gather his wits. They needed to get Dinah and her doctoring skills.
But first, he should check the man lying motionless, the one who’d done all this damage and likely a great deal more. Make sure he would never again lift his hand to hurt someone Jonah loved. And where were the others he’d seen riding away before he discovered his cabin ablaze?
Jonah crouched and flipped his body over, the lifeless eyes telling him all he needed to know. But he felt for a pulse in his neck anyway.
Nothing.
He turned to help Patsy, his mind catching up with all thathad happened, though the throbbing in his nose made it hard to focus. Eric had broken his nose a year before, and Jonah recalled too well the difficulty of recovering from this particular injury. He swiped blood dripping from his jaw, the least of his worries, as he crouched beside Patsy. “What can I do?”
Should he send Patsy to get Dinah? He couldn’t let her go by herself though, not with the possibility of dangerous men still lurking in these woods. They would have to bandage Sampson as well as they could, then take him back to the house.
Patsy had already tied a strip of green cloth around Sampson’s bicep. The fabric dug in, nearly disappearing in the crease of his shirt, but the flow of blood had slowed. Patsy wrapped a second strip of fabric around the gash to act as a bandage. “I’m not sure if this is right, but I’m trying to stop the bleeding. We need to get him back to the house.”
She sounded worried, though she was doing everything she knew to do.
