“I’m afraid I can’t do that, princess.” Randy shrugged. “You see, I can barely trust you as it is. If we leave now, these two dumbasses will—”
Whatever he’d been about to say was cut off by a grunt and a thud as Micah and Axel both tackled him and slammed him into the wall.
The shotgun went off, and I’m pretty sure I screamed, but I didn’t hear anything at all over the ringing in my ears. The three of them struggled together as I slumped down onto the floor.
And my whole world went dark.
Chapter Eighteen
Jasmine Bailey
“Jasmine,” Micah’s voice was close. Very close. “Baby, wake up.”
“Please wake up, beautiful.” Axel’s voice was right there on my other side, just where I’d grown to expect him to be. “Please, Jasmine.”
I wanted to open my eyes for them, but every individual part of my body—eyelids included—weighed a hundred pounds. But I wasn’t in any pain, so that had to be a good sign, right?
Well, aside from a splitting headache that I was slowly becoming aware of, but that was seriously the least of my worries.
One by one, my senses slowly came back to me until I finally cracked my eyes open and saw Micah holding my head cradled in his lap. Axel was right next to us, holding my hand in his as they both urged me to wake up.
“Have I been shot?” I asked. The shotgun blast still rang vividly in my mind, and I wasn’t sure whether I still heard it in my ears. But an even worse thought occurred to me. “Have you?”
I struggled to sit upright, mentally checking my arms and legs as they both answered me at the same time.
“We’re okay.” Their voices in unison helped me to be a little more at ease as I rested against Micah’s side.
“Nobody got shot,” Axel continued. “But you went down kind of hard. I’m not sure if it was the noise or the shock of it all, or...”
“I’m not sure, either,” I shook my head. “Everything he said made me sick and so... so helpless. And once the gun went off, I think I passed out.” I looked at each of them in turn as the realization slowly sunk in. “You’re both okay? Everything is going to be okay? Where’s Randy?”
A moment of panic hit me as I scanned the room, but it subsided just as quickly once Micah and Axel both put their arms around me and helped me to my feet.
“He’s tied up again,” Micah answered. “You weren’t helpless, Jasmine. If you hadn’t kept him distracted, we wouldn’t have stood a chance.”
“That’s right,” Axel continued. “Because of you, we were able to wrestle the gun away from him. We stuffed him into the root cellar and blocked the door, so he definitely won’t be able to get out on his own.”
“And my mom?” I started moving toward the bedroom door, pulling both of my guys with me.
“She’s okay.” Micah kissed my forehead. “She’s tending to your uncle while we wait for the ambulance and the sheriff. They should all be here soon.”
Wait, what?
I stopped in my tracks. “Tending to... to my uncle? Do you mean... but Randy said...”
“He’s still alive.” Axel quickly brought me up to speed as he gave my hand a gentle squeeze. “Randy shot him, but he was conscious and breathing when we left Stella with him.”
“Oh my God.” My knees went weak again, but my guys were right there to support me. I was so grateful for the excellent news—for all of the news—but the past few minutes? Hours? I honestly didn’t know how long it had been, but it felt like I’d spent an eternity on the world’s shittiest rollercoaster ride. “Thank God everyone is okay. I don’t even know what I would have done if—”
“Don’t even think about it, baby,” Micah said, silencing me with a quick kiss. “It’s over now. Everything is going to be okay.”
“Where are they?” I asked, looking around once we stepped out of the bedroom. “We should see if they need any help or... or anything.”
I honestly didn’t know what they might need or what the three of us could have possibly done to help, but I needed to see my mom and my uncle with my own two eyes just for a little more peace of mind.
“They’re next door at your uncle’s house,” Axel answered. “Randy must have freed himself, tied up your mom, then gone over and shot your uncle while he was in his bed before coming back here to finish us off.”
I shuddered at the thought that we might have all—my uncle, my mom, my guys, all of us—been killed within minutes if Randy hadn’t been so hell-bent on slowly tormenting us first.
That hadn’t happened, though. We’d stopped Randy from following through on his worst impulses for the second time in less than twenty-four hours. I prayed there wouldn’t be a third time.