A roar of denial rolled through him. Jacob thrust Evan behind him and launched himself onto Lambert, throwing all the fury inside him into the charge. They stumbled backward, boots stamping for purchase on the packed ice. He rammed the bastard’s arm against the camper with a satisfying snap. The gun dropped into the snow a second before Jacob downed Lambert. Their bodies slammed into a frozen snowdrift. It hurt. Not enough.
Lambert landed a gut punch with his uninjured fist and Jacob welcomed the reverberating pain that narrowed his focus. He steadied his vision. “This is for Dee, you son of a bitch.”
He plowed his fist into Lambert’s face. Twice. Lambert’s eyes rolled back into his head as he sagged into unconsciousness.
Jacob held his fist aloft and resisted the urge to beat Lambert into a pulp. His rage demanded more than justice. He wanted revenge for Dee.
Dee. Reason pushed its way through the haze of fury.
He had to check her, get her to a doctor, but he couldn’t risk Lambert coming to. Wasting a critical minute, Jacob hefted the man up and tossed him in the back of the camper. He jammed a branch across the back to lock him in.
“Dee?” Jacob shouted, racing to where she lay in the snow, Evan kneeling beside her, patting her face, crying, shell-shocked.
Jacob’s hands skimmed her body. Where was the gunshot wound? His fingers settled on her neck. He found a pulse. Faint, thready, but beating.
Air gushed from his lungs.
Carefully, he opened her coat and found blood staining her sweater along her collarbone. He heard a crunch of snow behind him and stiffened, ready to go on the attack—only to see Evan eyeing him warily.
Jacob forced his face to smooth. “It’s all right. I’m a friend of your mom’s, and I’m going to take good care of her.”
“Mommy? Mommy, wake up.” Evan’s voice shook.
No time to check the damage, he scooped her in his arms. “Your mommy’s going to be fine, kiddo. Come on with me and we’ll take her to the doctor.”
Evan stared up at him with watery eyes. “What about my daddy?” His chin quivered. “He shot my mommy.”
Jacob had tried his best to shield the boy. No child should have to see that. “Your father is resting inside.” Of course the kid had no reason to trust him, a stranger. Jacob searched for the right words. “Remember how your mom wanted you to go with me? You need to do this for her.”
He would carry them both if he had to, but he hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
Evan’s face cleared and he nodded, casting a frightened glance back at the camper. “Okay. It’s Mommy’s turn to have me for a while.”
“Good job, kiddo.” Jacob grabbed the keys from Lambert’s truck, just in case, and charged back into the woods with Dee cradled to his chest. He could get her to a hospital faster than any ambulance would find them out here.
He’d heard about domestic violence cases going wrong, but never had he expected to be in the middle of such a horror. His boots pounded through the snow, his pace slowed because of the child huffing alongside him. Dee’s child. He would keep Evan safe for her.
And Emily. God, he couldn’t wrap his brain around the notion that Chase had been so unbalanced, following Dee around, making threats. This could have been his sister and her child out here.
Hell, it could be his sister now.
Jacob neared the truck just as the police pulled up along with a Land Rover he recognized as belonging to Spike. Help had arrived. The police would take care of Lambert, and Jacob would make damn sure to tip off Spike about Chase so Emily and Madison would have protection ASAP.
Thank God with a blaring siren, one of the cops could get Dee to the hospital faster and he intended to be by her side the whole ride there, never letting her or her son out of his sight.
As he held her unconscious body in his arms, he just prayed it would be soon enough.
Dee grappled through layers of consciousness. No cottony amnesia fog for her. This felt more like digging through dirt to reach the surface of the life she desperately wanted to reclaim.
Could anyone sleep this deeply and ever awaken? How much easier it would be to stop struggling through the fog and—ouch. The pain socked her out of left field.
Only she couldn’t stay asleep to hide from the ache. Her mind wrapped around her reasons for living, compelling reasons.
Jacob and Evan.
She battled, and pushed and fought her way back until a pinpoint of light beckoned. Prying her eyes open, she winced at the brightness and squeezed her lids shut again. Slowly, she eased them open, letting her pupils adjust to the rays streaming in through her half-open blinds.
Where was she? Panic slashed at her as she groped for answers. The antiseptic scent filled her nose. She looked around at what appeared to be a hospital room, searching for something, anything familiar.