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.
Her gaze rested on a chair tucked in the corner of the room. A large hulk of a man sat cradling a small, sleeping boy in his arms.
Dee’s world came sharply into focus. She remembered everything. Blane hadn’t won. She recognized Jacob and Evan, two precious faces she would never forget.
Blane’s attack, his threats, all came jumbled back with nauseating force. Dee studied every inch of Jacob, and he seemed unharmed. A sigh shuddered through her.
Jacob’s eyes were closed. His head was tipped back against the reclining chair. Evan slept curled in his lap, chocolate ice cream staining the sides of her son’s mouth. Jacob had obviously discovered the way to Evan’s heart quickly.
Just as he’d done with hers.
She absorbed the image of them both and let the love fill her. Her still-slumberous mind wandered dreamy paths and she envisioned them as a family. The two looked nothing alike, Jacob so dark and angular, Evan so fair with a rounded face. Chances were Evan would never be as tall as Jacob.
No one would ever mistake Evan for Jacob’s biological son. But with Jacob’s influence, Evan would resemble Jacob in all the ways that counted.
She’d found so much beneath that brooding exterior. He’d shown her honor, constancy and a fierce protective love she hoped to claim.
Jacob shuffled, woke and stared back at her for seconds that seemed to stretch into forever before he spoke. “You okay?”
She nodded.
“I’ll call the nurse.”
“No, please. Give me a moment before the hospital frenzy takes over.” Evan stirred, and she lowered her voice. She wasn’t ready to share Jacob and Evan with the world, not yet. “What happened?”
He stood slowly, his big hands carrying her son with gentle strength. “You were shot in the shoulder, but the bullet passed through without hitting anything vital.”
She’d meant what happened with Blane, to Jacob to make him look so haggard, but now she realized those shadows under his eyes were for her.
“I’m okay,” she reassured even though she actually felt more than a little weak and breathless. But alive. They were all alive. So she asked again, “What happened?”
“Blane is in custody.”