“We won’t chance it. I want you to get whatever you need. I’m going to take you over to the cabin.”
“The cabin?”
“You’ll stay with Savannah. I need Jared. I need Shane, too, or I’d have taken you over to the farm. Pull it together, Cassandra,” he said, sharply enough to have her eyes clearing.
“I can’t go to the cabin, Devin. I can’t put Savannah and her children in danger.”
“Savannah can handle it.”
“So can I. Give me a minute.” She needed to take a breath. “Connor and Emma will go wherever you think they’ll be safe.”
“No, ma’am.” Connor curled his trembling hand over Emma’s. “I’m not going anywhere without you. I’m not leaving you.”
“Nobody’s leaving anybody. You’re all going where I tell you to go. Get your things,” Devin snapped. “Or do without them.”
“Savannah is not responsible for me and mine,” Cassie said slowly. “I am.”
“I don’t have the time to be patient with you. I can’t stay here and take care of you, so you’re going.”
He whirled around. Connor, his stomach queasy, saw a kind of fury he’d never seen before, not even in Joe Dolin’s eyes. “Get downstairs, into the car.”
“I can take care of my mother.”
“I’m counting on it, but not here. Do as I tell you, Connor.”
“Devin, take the children, and—”
“The hell with this.” He spun around again, picked Cassie up bodily and flung her over his shoulder. “Out!” he shouted at Connor, then swore when the boy’s blood drained out of his face. “Damn it, boy, don’t you see I’d die before I’d hurt her? Before I’d hurt any of you?”
And Connor did, so clearly that the shame of it burned color back into his cheeks. “Yes, sir. Come on, Emma.”
“Put me down, Devin.” Cassie didn’t bother to struggle. “Please, put me down. We’ll go.”
He set her on her feet, keeping his hands on her shoulders for a moment. “You have to let me take care of you. You have to let me do that, at least. Trust me, Cassie.”
“I do.” She reached for Connor’s hand. “We do.”
“Make it quick.” He put a hand on the screen door, scanned quickly before stepping out. “We’ve got roadblocks,” he began. “Helicopters are on the way. Odds are we’ll have him before nightfall. How many at the inn?”
“No one. We have a family coming in tonight, but—”
“I’ll take care of it. Just don’t—”
When the shot rang out, it was so sudden, so shocking, Cassie could do nothing but gasp. Devin collapsed at her feet.
“Hi, honey.” Joe walked forward, a grin on his face, a gun in his hand. “I’m home.”
She did the only thing she could do. She shoved the children behind her and faced him.
She saw the changes in him. His face was thinner, harder, as his body was. There was a scar beside and beneath his right eye, puckered and white. But the eyes themselves were the same. Brutal.
“I’ll go with you, Joe.” She knew Devin was breathing, but there was blood on his temple where the bullet had streaked. He needed help, an ambulance. The only way to save him and her children was to surrender herself. “I’ll go wherever you want. Just don’t hurt my babies.”
“I’ll do whatever I want with your brats, bitch. And you’ll do just what I tell you.” He looked down at Devin, sneered. “Not so tough now, is he? I should have aimed better.” He squinted, laughed. “Got a little problem with the eye, but I’ll do a lot better close up.”
As if in a dream, she saw his face, saw the gun lower. The cold came over her, the cold and the knowledge that this had happened before. Only then it had been a young, wounded soldier and a woman too weak, too frightened, to save him.
“No!” She screamed, threw herself over Devin’s body. “He’s hurt!” She knew those words were useless, and struggled to find others. “If you kill him, Joe, and they catch you, you’ll never get out again. Do you know what happens when you kill a police officer? It isn’t worth it. I said I’d go with you.”