He left the rifle and ran for the ladder leading down to the stalls below. When his feet hit the ground, he sprinted for the house, adrenaline giving him the strength to hold on a little longer. Hunt and the other cops had already rushed in to protect Shelby and Eliza and make sure Kyle was dead.
Chase already knew he was, but he’d gotten a flash of the knife Kyle used on him, and he didn’t know if he’d also used it on Shelby or his little girl.
He slowed from the blood loss on the porch steps and burst through the front door. It only took a second to find where his family was since there was a cop standing sentry outside the living room. He ran past the officer, Kyle’s body lying on the ground where Chase had dropped him, and right to Shelby, who was holding Eliza against her chest.
“Chase! Why aren’t you in the hospital?”
Chase pulled his girls into his chest, hugged them tight, and finally breathed. He ignored the fiery pain in his side and shoulder and just held them close. “Are you okay?”
“We’re fine.” The death grip she had on his waist said otherwise.
Eliza squirmed between them.
Chase leaned back and looked down at the two of them to be sure they were indeed okay. He caught Shelby’s eye. “You did so good.”
Her sorrowful gaze dropped to Kyle’s body. “He didn’t give me a choice.” She’d wanted him to surrender like he did when he got caught with her mother.
“You know he wasn’t going to let you go.”
Tears gathered in her eyes. “His parents are locked in a closet upstairs where they used to keep him to punish him.”
That shocked him. “Are they okay?”
“No,” Hunt said, walking into the room. “They’ve been dead quite a while by the looks of it.”
Shelby held Chase tighter and buried her face in his neck. “He talked to them like they were still alive.”
He brushed his hand over her hair. “He wasn’t in his right mind.” Now that the worst was over, Chase took a deep breath, but it didn’t help the spots in his eyes or the spinning of the room.
Shelby looked up at him. “Chase, baby, are you all right? Chase!”
He wobbled. She tried to hold on to him. The darkness crept into his vision until it tunneled into a tiny dot of light that quickly winked out.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Shelby tried to hold Chase up, but while holding Eliza on her hip, she only had one free hand. Chase’s weight started to take her down. Hunt rushed up and grabbed Chase under the arms, pulled him back, and gently laid him on his side on the ground. Blood covered his shirt from his side down to his jeans.
“Shit. I thought we stopped the bleeding.” Hunt called out to one of his men, “Get the paramedics in here.” He looked at her. “I’ve had them on standby at the end of the driveway.”
She sighed out her relief. “Why did you let him come here?”
“Because no one was going to take that shot but him. No one could have done it better.Heneeded to protect you. After everything he’s been through, he needed to know he could keep his head and do what was necessary to keep you safe.”
“There’s nothing for him to keep me safe from now.”
Hunt shook his head at Kyle. “I wish it didn’t have to go down this way.” He ran his hand over Eliza’s head. “Take her out of here. She doesn’t need to see this.”
Shelby wasn’t thinking clearly. Eliza had to be traumatized after all this. Especially seeing her dad collapse.
“Daddy is going to be okay.” She stood and did the hardest thing she’d ever had to do, leaving Chase with the paramedics. She walked down the steps and spotted Remmy in Hunt’s patrol car. “We are all going to be okay.” She hugged Eliza, then opened the car door and let Remmy out to jump up and lick Eliza’s hand.
“He kissed me.” Eliza gave a soft smile, some emotion finally coming back into her greenish-blue eyes.
“He loves you, sweetheart. Just like me and Daddy.”
“Bad owie.”
“Yes, baby, Daddy has two bad owies, but he’s going to the hospital, and the doctors are going to make him all better.”