“We’ll find him, Summer.” Rylla patted her hand comfortingly.
“How? How are you going to find him? How will you find him if you don’t know who he is? What if you don’t find him? What if he comes back?”
Luke didn’t care what the detectives’ answers to Summer’s questions were, he knew his own answer. And that was that he would not allow anyone to lay a hand on Summer. If they tried, they were going to have to go through him to get her.
* * * * *
4:44 P.M.
“Are you sure you want to come back here?”
Summer stared at her home. It looked the same and yet different. The events of this morning would change how she felt about it forever. “Mmhmm,” she murmured in response to Luke’s question.
“I can take you to one of your friends’ houses,” Luke continued. “I'm sure Nick and Aggie would be happy to have you come and stay with them overnight. Or even for a few days. You don’t have to come back here today. Or ever if you don’t want to.”
She shook her head, she didn’t want to be a burden to anyone, and besides, this was her home, and she didn’t want anyone or anything to make her run ever again. This time she wasn't being a coward, she was standing up and fighting back. “I need to be here. I can't let him push me out of my house. If I do then he wins.”
“This isn’t about winning and losing, this is about your safety. Your physical safety and your psychological safety.”
She could feel Luke’s eyes on her even though she was still staring at her house. He’d been holding it together pretty well up until they had arrived here. Summer knew he’d done that for her benefit, but now he was getting close to losing it. She could relate. She was pretty close to losing it too.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go back in there so soon. The shooting was only a few hours ago, you’ve only just been discharged from the hospital. At least stay with Nick and Aggie tonight, try to get some proper rest, then come back here tomorrow when everything isn’t so fresh.”
What he was saying made sense, and part of her wanted to agree, but another part of her knew she had to face this head-on. Ten years ago, when she had shot and killed her husband, she hadn’t been able to face either what she had done or what he had done, so she’d run away. Now she was older and hopefully wiser, and she knew she couldn’t take that route again.
She had to be stronger. She had to do the right thing no matter how hard it was.
Summer unbuckled her seatbelt and opened her door. As much as it terrified her, she had to walk back inside her house and the longer she sat here looking at it the harder it would be.
“What are you doing?” Luke demanded.
Assuming that was a rhetorical question, she ignored it and concentrated on swinging her injured leg out the door. It didn’t really hurt, the local anesthetic hadn’t worn off yet, and she was pumped full of painkillers, but it was heavily bandaged, and she couldn’t really bend it which made moving difficult.
“Summer,” Luke sounded exasperated but quickly jumped out of the car and hurried around it to her side. “At least let me help so you don’t fall flat on your face and hurt yourself more.” He put an arm around her waist and helped her maneuver herself out of the car. His arm stayed around her, supporting her, while he closed her door. “Lean against the car while I grab your crutches from the trunk.” He hovered beside her a moment longer to ensure she had her balance before retrieving the crutches.
It had been a long time since she’d used them, not since she was nine and fell out of a tree, but it quickly came back to her just how tedious it had been. Hopefully, she would only need to use them for a day or two, then she should be back on her feet enough to hobble around unaided.
She made slow progress up the garden path. Luke stayed close at her side, and she could feel the tension rolling off him. He was no doubt reliving returning to her house to find someone shooting at it, just as she was reliving the bevy of bullets assaulting her living room.
“I still don’t think this is a good idea,” he muttered as he helped her up the porch steps.
It had been unanimous. Back at the hospital when she had been discharged and announced that she was coming home Luke, Aggie, and Nick had all been against the idea. But she was a big girl, and she made her own decisions. This time, she would face her fears and not run from them. So, she had politely declined Nick and Aggie’s offer to let her stay with them and suggested she take a cab home.
That idea had also been shot down.
Luke had offered to drive her, and she had gladly accepted. She wasn't quite ready to be without his comforting presence.
Nick had retrieved Luke’s car from her place and brought it to the hospital so he could take her home, and then go back to his place later. Summer wasn't quite sure how she felt about spending the night alone in her house after what had happened there. Coming back was one thing but being all by herself once it got dark was quite another.
Her gaze moved to the front window. Someone had boarded it up, but she remembered how it looked when the paramedics had taken her out of the house.
The sound of the gunshots still echoed inside her head.
It terrified her that she didn’t know who might shoot at her house.
The only person who might have wanted her dead was her husband, but for obvious reasons, her husband was not responsible for what had happened today.
“Are you sure the man didn’t start shooting until you got here?” she asked Luke.