“Emma, stay with me,” he coached, racing with her toward the cabin and praying Ian would be waiting there. “Don’t you dare die on me. I can’t fucking lose you, Emma.” His voice broke. The emotion swelling in his throat was rising and blurring his vision. He pushed it back. Now was not the time for him to lose his shit. She needed him to get her out of here.
It gutted him to imagine what that bastard had put her through, and when he allowed his mind to take him places it ought not to go, the possibilities were unthinkable. If she survived this, would Emma carry invisible wounds she’d never recover from? If he didn’t get her to a hospital soon, none of this would matter.
Where is that goddamn ambulance?
Sam ran ahead of him, looking back as if imploring Sawyer to hurry the hell up. They were deep in the woods and he was moving as fast as he could. He cursed his wounded leg and it was bitching right back at him. It felt like a lifetime before he broke through the woods, daylight revealing what the darkness had veiled—a cabin that was so dilapidated Sawyer questioned the safety of entering it. But he needed a place to lay Emma down so he could check her wounds before they went any farther. Blood was running up his forearm, the tickle of it dripping off the bend of his elbow.
He was almost to the cabin when Ian called to him from across the yard. “Where’s Edwards?”
“Dead in the woods.”
Ian’s sharp eyes locked on him and he gave Sawyer an approving nod. “The ambulance is about ten minutes out. They asked us to wait here. EMS didn’t want to risk missing us with an intercept. How bad is she hit?”
“Bad enough. I can’t stop the bleeding in her leg.”
After one look at her, he shook his head. “We have to, or she won’t make it.”
Hearing Ian confirm his fears made Sawyer’s gut clench. Ian jogged across the yard and entered the cabin first. There was a loud crash as he cleared the table with a brisk swipe of his arm. “Let me grab a blanket before you put her down. It’s fucking cold in here and she’s lost too much blood to generate her own body heat. If she gets hypothermia—”
Ian must have seen the questioning look on Sawyer’s face.
“I was a medic with the SEALS,” he grumbled the explanation when he returned from the bedroom with a blanket in hand. His disgruntled tone told Sawyer there was a hell of a lot more to his story than that. Ian laid the blanket on the table and Sawyer set her down.
“Is she breathing?”
Before Sawyer could respond, Ian was on the other side of the table. He readjusted the position of her head and leaned down, placing his cheek close to her nose and lips as he stared intently at her chest, two fingers pressed into the side of her neck.
“Her pulse is weak and it’s too fast. She’s in hypovolemic shock.”
Sawyer opened her pant leg farther but couldn’t see the bullet wound through all the coagulated blood coating her leg.
“What’ve we got?” Ian asked, coming around to stand beside him.
Upon closer inspection, Sawyer could see blood oozing from beneath the clot, running down the inside of her leg. “Here’s the entrance wound.”
“She got an exit?”
“I don’t know. There’s so much blood. I can’t see shit.”
“This tourniquet isn’t tight enough.” Ian reached for the strap of Sam’s collar, unfastening the latch. “Hold her leg down.”
He gave Sawyer a two second warning. He barely had his hands braced on her thigh before Ian wrenched the make-shift tourniquet tighter. Her leg came up off the table and he pressed harder, putting some effort into it. Sawyer was glad she was unconscious for this. After a minute, the bleeding finally stopped, and the faintest hint of relief flickered through him.
“All right, we’ve got that under control. Is there anywhere else she’s bleeding?”
“Just her arm, but I got that stopped in the woods.”
“Then let’s warm her up. She needs your body heat. Take off your vest and t-shirt.”
As Sawyer undressed, Ian worked on removing Emma’s shirt. Under any other circumstances he would be telling this guy to back the fuck off, but Ian was methodically professional and the only thing that mattered was getting Emma warm.
When he raised the shirt to slide her arm from the sleeve, Ian froze, his gaze flickering to Sawyer. Ian’s stoic expression momentarily faltered and Sawyer’s gaze dropped to Emma’s chest. His breath froze in his lungs, crystallized by grief at the sight of the knife wounds across her breasts.
Ian cleared his throat, returning to his task of slipping the shirt over Emma’s head. “Are you uh…sure she isn’t injured anywhere else?”
No goddammit, he wasn’t, but Sawyer didn’t fucking think he could stand to look and this guy sure as hell wasn’t going to do it. “Move.” Sawyer gruffly nudged Ian aside and gathered Emma’s limp body into his arms. Holy hell her skin was like ice.
Ian grabbed the blanket from the table and wrapped it around them to help insulate the warmth. And considering the rage coursing through his veins, he was probably throwing off heat like a goddamn inferno.
“I’m sorry, man.” Ian refused to meet his eyes, and the sincerity in that condolence only confirmed Sawyer’s greatest fear.
Emma wasn’t going to make it.
Chapter 45
Wasn’t there supposed to be light in heaven? And what was with this numbing fog? Though not unpleasant, it certainly wasn’t the grand welcoming Emma had envisioned when crossing into the hereafter—but at least she was warm now. Additional heat enveloped her hand, spreading up her arm and throughout her body. She tried to move closer but the sharp pain in her leg kept her grounded.
Something wasn’t right. Where was she?
Emma tried to open her eyes, but her lids were too heavy. When she tried again the throbbing pain intensified and that warmth gently squeezed her hand.
“Hey, Emma, it’s all right.”
Sawyer?
At the sound of his voice, her heart leapt inside her chest and she struggled to crawl out of the numbing haze. Pressure built behind her lids until tears rolled down her cheeks.
“Shh, don’t cry,” he whispered. “You’re safe, sweetheart.”
She squeezed the grip on her hand and tried to speak, forcing the air from her lungs. It burned through her throat like fire, her voice a hoarse whisper. “Sawyer?”
“Yeah, it’s me. I’m right here.”
“Where am I?”
“Ramsey Hospital. You were transferred here after they stabilized you. Molly and your parents are in the cafeteria getting something to eat. They’ll be back soon. Everyone’s been worried.”
She tried to open her eyes again, and this time the weights lifted. She blinked a few times trying to focus on the blurry man sitting beside her. His forearms were braced on the mattress near her hip, her hand clutched tightly in both of his. As her vision began to clear, the melee of emotion she saw staring back at her stalled the breath in her lungs.
“God, Emma, I’m so fucking sorry.” Sawyer’s voice broke and he dropped his head, resting his forehead against their knotted hands.
She didn’t understand. What was he sorry about? This wasn’t his fault. None of it was, and yet he looked so…utterly devastated.
“Sawyer?” When he didn’t respond, she tried again. “Sawyer, look at me.”
Slowly, he raised his head and the additional moisture in his eyes was like staring into a sea of glistening sapphires. Her heart was so full of love for this man it physically ached to see him so torn up. “You saved my life. And you stopped a killer. My nightmare is finally over, and I have you to thank for that. I can wake up in the mornings without worrying if this will be the day he finds me. I can stop looking over my shoulder afraid of the monster I couldn’t see but knew was out there. So, don’t you dare apologize. You’ve given me my life back, and you’ve given me the one thing no one else ever could—closure.”
“Emma, when I think how close I came to losing you…”
&
nbsp; Considering how shitty she felt right now, she had a pretty good idea how close that had been. And as terrifying as this whole thing was, she could see that the emotional toll it had taken on Sawyer was quite possibly worse.
“Will you…just hold me for a little while?” A part of her couldn’t believe this was finally over, that this wasn’t a dream. She needed Sawyer’s grounding touch and suspected he might need hers too.
When he rose, she struggled to scoot over. Sam must have thought the invitation was for him because he leapt onto the foot of the bed, snuggling in with his attention fixed on the door—just as he had the first night he’d stayed with her. Though it hadn’t been all that long ago, it felt like a lifetime. So much had changed since then.
“Really, Sam? She didn’t mean you,” Sawyer grumbled. “Get off the bed.”
“Aww, let him stay. He saved my life, too, you know. There’s plenty of room for both of my boys.”
“You’re spoiling that dog,” Sawyer complained, climbing in beside Emma and gently pulling her into his arms.
Resting her cheek against his chest, she closed her eyes and listened to the steady beat of his heart. The nightmare was finally over, and they had come out on the other side of it. All three of them. Emma exhaled a contented sigh. “I know. I can’t help it.”
After a few moments of her snuggling against him, Sawyer finally seemed to relax. “You know when we get home, he’s going to think he can sleep with us all the time.”
Home...
Wow, she loved the sound of that. They hadn’t talked much of the future, but one thing Emma was certain of—she wanted to spend it with Sawyer. Though their beginning had certainly been unconventional, their trials had only strengthened their bond.
“Is this your way of asking me to move in with you?” she teased, hope blooming inside her chest. This was Emma’s second chance, and she wouldn’t waste another moment of it. She was done being a victim of her past.
Dipping his head, Sawyer gently brushed his lips over her temple and whispered, “I think this is my way of asking you to marry me.”
At her surprise gasp, his sexy mouth tugged into a crooked grin. Scooting a little higher, he shifted to frame her face with his hands and met her eyes. “I know we haven’t known each other that long. And our time together hasn’t exactly been…uncomplicated. But it’s like what my brother said before he left, ‘when you know, you know,’ and, sweetheart, I absolutely know, without a doubt, that I am whole-heartedly in love with you.
“In this short time, I’ve experienced what it’s like to love you and to lose you. And by God, I don’t ever want to go through anything like that again. So, Evangeline Larson, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
She didn’t miss the significance of Sawyer using her given name. He was telling her it was time to accept her past and take hold of their future. And she couldn’t fully have one without the other, because every hurt—every heartache—had led her down a road that eventually brought her to this man…her light at the end of the tunnel.
Swallowing past the emotion lodged in her throat, she nodded. “Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you.” How could she refuse? Sawyer was offering her the one thing she’d always wanted—a new beginning.
Note to Reader
Thank you so much for taking the time to read The Good Samaritan. Without your support, I could never do this and it’s an honor to share my stories with all of you. If you enjoyed The Good Samaritan, then you’ll love Vow of Silence…
A killer is hiding in plain sight…
The last thing Homicide Detective Josiah Troyer wants is to return to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and his Amish roots. But a madman is killing young girls and Josiah's expertise with the tight-knit community is very much needed by the FBI. Unfortunately, going home means dealing with his past and the woman he left behind.
Hannah is desperately trying to rebuild her life after the death of her Amish husband, and now, the murder of her sister. Protecting her young son from the violence is her only goal––and then she runs into the last man she expected to see, her ex Josiah. He left her eight years ago to work with the Englishers and forgiving him hasn't been easy.
But the killer has Hannah in his crosshairs, and she and Josiah will have to work together if she's going to survive.
Acknowledgments
First and foremost, I want to thank God for blessing me with the opportunity to pursue my dreams and passion for writing. Thank you to all my readers and fans of this series. I love hearing from you, and you make it worth all the blood, sweat, and tears that go into every book. Many thanks to my wonderful editor, Mikayla Morris, for walking alongside me through this publishing adventure. I couldn’t have done this without you. Nicole Sage, you’re a wonderful artist and your talent amazes me. Thank you for always being so accommodating and fun to work with. To my agent, Nalini Akolekar, you’ve literally made my dreams come true overnight. Your friendship, dedication, and support mean more to me than you can ever know. I can never thank my fabulous critique group enough for all your hard work. Sally, Linda, and John, you make my stories shine, and I love you dearly! Last, but certainly not least, I want to thank my wonderful family for your patience and continual support. I love you with all my heart!
About the Author
Award-Winning Finalist of USA Best Book Awards and the 2016 National Reader's Choice Awards for Passing His Guard and Win by Submission, Melynda Price is the author of several paranormal and contemporary romance titles. Price writes for ardent readers who want to fall in love over and over again. She makes the unbelievable believable while taking her characters to the limit with tales full of passion, heart, and unexpected twists. Salting stories with undertones of history whenever possible, Price adds immeasurable depth to her well-crafted books. She lives with her husband and two children in northern Minnesota, where there are plenty of snow-filled days to curl up in front of the fireplace with a hot cup of coffee and write.
www.melyndaprice.com
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