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“You’re dying, aren’t you? You want my mother to take care of you,” Reagan accused.

“TJ, are you?” Traci asked.

TJ scowled, but then he sighed. “I am. Bone cancer. Yes, I want you to take care of me, but not as my nurse. I want you to be by my side as my wife.”

Reagan was shocked speechless, so Traci was the one to state the obvious. “I’m already married, TJ.”

“Yes, I know. I hoped my men would take care of that with the accident, but they failed. I received word Dunlap is injured but alive. For now.”

“What do you mean?” Reagan demanded.

“I mean I sent my men to the hospital to finish the job. Both jobs.”

An icy chill froze Reagan to the bone. “You’re going to kill my fathers.”

TJ’s smile was more of a sinister leer. “Not me personally, but yes, Reagan, I have arranged for both Randall and English to die today. Then your mother will be mine.”

“You’re bat shit crazy,” Reagan shouted at him in the same moment shouts came from somewhere outside the library.

She grasped her mother’s hand tightly and listened. The noise came from the other side of a door that Reagan guessed led to another part of the house they were in. She opened her mouth to call out when Terrence’s hand suddenly clamped over her mouth.

“Take them back to the bunker and secure the door. Hurry!”

Terrence jerked Reagan to her feet, but she twisted her head as much as she could in his grasp. Her teeth sank into the skin of his palm. With a yelp, he loosened his grip, and she twisted away. Reaching for her mother, she pulled Traci from her chair to bolt to the door. She tried the knob only to realize it was locked from the other side. Then she heard the gun cock. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Terrence and TJ pointing firearms at them.

“I wouldn’t do that, Reagan.” TJ walked on stiff legs closer to them, his hand steady and his stare intense. “Don’t make a sound and walk into the bunker. Otherwise, I’ll put a bullet in your mother.”

“TJ—”

“I’m serious, Traci. I won’t kill you, but I won’t hesitate to shoot you. I’ve come too far to let you go now.”

The ruckus outside the door grew louder, but Reagan nudged her mother to start moving away. As much as she wanted to get out of there, she didn’t want her mother hurt, and TJ was crazy enough to do as he threatened. She pushed her mother ahead of her, and they walked while keeping their eyes on TJ’s gun. Once they were behind the chairs they’d vacated, Reagan took action.

“Down!” she shouted and pushed Traci to the floor behind one chair before diving behind the other.

They covered their ears the moment a gun fired. The force of the bullet lodging into the chair’s cushion push the chair back against Reagan’s shoulder, giving her an idea. With as much force as she could muster, she shoved the chair until it slid across the floor and knocked TJ, causing his knees to buckle and his gun to drop onto the floor. Now exposed, she froze when Terrence aimed his gun squarely at the middle of her chest. Time suspended as she braced herself for what was to come.

The door crashed open, and before any of them could react, a gunshot rang out. Reagan screamed until she realized she hadn’t been the one shot. Terrence stared at the gaping hole in his chest as blood spread like a spider web to stain his shirt. He fell to his knees before falling to the floor. Reagan whipped her head around to the door and almost cried when she saw Jackson lowering his weapon while keeping his eyes on Terrence and TJ.

She turned to pull her mother to her feet and embraced her. Luke appeared at Jackson’s side with his gun at the ready. He peered around the room to assess the situation and nodded as if pleased to see it was all under control.

“The LEOs are rounding up the staff and questioning them. I’ll have them call the coroner for the other guy,” Luke said as he looked over to where Terrence bled out on the floor.

Jackson dropped his chin in a curt nod before looking over in Reagan’s direction. Her gaze caught his. She poured out her gratitude with that one look, and her breath caught to see the storm of emotion flickering through his pupils. She wasn’t surprised he came for her. Deep down, she’d known he would. Somewhere along the way, she started to trust him to protect her, and he hadn’t failed her.

“Look out!”

Everything happened at one. Reagan whipped around to see TJ rise. He’d crawled over to his gun and stood to point it at the door. The gun fired, sending the bullet across the room. The bullet sank into the shirt at his shoulder before bursting through the other side. Reagan screamed as Jackson fell to the floor, blood running from his wound. Another gunshot exploded, but this time it traveled from Luke’s gun to the center of TJ’s forehead. The man dropped to the floor.

Reagan ran over to Jackson’s side, her movements feeling slow and sluggish in her haste to get to him. She placed her hands over the wound at his shoulder only to have the blood spill through the cracks between her fingers.

“Medic!” Luke called through the open doorway before dropping to his knees on Jackson’s other side. “We need a medic now!”

“Here, sweetheart. Use this to apply pressure to his wound.” Traci was at her side instantly, handing her a table runner she’d whipped off the coffee table.

Reagan wadded the cloth in her hands and pressed them to Jackson’s chest using all of her weight to add pressure. He moaned from the resulting pain which dropped a haze over the eyes focused on her.

“Jackson, you stay with me. I forbid you to die or lose consciousness. Do you hear me? For once, you’re going to do what I tell you. Jackson! Talk to me, so I know you’re okay.”