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“Ains! Thank God, where are?—”

“Cole!” she cries. Immediately, I’m thrown back into panic again at her tone. “Cole!” she’s sobbing.

“Baby, where are you? What’s wrong?”

“It’s Dr–Drake,” she stutters. “He grabbed me on the street. He’s gone crazy.”

My heart is beating so fast I can barely hear her over the blood pounding in my ears. “Fuck. Where are you?”

“In the Town Hall, he pushed me inside, Cole… then chased me. I ran up the stairs and he ran after me. Then… he fell down….” She bursts into tears. “He’s not moving. I think he’s dead!”

Thank fuck I’m close by. I run toward the side entry of the Town Hall to see if it’s open. “I’m just outside. I’m seconds away. Just stay where you are.”

“Cole, I’m scared.”

“Can you call 911, baby? I’ll be there in a second.”

“Okay,” she murmurs. She sounds so scared, but I’m literally less than a minute from her.

We hang up and I sprint as fast as I can. When I reach the door, my hands grab the handle and yank it open. I fling the door wide and run through, still holding poor Fudge. The little guy Is protesting his meows, but I don’t have time to stop. “It’s alright,” I tell him. “Everything is gonna be alright.” When I run into the hall, I scan the wide space to the back of the stairs where I lift my gaze to see Ainsley is still standing at the top… and Drake’s body lays at the bottom in a crumpled, awkward mess.

“Ainsley!”

“Cole!” she cries, running down the steps as I run toward her. It looks like she’s just hung up from calling the cops as she pulls the phone from her ear. I place Fudge safely down as I quickly step over Drake and she flies into my arms, sobbing into my shoulder.

“It’s okay, baby. I’m here, shhhh, everything is okay now.”

“He’s gone crazy,” she sobs. “He grabbed me and pulled me in here wanting to talk, but he kept shouting and wouldn’t let me go.”

“I found your scrunchie outside,” I breathe, my heart rate trying to settle itself. I’m just so glad she’s okay, and it wasn’t her falling down the stairs. “After Emma said she couldn’t get a hold of you, and I didn’t get a message back from you, I started to worry.”

We both look down at Drake on the floor, that’s when we hear a groan.

Ainsley untangles herself from me for a moment so I can bend down and check his vitals.

The crazy fucker is still breathing. Lucky for him. His eyes are closed and his breathing shallow, but he’s alive for the moment.

“Did you call the police?”

“Yes.” She nods. “They’re sending an ambulance.”

Just as she says it, sirens blare in the distance. “We best wait for them out front, there’s no point trying to move him. And he’s not going anywhere. Why don’t you take Fudge? I can stay here.” Not that the fucker deserves me staying with him. I want to ring his fucking neck for what he’s done.

“No!” she cries. “I don’t want to be without you, Cole.”

I stand and wrap my arm around her. “You’re never going to be without me, you hear?”

I wrap my arms around her, she’s shaking like a leaf and sobbing into my chest.

“Let’s both go out front and we’ll let the police know where to find him.”

“Okay.” She sniffs. We both look down at him on the floor. Nope, he’s definitely not going anywhere anytime soon.

??

A few hours later….

I tuck a blanket around Ainsley as we wait for Presley to come back out at Piney Paws.