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Jack knew better than to count on Ry going against his mother’s wishes and helping them out of this mess, but he hoped for Chloe’s sake Ry might mess up his assignment somehow. If he ran into Zeke or Carlyle back at that campground, they’d surely see through him. They’d retrace his steps.

Or, if he had even an ounce of intelligence, he’d use the flare in the pack and really help them.

But Jack wouldn’t depend on Ry to fix this for them. He and Chloe would have to devise a plan. One that took into account that his family was out there and would start looking for them. All they had to do was stay alive past four o’clock.

“Do you think he’s actually going to listen?” Courtney asked Jen in a low voice, but in the cave, it carried over to him and Chloe.

“He knows what happens to him if he doesn’t,” Jen replied darkly.

“What if—”

“That boy is a coward . Always has been. Always will be. Besides, we have secret weapons. So many secrets. Let’s go show them one.” She turned her attention from Courtney to Jack and Chloe. “You’re going to turn around. You’re going to start walking. And you’re not going to stop until I tell you to.”

Jack shared a look with Chloe. It was two against two now, and going deeper in the cave was only asking for trouble when it was clear Jen’s plan was to kill them. Why keep giving her easier and easier ways to get away with it?

“I don’t think we will, Jen.”

Chloe inhaled sharply, but she nodded. She moved so that they stood shoulder to shoulder, facing Jen and Courtney and eyeing the cave exit behind them. All they had to do was get past them without getting shot.

Without getting fatally shot, really. He knew Chloe wouldn’t appreciate it, but if he drew both their gunfire, she could get past them. Get out. Maybe there’d be a chance. Oh, she wouldn’t thank him for that. She’d end up beating herself up for it, especially if he did get fatally wounded.

But she’d be alive.

“You will because if you recall, I’ve got the upper hand. All of the upper hands. You do what I say.”

“So we can die the way you want us to?” Chloe shook her head. “Pass.”

“Pass?” Jen replied, then she laughed. High-pitched and out of control. “ Pass , she says. Oh, Chloe, you did not inherit any of the Rogers family smarts, did you?”

“I hope to God not.”

Jen was aiming her gun at Chloe now, and Jack knew he needed to do something. Intervene before she ended up dead here in this dark damn cave. Not on his watch.

“It seems to me this only works out for you if we follow what you say. I don’t think we have much interest in this working out for you, so I guess we’re at an impasse. I guess you’ll have to shoot us.” He tried to angle his body so he was in front of Chloe, but she was doing the same thing to him.

He wanted to tell her to quit it, wanted to shove her out of the way, which distracted him enough that he wasn’t giving Jen the attention he should have been.

“As you wish,” Jen replied with a shrug. Then he didn’t have a chance to so much as blink. Jen must have pulled the trigger as she lifted the gun. The pain that blasted through his shoulder was more shock than the sound of the gun going off.

C HLOE FORGOT EVERYTHING in that moment. Every minute of training, every potential threat around them. She only saw Jack stumble back and blood bloom on his shoulder, and she leaped for him.

She looked around wildly for something to stop the bleeding and came up with nothing. Nothing.

“I’m okay. It’s okay,” he said, but he did not sound like himself. He was in pain. He had been shot .

“It’s not okay,” she returned, pulling the hem of her shirt into as much of a ball as she could and pressing it to his shoulder.

His hissed out a pained breath. “Trying to convince myself here, Chloe.” He swore once, twice. He didn’t sit still, moving around as if trying to find some comfortable position, even though a bullet had passed through his shoulder.

“Stop moving. I have to put pressure on it. I have to—” The yank at her hair took her by surprise because she’d let panic and worry and love blind her to the imminent threat. She fell back as Jen stepped forward.

“Am I clear now? You can either fight and die right here or you can get on your feet and move.”

Chloe held Jack’s pained gaze. She couldn’t let him die here. She couldn’t. But they couldn’t go deeper into this cave. Not with his wound, not with her mother’s plans clear. Jen wanted it too much, when it would be so easy to just shoot them right now.

Clearly she had something deeper in the cave where she thought she could kill them and get away with it. Chloe would die before she gave her mother that.

It had to end right now. “Sounds like it’s easier for you if we move. So maybe we choose to die right here.”

“Do you think I won’t shoot you both?”

Chloe knew she would. Knew this wasn’t looking good. But if they walked any farther, it would be over. And maybe no one would ever find them. Another Hudson mystery.

No. She wouldn’t let that happen. “If you’re going to kill us, I’d much prefer you get caught.”

Fury stamped all over her mother’s features. It reminded Chloe too much of a childhood she’d spent a lot of time blocking out. Her therapist had told her not remembering a lot was a bad sign , and now Chloe fully understood what she meant by that. She’d blocked out this . That violence. That total lack of empathy for another human being.

Chloe didn’t want to leave Jack’s side, but she forced herself to stand. To face her mother. “And if you’re going to kill us anyway, I might as well fight .” She took a few steps forward, bracing herself for pain, for a gunshot wound to stop her in her tracks.

But instead, there was a voice.

“Drop your weapons.”

Chloe whirled around, and nearly wept right then. Carlyle stood next to her brother, Zeke, both with guns trained on Jen and Courtney.

But Chloe also knew her mother. So she dove immediately into her mother’s legs, hoping to knock her off her feet so she wouldn’t have a chance to shoot anyone . It worked. Jen tumbled down on top of Chloe, but not before another gunshot went off.

Hopefully Carlyle’s or Zeke’s . Please, God . She scrambled out from her mother’s weight. Jen kicked, clawed, pulled, but Chloe could fight too. She managed to get the gun from her mother, to wrestle her into submission.

Zeke came over to her and knelt on the other side of Jen, pulling out a zip-tie and using it to bind her hands together. Chloe looked over at Courtney. She was in the same position as Jen now, so Zeke must have gotten her first.

Chloe pushed to her feet. They needed to get Jack to the hospital. A gunshot wound to his shoulder wasn’t good, but if they could get him...

He was lying completely prone on the floor now. More blood. Not just on his shoulder, but lower. Carlyle had something pressed to his abdomen. He’d been shot again. No, no, no .

She scrambled over to him. Repeating his name. Maybe crying. She didn’t know. But he was pale, and he wasn’t moving or responding to her in any way and oh God .

“He’s breathing, Chloe,” Carlyle said sharply. “So put something on that shoulder.”

Chloe looked around for something, even as tears clouded her vision. But then chaos erupted around them. Just absolute chaos. Screaming. Yelling. Pounding footsteps. But she just concentrated on Jack’s breathing. Because he was breathing. She felt like as long as she stayed here, her hand on his chest, his heart, she could will him to keep breathing. As long as he was breathing...

Someone pulled her off, and she fought them. If they pulled her away... If...

“Let the medics help,” Zeke said, firm and authoritative in her ear as he banded her arms at her sides to stop her from fighting him.

Carlyle stepped in front of her, blocking her view of Jack. Jack. Who’d been shot twice. Twice . Because of her.

“They’re going to take him to the hospital. He’s going to be okay,” Carlyle said.

“How do you know?” Chloe demanded.

And Carlyle didn’t answer. Because the truth was, he might not be. And she would always have to live with that.

Zeke’s grip on her loosened. She would have crumpled then and there, but Carlyle held her up by an arm. Medics were working to find a way to get Jack out of the small crevice of the entrance.

A couple of cops had Jen and Courtney cuffed, face down on the cave ground. They screamed and argued and fought, but they weren’t going to be a problem anymore. They were going to go to prison. For murder. Multiple murders.

It should have been a relief, but nothing would feel like relief until she knew Jack would be okay.

They had to stand in this awful cave while the medics got Jack out, while the police got Jen and Courtney out. Chloe would have hyperventilated if not for Carlyle rubbing a supportive hand up and down her back.

When they were finally given the go-ahead to leave, Chloe knew there’d be questions. So many questions. But she wouldn’t be able to answer any of them until Jack was okay.

When she emerged from the cave, she saw her brother. He was cuffed, sitting on the ground, a deputy talking down at him.

She could only stare. He’d betrayed her. He was part of all this. When he looked up and saw her glaring at him, his eyes got big and shiny.

“I know I messed up, Chlo, but I fixed it. Didn’t I?” he called across the distance between them. Cops looked at her; Hudsons looked at her.

She stared at her brother.

“He found Zeke and I,” Carlyle said quietly, standing next to her. But Chloe could hear the disgust in Carlyle’s voice. “We were pretty close, but we hadn’t found the entrance to the cave. He is why we found you in the nick of time, and we didn’t have to shake it out of him.”

She wanted to feel good. She wanted to feel relief. Her brother wasn’t all bad. He’d helped. Even with Mom threatening him the way she had, he had asked Carlyle and Zeke for help. He’d done the right thing.

She wanted to believe that, but she saw him sitting there and knew he’d just done the easiest thing. Because he always did. So she just felt angry . Because Jack was hurt. And sometimes doing the right thing was too little, too late.

She walked over to him. He wanted reassurance. He wanted to know he’d done okay. After being such a huge part of how this had all gone so badly. Years ago, she would have reassured him. Forgiven him.

Today, she had nothing left. “If he dies, I’ll never, ever speak to you again,” she said. “I will never lay eyes on you again. I will never, ever have anything to do with you. Ever.”

Ry’s eyes widened, and the hope in them died. “You’re choosing him over me?”

“No, Ry. I’m choosing me over you. I will always love you, but I can’t be part of your life anymore. Not until you can take some responsibility for it. Maybe jail will teach you that. Maybe it won’t. I won’t know because I won’t be in contact. I won’t be helping. I’m done.” She should have said all those things years ago. Now, just like him, it was too little, too late.

But she’d done it.

“That isn’t fair!” he yelled. After all he’d done, he thought anything should be fair .

She shook her head and walked away from her brother. She hoped someday he’d find some better version of himself. But until he did...she was done.