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Gunnar grabbed the woman when she almost ran by him, sobbing. At first, he thought it was Powell. Then he looked closer. “Melissa. Shh. It’s me, Gunnar.”

“Oh, thank God. We thought…they said they killed you. They have my daughter. And Mason. Heather…Heather is in there with them now.”

Gunnar pulled her closer. Hugged her just once, careful to keep her away from the blood on his shoulder. “I know. Heather is our distraction. It’s going to be okay. I’m going to get her back. Get them all back.”

“Heather said to go to her house. But I can’t leave. I can’t. My family, I can’t…”

She was panicking. He had to bring her back down. Fast. “I need you to tell me how many there are inside.”

“Four. That older man, the one…his name was Timothy. And he was trying to convince his son to leave. To not hurt anyone. He’s almost begging him, pleading now. His son is a monster. Evil, through and through. His son mostly wants to kill Heather, to keep her quiet about things she might know about him from three or four years ago. They argued about that. The older man… was trying to tell him to leave Heather alone, but the younger one wasn’t listening. There are two others. They just wanted their money. Or…my daughter. They plan to hurt her, Gunnar. They plan to hurt her. Now Heather is there…”

Gunnar nodded. He nudged the mother of the woman he loved back a step. “Go. Get back to Heather’s. I can do what I need to do better if I am not worried about you too.”

“ We can do what we need to do,” a deep male voice came out of the darkness. Gunnar had seen him approaching. “Gun and Heather aren’t doing this alone, Mrs. Barratt. We’ve also called in backup. But we need you out of the way so we aren’t distracted and so you aren’t inadvertently hurt in the middle.”

She nodded, pulled in a gasping breath. “You’re not alone.”

“No. None of us are doing it alone.” Gunnar would never forget that. He had people in his corner. No matter what. Maybe that had been a lesson he’d needed to learn lately too.

She pulled herself together right in front of him.

“Please, just…all of you be careful. All of you have people who love you. Be safe. Just be safe, all of you.” There was a strength in Melissa that Gunnar would never forget in that moment. As he watched her take off down the sidewalk toward where her sons waited.

Trusting Gunnar to get her daughter and husband safely back to her.

His baby’s grandmother was one hell of a woman too. Now it was time to get her family back to her where they belonged.

Gunnar was ready.