Gripping Collin’s hand that was holding the gun, I pulled it close to my body and placed myself between Collin and Knox, and held tight when Collin tried to throw me down with his free hand. My foot got caught between his, causing him to stumble, and soon the force from him throwing me aside had us both falling—with him above me and the gun now sandwiched between us, our fingers both on the trigger.

In those last few seconds, a sense of peace washed over me. I saw Deacon and Graham in a dead sprint in our direction and knew they would help Knox. I knew this was how it was supposed to end, and wondered how I thought it would ever end any other way. I’d prayed for God to show me some kind of mercy and to take me from Collin, and now I was finally getting my prayers answered. And with such a public act, I knew Collin wouldn’t get away with this.

A smile crossed my face and I let my eyes close.

It wasn’t all for nothing, I told myself as we crashed down, and the force of our fall caused us to squeeze off one final round.

Knox

Present Day—Richland

“HARLOW!” I SHOUTED as I ran with what little energy I had in my body toward where she and Collin were falling to the pavement. “Harlow!”

The sound of the sixth gunshot tore through me, causing me to stumble until I was on my knees, unable to move. I needed to get up, I needed to get to her, to make sure she was alive—because surely she was still alive—but instead, I bent toward the pavement, and a sob was forced from my chest when countless seconds passed without movement from either of them. The bullet that was embedded in my right arm hadn’t hurt as much as the sound of that last gunshot was destroying me.

I looked up when I felt hands on my shoulders and shoved Deacon away from me. He fell backward and came toward me again, but didn’t try to touch me. He was saying something—shouting, but I couldn’t hear anything. I forced myself up and stumbled a few times as I headed toward Collin and Harlow. Graham was already there, carefully stepping up behind where Collin was still lying on top of her.

Deacon hurried over to them and helped Graham heave Collin’s body off of Harlow—but I couldn’t focus on them. All I could see was my world lying still on the ground as Graham ran back and hovered over her.

I approached her slowly, like each step was trying to get through quicksand, and didn’t understand Graham’s smile or what he was trying to say to me. I glanced at Harlow once more before looking over at him again, and my legs began shaking when Graham moved away from Harlow’s bloodied body and slowly disentangled the gun from her thin hands to lay it on the ground beside them.

“Fucking warrior,” he said; pride coated each word.

I dropped down next to her, and cried out when I saw her chest faintly moving. “Low,” I said, and cradled her cheeks in my hands. “Babe, open your eyes,” I whispered against her lips, and kissed her softly.

“He’s gone,” I heard Deacon say behind me, and I nodded, even though he had probably been telling Graham.

“Low, it’s over. I need you to open your eyes.”

I held her for a few more minutes, and didn’t care that tears were falling relentlessly down my face as I waited for anything from her. Ambulances pulled up then, and just when I was about to beg her to open her eyes again, her blue eyes shot open and she gasped.

“YES, MR. EVANS,” I said a few hours later, and held back a sigh as he and his wife asked the same questions I’d just answered. “You all know everything I do at this point, and I promise I’ll keep you updated, but I’m going to go back in to check on her now.”

“Well, what did the doctor say? Why won’t you tell us?” Harlow’s mom asked over the speaker.

“I’m not sure; he wouldn’t talk with me in there. I’ll let you know if there was anything wrong, but I’m sure she was fine.” I tried to keep my tone even because I knew they were worried, but I’d already spoken with them half a dozen times since entering the hospital, and I had other things I was worrying about.

I smiled politely at the doctor when he walked out of Harlow’s room, and said, “I have to go now; I’ll keep you updated.” As soon as I was able to hang up, I walked into the room and took my seat next to Harlow’s bed.

My truck had flipped twice, but the impact had been mostly on my side—and the worst of my injuries had only given me problems directly after. I’d had trouble getting my legs to move but was fine for the most part now. Even still, my captain had informed me over the phone that I was looking at at least a month off because of getting shot. They’d removed the bullet and sewn me up, and had barely been able to keep me there long enough to bandage me before I’d tried to leave to find Harlow’s room.

Deacon and Graham were fine, just a little bruised from when they’d smashed into the back of the SUV Collin had been driving. And Collin was gone. That final bullet could have gone anywhere, from the way Harlow had explained the gun had been pinned between them. But somehow it’d gone between both their bodies, through Collin’s throat, and up into his brainstem. He’d died immediately.

Harlow was malnourished—not a surprise. She had bruises all over her body and cracked ribs—almost all of which were from Collin prior to today. The reason the doctor had been in there just then had been to talk to her about the X-ray and scans they’d done on her skull. But the doctor had refused to talk with me in the room since I wasn’t family, so I’d stepped out to give her parents another update.

“What’d he say?” I asked gently.

“I’ve hit my head a lot.” Harlow shrugged. “Really, he didn’t tell me anything I don’t already know. Just that I need to avoid hitting my head from now on, that I was lucky there wasn’t permanent damage, and that it was likely if I do hit my head again—if it’s hard enough—each time I will probably go unconscious for some period of time. But I’d kind of started figuring that out on my own. It’s happened every time lately.”

I clenched my jaw, but tried to relax by repeating over and over that Collin couldn’t touch her again. “It won’t happen again,” I reminded her, and she just nodded.

Harlow had been different since she woke up and realized there was no danger; reserved, almost. I’d mentioned it in the ambulance, and she’d shaken her head. I’d brought it up again after we’d gotten to the hospital and things had calmed down, and she’d just looked away from me. And she hadn’t once looked at me since.