Written with You (The Regret Duet #2)(66)

“Stop! Stop. She’s Mom, Trent. She’s the only part of Mom we have left. Just give her to me. I’ll give you all the cash you need, and this can all be over.”

He swung the gun back on Caven. “Fuck Mom! She liked to run her mouth too. Dad warned me over and over again that you were just like her and you would flip on us the first chance you got.”

“Dad was a fucking psychopath.”

“But he was right about you. You were all set to turn him into the police with those Polaroids. You didn’t give a damn about your family. You didn’t care about me. You’ve always been such a selfish prick. And you’re the worst fucking kind because you won’t die. I’d chained every door at the mall that day. And you still somehow made it out alive. I gave you every benefit of the doubt. I told you to keep your fucking mouth shut, but you can’t do it, so your mountain of bodies just keeps growing by the day, little brother.”

Bile clawed up the back of my throat as I watched his every word slash across Caven’s face and strip him bare.

But it wasn’t Caven the boy, the one from the mall, broken and defeated.

It wasn’t the helpless kid so filled with anguish and guilt that he could barely breathe.

It was Caven the man who would do absolutely anything to protect his family—even at the risk of his own life.

“You helped him?” Caven whispered, inching closer.

Trent grinned with honest-to-God pride. “Couldn’t let the old man take all the glory.”

“You were just like him. You always have been.” It was almost imperceptible, but with every sentence, Caven closed the gap between him and his daughter. “I don’t know how I was so blind all these years.”

Suddenly, Trent moved the gun back to Rosalee. “If I were you, that would be the last step you take toward me.”

When I was eight years old, lying as still as possible on the floor of a bloody battlefield in the middle of a mall food court, I’d sent up my very first prayer that someone, anyone, would save me.

It was Caven who’d arrived that day.

But in his house eighteen years later, while I was at the risk of losing my entire family all over again, a different kind of savior appeared.

“Mr. Hunt,” the young cop called, pushing the front door open. “Is everything—oh, shit!”

Trent’s gun exploded.

The sounds echoed in my ears, and everything in my body tried to shut down. From my knees buckling to my vision blurring, the memories of the past threatened to take over. But just as Caven had told me all those months earlier, the one thing that would always override my fears was making sure Rosalee was safe. And the second I saw Trent drop her, instinct took over and I dove across the room, scooping her up as Caven finally tackled his brother.

Gathering her in my arms, I scrambled to my feet just in time to dodge the two men crashing to the floor.

“Go!” Caven grunted, his fist colliding with Trent’s jaw. “Get her out of here. Go!”

I hated to leave him, but Rosalee needed me more. Racing as fast as I could, my chest heaving with every step, I ran out the back door with Rosalee sobbing in my arms. I’d made it all the way around the house, my throat raw and on fire from screaming for help, when I heard the unmistakable sound of another gunshot.

Rosalee’s grip around my neck tightened to match the vise in my chest. I had no idea who had fired the shot. Or who it had hit. But I didn’t stop running. There was nothing I could do to help Caven at that point, but all he would have wanted was for her to be safe.

I could give him that. I could give us that.

Sirens screamed in the background as I raced toward the end of the driveway. “It’s okay, sweet girl. I got you. We’re gonna be okay.”

“I want my daddy,” she cried into my neck.

Truth be told, I wanted him too.

I smoothed the top of her hair down and spun in a circle as blue lights flashed in the distance. “He’s right behind us, baby. I promise.”

It was a promise I prayed I could keep.

It couldn’t have taken more than a minute for police cars to fill his driveway and officers to storm inside with guns drawn. But as I stood across the street, staring at the front door, with a hysterical little girl in my arms and my heart in my throat, I felt no relief.

I felt like I was lying on the floor of that mall again. My life wasn’t in danger, but I was on the edge of extinction all the same.

Ambulance after ambulance arrived, still no sign of Caven, and with every second that passed, I died inside a little more.

I hadn’t had him long. Life couldn’t take him from me too.

Not like this. Not after everything we’d been through.

“Willow?” Rosalee choked out, sitting up, her eyes so red that they almost matched her hair. “Where’s Daddy? I want to see him.”

That time, I didn’t even have to lie. Because in the most amazing second of my life, Caven appeared in the open doorway of his house.

My heart exploded in time with my legs as I took off at a dead sprint with Rosalee bouncing in my arms.

He was staggering and covered in blood. It was exactly what I assumed my worst nightmare would look like.

But he was alive. Therefore, never had Caven Hunt been more beautiful.

“Daddy!” Rosalee screamed, fighting her way out of my arms.