Defending Morgan (Mountain Mercenaries #3)(80)

His eyes widened—and that was enough for Morgan to look back at her mom just in time to see her lunge in her direction.

Surprised, Morgan let out a yell, but she was instantly on the floor with her mother on top of her. Ellie was holding a syringe to her throat and glaring at her. She must’ve pulled it out of her purse when Morgan had been distracted.

Morgan saw no emotion other than hate in her mother’s glazed eyes.

“Get up,” Ellie ordered.

Shaking, Morgan got to her feet, ever aware of the needle inches from her throat. She had no idea where the gun Ellie’d been holding earlier had gone. Maybe she’d left it in the kitchen when she went to get the cookies. Morgan desperately tried to think of what she could do. How she could distract her mom.

“Don’t even think of doing something stupid,” Ellie warned. “The second I jab you with this needle, you’re dead. It’s got undiluted ethylene glycol in it. Your kidneys will immediately begin to fail, you’ll start to have seizures, and you’ll puke your guts out. But it won’t help.”

“Mom, don’t do this,” Morgan begged, tears falling down her cheeks for the first time.

“Crying won’t help either. Maybe now your father will regret what he did to me. He needs to repent! He’ll pay. I’m making him pay!”

Just when Morgan was determined she had to attempt some sort of move, to fight her mom for the needle, the door to Arrow’s apartment burst open and the Mountain Mercenaries rushed inside, weapons drawn.



Arrow blinked, but his eyes were watering so much he couldn’t clear them. His stomach continued to spasm, but he tried to ignore it and concentrate on what was going on around him.

Ellie Jernigan was obviously batshit crazy . . . or more likely off her meds. He didn’t know if she was bipolar and hadn’t been taking her medicine, or if she was truly just insane. At this point, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was making sure Morgan was safe.

He had no idea how he was going to accomplish that, though. Ellie might be crazy, but she wasn’t stupid. She’d planned well, poisoning him and taking him out of the equation before Morgan arrived home.

And he hadn’t felt she was much of a threat until it was too late. Arrow wondered if there was anything in her past that would’ve pointed toward this possibility. While they’d looked into Morgan’s mom, they obviously hadn’t looked hard enough.

She’d been nurturing a grudge toward her ex her entire adult life, letting it fester and grow until it utterly consumed her, sucking her daughter down into the pit of hell with her.

Arrow knew he was in trouble. The ethylene glycol was making its way through his body, damaging his kidneys and wreaking havoc with alarming speed. She’d obviously put a lot of the stuff into the cookies, and he’d stupidly eaten one and a half of the damn things.

He jerked when Ellie tackled her daughter and they landed at his feet, inches from the contents of his stomach he’d vomited up earlier, but neither woman seemed to notice.

Arrow focused on the syringe Ellie was holding to her daughter’s throat. If he weren’t incapacitated, he’d be able to knock it away without any effort whatsoever, but he couldn’t control his hands—they were shaking violently—and he didn’t think he’d be able to even stand.

It felt as if he had knives in his lower abdomen, stabbing him from the inside out. He watched as Ellie forced Morgan to stand and taunted her with that damn needle at her throat.

The thought of Morgan feeling even a tenth of what he was feeling right now made adrenaline course through his body. No way did he want her to go through pain like this. She’d been through enough. More than enough.

Arrow had no plan in mind. He couldn’t get his thoughts in order enough to make a plan. All he knew was that he had to get the needle away from the woman he loved. It was too close to her throat.

The second Arrow heard the crash of his door hitting the wall when it smashed open, he moved.

Painfully throwing himself from his crumpled position on the couch, he aimed for Morgan’s torso. He’d never played football in school, but any coach would’ve been proud of the way he took her down. He heard the umph of a breath leaving her body as he grabbed her, but instead of loosening his grip, he tightened it.

His insides were screaming at him, but he twisted his body to land on his back on the floor, Morgan on top of him.

There was screaming around him, but the only thing Arrow was concerned about was protecting Morgan. With his last bit of energy, he rolled over, covering as much of her body as he could. If Ellie was going to stick someone with that damn poison needle of hers, it would be him. Not her daughter. Not the woman he loved more than life itself.

The last thing he remembered was Ellie screaming, “No!”

Then the unmistakable sound of a gunshot.



Morgan tried to take a deep breath, but Arrow had gone limp on top of her. He was extremely heavy, and it took all her strength to scoot out from under him. The adrenaline in her body was off the charts, and she didn’t even spare a glance at her mother, who was lying motionless on the floor next to the couch.

She had heard the gunshot but hadn’t even flinched, more concerned about Arrow.

“Help me!” she yelled, her voice wavering, as she tried to roll him over.

Then there were several hands helping her. Arrow lay on his back, his chest barely moving up and down. “She poisoned him!” she cried, not looking up. “With ethylene glycol. It was in the cookies! He had at least one. Maybe more.”