Temptation Trails - Page 165

He yelled in pain and fell to the floor.

A taser. Phillip had just hit him with a taser.

“Stop!” I screamed.

Owen groaned, his teeth clenched, and his rigid body convulsed.

“Please stop!”

His body went still, but only for half a second. The convulsing began again and Owen cried out.

“No! Stop it!”

“Listen, you little shit.” The taser stopped but Phillip pulled the trigger yet again. “I can do this all day.”

I had to stop him. But what could I do? I couldn’t overpower him. And he was watching me. It wasn’t like I could throw flour in his eyes. The only thing close enough for me to grab was the baking sheet with cold cookie dough on it. That wasn’t going to help.

“Out the back,” Phillip said. “Now.”

I heard the slightest noise, coming from the front of the bakery. The wind outside? Was it even windy out there? Owen groaned, curling up in pain.

Phillip narrowed his eyes and took slow steps toward the doorway. He still had the gun, and I knew if I moved, he’d pull the trigger on the taser again. Or maybe just shoot us both and be done with it.

“We’re leaving.” Phillip looked down at Owen. “Get up and don’t fuck around.”

Out of nowhere, a hulking figure appeared in the doorway. Phillip’s eyes went wide with shock as Garrett barreled toward him.

It was as if everything moved in slow motion. Phillip’s face turning toward me, his eyes blazing with malice. The gun centering on my chest. Garrett’s roar of rage and Owen’s shout.

Garrett smashed into Phillip right as the gun went off. I hit the floor next to Owen and he yanked me against him.

No pain. He’d missed.

The next few seconds were a blur as Garrett and Phillip wrestled for control of the gun. I held onto Owen, trying to shield him while he tried to do the same for me. Someone else appeared in the doorway, but before I could make sense of who it was, the gun fired again, the sharp pop so loud it rang in my ears.

Everything froze and it felt as if my heart stopped. Garrett was on the floor. Was he shot?

“Dad!” Owen yelled.

Phillip slumped over, falling to the floor.

Garrett rose, his face hard as he got to his feet. He was covered in sweat, dirt, and blood. He didn’t have a shirt or shoes on. Vaguely I was aware that the other man was Luke. He was on his phone, talking to someone. Probably 911.

But I only had eyes for Garrett.

Breathing hard, he walked over to us and dropped to his knees. He scooped us both into his arms and held us tight.

Relief washed over me and I couldn’t have stopped the tears if I’d tried. I clung to him, and to Owen, sobbing. Phillip had come to kill us. He’d been ready to kill us all.

But Garrett had saved us.

He’d saved his family.

CHAPTER 44

Garrett

The couch in the small hospital waiting room was hard and uncomfortable. But I didn’t care. I had one arm around Harper, the other around Owen. My injuries, aches, and pains, the mountains of paperwork I’d have waiting for me when I went back to work. None of it mattered.