He stumbled backward. He lost his footing and smacked into the wall, then sagged beneath the window.
Sounds came from behind her. Muffled and distant. Raised voices, cries of alarm.
Someone shouted something. Words that made no sense. Her ears rang.
Light bobbed along the hallway, bathing the nursery in flaring shadows. Dimly, she sensed Evelyn and Travis crowding into the doorway behind her.
Every fiber of her being longed to rush to her child, but she couldn’t. Not yet. She couldn’t focus on anything but eliminating the threat.
She knew better than to turn her back on a wounded animal. Especially the human kind.
She strode toward the assailant and loomed over him. Blood leaked from his right shoulder. It pooled beneath him from a hole in his groin.
He twisted away from her, cursing and gasping. He crawled, scrabbling along the floor in search of his weapon. It fell when he’d dropped her daughter.
She kicked it away.
He looked up at her, expression twisted in pain and hatred. Coal-black eyes, narrow cheekbones, grizzled beard. “You little b—”
Hannah planted her feet and aimed between his eyes. “No one messes with my family!”
30
Hannah
Day One Hundred and Ten
“Wait!” Liam’s voice thundered through the nursery. He shouldered into the room and sprinted to her side, Bishop right behind him. “Don’t shoot him!”
Hannah hesitated.
Bishop trained his Heckler and Koch .45 with the extended suppression barrel at the assailant.
Liam put a firm hand on her forearm and lowered her pistol. “We need him alive.”
She stood, swaying on her feet. Blinking and uncertain. Her pulse a roar in her ears. “But I have to—”
“I’ll do it, Hannah.” Still holding the Glock, he grasped her shoulders and gazed into her eyes. “It’s over. We’ll take it from here.”
She nodded dully. It took three tries to flick on the safety and slip the .45 into her pajama pocket.
Someone had brought in a lantern. Liam? Or Travis? She didn’t know.
“Charlotte and L.J.?” Liam asked tersely.
“L.J.’s fine,” Travis said. “We need to check Charlotte. Hannah saved her from that dirtbag.”
“And Milo?” Liam asked.
“He’s at the house, sleeping.”
“I’ll send Perez over to stay with him.” Bishop unhooked his radio. “Any other assailants?”
“Only two. Ghost got that one,” she said, suddenly lightheaded.
The adrenaline dump seized her. Waves of dizziness washed over her, her legs going weak and rubbery.
Liam and Bishop had things under control. Charlotte. She needed Charlotte.
She staggered across the room and crumpled to her knees. “Charlotte, I’m here. I’m right here, honey.”
The baby waved her chubby arms, screaming and red-faced, her eyes squeezed shut in outrage. No visible wounds, but a rug burn reddened her left cheek.
Hannah couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, her stomach in horrified knots. What if her neck was broken? Or her spine misaligned, her skull bruised, or worse?
“Don’t move her!” Evelyn knelt beside Hannah, dressed in silk pajamas, her black hair in disarray. “Let me check her first.”
Against her every instinct, Hannah sank back as Evelyn examined the baby, monitored her vital signs, and checked for internal injuries.
Travis collected L.J. from the crib and cradled him to his chest, rocking him gently and whispering in his ear. The baby’s desperate cries hushed to hiccupping whimpers.
Liam and Bishop dragged the wounded assailant to the corner and shoved him up against the closet door. After frisking him, Liam knelt while Bishop stood watch at the window.
The assailant whimpered and begged for mercy. Liam offered him none.
“I think that one’s good and dead now, buddy,” Travis said to Ghost.
The dog’s jaws were locked around the neck of the first assailant. Ghost gave a last vicious shake of his head. With a snarl, he released his prey.
The mangled body sprawled between the wall and the crib in the corner.
Ghost clambered off the corpse. His hind leg faltered; he yelped in pain.
He must have reinjured himself in the attack's exertion. Undaunted, he hobbled across the room toward Hannah.
Crouched protectively over Charlotte’s tiny form, Ghost glared at Evelyn. A menacing growl rumbled from his throat. His ears flattened, his jowls pulled back from his wet red fangs.
Evelyn froze, one hand pressed to Charlotte’s chest, Ghost’s jaws inches from her wrist.