embrace. He pushed her behind him as he faced the man. Wesley raised his head. Sweat shone over his forehead, and there was a glazed look in his eyes. His hand slipped over the floor. Riley was shocked to see that it was covered in blood. His head dropped to the floor, and a line of blood tricked out from under his body.
“What happened?” she stuttered out the words. It felt unreal, like a nightmare, but it was not.
“Call 911,” said Chance. “I think he slipped on the knife, and it stabbed him.”
Walking over to the man, he turned him around and sure enough, the knife was deep inside his body and only the handle stuck out. Riley gasped. She ran for the phone. Luckily, they had service, and she was able to call the police and the paramedics. As she did that, she noticed Chance giving CPR to the man who had tried to kill her.
If she ever had doubts about this man, all of them vanished, as she saw him struggle to keep the murderer alive. She didn’t know if he would succeed or fail, but she loved that he was trying. The man rose high up in her estimation, and from now there was nothing he could do wrong as far as she was concerned.
Chapter Eight
Wesley was dead. Chance saw his blood spill out, and he saw the medics do their best to revive him and keep him alive, but he didn’t make it. The police came, and it took them a long time to give explanations and to make their statements. In the end, they opted not to stay at the cabin. It was impossible to sleep in a place where someone just died. He didn’t think Riley could do it, and neither could he.
They made their way to the city. Riley was quiet, unnaturally so. He understood that she’d lost the last member of her family. Even though Wesley spent the last decade chasing her and she running from him, in the end, he was her only link to her past. He was relieved, but he hadn’t expected this to be the end. Now, Wesley wouldn’t ever bother her, but the man paid for his mistakes with his life. Chance couldn’t be happy at someone’s demise—even though it meant that Riley wasn’t in danger anymore.
Somber, they went to the apartment. “Are you ok?”
She sighed and dumped her bag in a corner. “I think so…I guess…I don’t know.”
“It’s a lot to take in,” he admitted. “Honestly, I never expected that he would follow us there.”
“I did.”
“What?”
She ran a hand through her hair and then turned to face him. “I knew he wouldn’t ever leave us. I expected that he would follow us if we ever left the city.”
“Why the hell didn’t you warn me?”
“If I had done so, you wouldn’t have ever taken me anywhere. We’re starting a new life, and I just wanted to start living without this fear. There was only one way to confront it, and that was to allow him to catch up.”
He was so annoyed that he couldn’t think straight. “Are you fucking mad? He could have killed you.”
Tears rolled down her cheeks. “I never expected that he would come so fast. Perhaps he just didn’t want to wait. I thought he would come after a day, after studying a situation, and I was planning to discuss it with you. I guess it was stupid of me, but I just wanted to have a few moments to ourselves, to have fun, and to enjoy. If I had known he would jump the gun like this, I would’ve told you.”
He wanted to rail at her and to tell her that she took a stupid risk, but how could he berate her after such a shock? And it was his fault that he didn’t realize the danger. “He probably didn’t want to stick around for long because the police were after him for Simon’s death. His plan must have been to get out of the state after killing you.”
“Yeah, I suppose.”
He looked at her for a moment and then walked over. Chance enveloped her in a hug. “I am sorry about his death.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” she said. “If I had
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