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his pocket. Using the remainder of her strength, she got out of the chair and hefted herself toward the man, knocking into him. He pushed her off easily and Adrienne slid to the floor.
    By now the woman had recognized the enraged man, and was pulling her lover away and around the back of the coffee bar. The man began to draw his gun out of his pocket. Adrienne tried to get up but couldn’t make her body respond.
    “Sir, I am an agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.” A voice rang out from near the back door. “I need you to lay down your weapon and put your hands on your head.” It was Seth Harrington. Conner had gotten him here in time.
    Adrienne felt the rage briefly overtake the man before he resigned himself to the fact that he had been caught. Sirens could be heard pulling up outside the coffee shop. The man slowly put the gun on the ground and his hands behind his head.
    Over the next few minutes, organized panic ensued. Uniformed officers filed into the coffee shop, taking statements and making sure no one was hurt. Someone helped Adrienne up into a chair since she was still unsteady on her feet. The attacker was handcuffed and placed in the back of squad car just outside the door.
    Although he was no longer in the coffee shop, his proximity, combined with his continued malevolence, continued to cause jagged pains to shoot through Adrienne’s head. She could still hear everything he would’ve done to them if he had just been given the chance. She could feel bile pooling in her stomach, and she wasn’t sure how much longer she could hold on.
    Adrienne stood, prepared to stumble her way to the bathroom if she was going to lose the contents of her stomach, when all of a sudden the pain and noise in her head completely stopped.
    Caught off guard by the blessed silence, Adrienne looked around in confusion. Then she saw him.
    Conner.
    He had pulled up in his vehicle, double-parked and was rushing inside. Straight toward her. She could see myriad emotions crossing his face: confusion, concern, relief. He didn’t stop until he was standing right in front of her.
    “Conner...” Adrienne reached for him and found she couldn’t hold on any longer.
    Her last thought was hoping Conner would catch her, then she slipped unconscious to the floor.

Chapter Six
    Conner caught Adrienne as she dropped to the floor, unconscious.
    As he had pulled up in his vehicle—he didn’t even want to think of all the traffic laws he had broken getting here from his house in record time—he had seen Adrienne inside the coffee shop. At first he was overwhelmed with relief just to see she was okay. But as he had rushed closer to Adrienne, he had realized she definitely was not okay.
    There was zero color in her face, except for the dried blood that had trickled from her nose. Against her unnatural paleness, the blood stood out with jarring brightness. She was on her feet but looked none too steady. As he came through the door, some sort of shocked look passed over her features; she took a step toward him and said his name.
    Then promptly collapsed.
    Conner grabbed her as she fell and gently lowered her to the ground. “Seth!” he yelled out to his partner, who was talking to a witness over by the coffee bar. “I need help here.”
    When Seth saw Conner holding Adrienne, he quickly made his way to them.
    “Is she okay? What happened?”
    “I wanted to ask you that. I walked in and basically caught her as she collapsed.” Conner brushed a stray strand of hair that had fallen onto her forehead. Adrienne sighed and moved a little toward his hand. Although her movement reassured Conner, the absolute lack of color in her face did not. “Did the perp hurt her?”
    “There were no reports of him doing anything. He was pulling the gun as I walked in. Didn’t resist arrest or put up any fight.” Seth shrugged.
    “So what happened to her?”
    “I don’t know. She was sitting on the ground when I got here but then was at the table