“I have to help Matthew. They’re going to kill him!” she screeched out, not stopping. She had to help Matthew, praying the man with the gun would follow her.

Hearing his footfalls and snapping branches, she ran faster.

Please let Matthew be all right. Please …

She ran over the rise and saw Matthew getting off the fake deputy, who lay unmoving.

“What in the fuck did you do to him?”

Alanna stopped running when she heard the fear in Owen’s voice and saw it on his face.

Matthew’s back was turned to her, so he hadn’t seen her coming to a stop a few feet away.

“I did to him exactly what I’m going to do to you.”

She was still frozen in place when she saw Silas, Isaac, and Moses running up the driveway to encircle Owen.

Silas nodded at the man on the ground. “He’s the one who ran the school bus off the road. We found Deputy MacNeil’s car with the deputy and Diamond inside. The deputy was killed, and Diamond’s being worked on at the hospital. They think she’ll make it.”

Thank God. Alanna started crying at hearing the woman wasn’t dead.

“The road is blocked with everyone trying to get past where the emergency vehicles are trying to reach the bus. Jody, Jacob, and Ezra are with Fynn at the hospital. I think he’s got a broken arm. Greer’s nephew wasn’t hurt. A little girl was pinned under the bus when it went down. She died.” Silas’ face was filled with hatred as he stared at Owen, who was just staring back at them. Owen might be a terror where women were concerned, but with men, he showed himself to be the coward he was.

“I was only trying to protect Alanna from Elizabeth.”

“How did you know Elizabeth was here?” Matthew fired off the question without giving Owen a chance to talk. Then a spark of fire hit Owen in his chest.

“Where’s your ankle monitor? You’re supposed to be restricted to the hotel room your lawyer got for you. Where’s all your big talk about what you were going to do to Alanna when you found her?”

As Matthew scornfully talked, sparks of fire keep hitting Owen, forcing him to start wildly patting his clothes.

“What in the fuck? How are you doing that? Stop! That hurts!” Owen yelled, trying to step away from Matthew.

With a low whistle, Moses’s dogs ran out to growl at Owen. Every time Owen tried to move, one of the dogs would nip at him.

“I’m not hurting you one-tenth of what you did to Alanna!” Matthew’s harsh voice had her shivering. “You turned an innocent game of hide and seek into terrorizing a small child, then you raped her, destroying any chance of her becoming a mother, or me becoming their father!”