He saw the man’s head turn toward him and Cutter. He was still a good hundred feet away, although Cutter was gaining ground fast. Lights had come on in the house. As if he only now realized he was in trouble, the man finally shoved her away and ran. Amanda stumbled, went down, just as the front door of the house burst open. Hayley.

“Take care of her!” he yelled and kept running.

Cutter was closing on the man, but Adam knew it was pointless when he saw the man yanking open the door of a car that had been parked in the deep shadows of a row of cedars just north of the house. The passenger door, and he could hear that the car was already running.

“Cutter!” He yelled it, afraid the dog would get hurt. He hadn’t really expected the animal to listen to him, but as the man he was pursuing got into the car, he slowed. The car’s tires squealed as they made a wild U-turn and sped off. Apparently, the dog was clever enough not to waste energy on a moving vehicle and stopped.

Adam immediately turned and ran back, the image of Amanda falling to the ground when the guy let her go seared into his mind. He was terrified she’d been hurt. Or worse.

Hayley glanced at him as he knelt beside them. Breathed again when he realized Amanda was alive. Hayley was helping her sit up, but she looked at Adam and nodded toward Amanda’s left side. He looked down, saw a long, thin line of blood across her ribs.

“Anywhere else besides your side?” Adam asked urgently.

“I... What?” Amanda sounded so shaken he wanted nothing more than to sweep her up in his arms and hold her until she felt safe again.

“You’re bleeding a little,” Hayley said then; she’d pulled out her phone and turned the flashlight on, scanning Amanda from head to toe.

“I am?” It was the shock, the aftermath of fear for her life that put that quaver in her voice, Adam knew. He put a hand over the spot on her ribs. She winced slightly. “Oh. He...had a knife.”

Adam’s jaw tightened as he probed, found the long but thankfully not deep slice across her ribs, which had done what they were designed to do and protected her. “I saw. Anywhere else?”

“I don’t think so...but I didn’t even feel that.”

“Adrenaline is an amazing thing,” he muttered.

“Let’s get you inside,” Hayley suggested, “where we can see how bad that is, if we need to call paramedics or get you to the ER.”

“Oh! No, no, it’s not bad, really. I—” Adam gave in to the urge he’d felt before and picked her up. She stiffened and let out a gasp, but he thought it sounded more like surprise than pain. “What are you—”