The bell over the front door jingled, and Piper jerked. Footsteps rushed toward them and the black curtain flew open. She aimed her gun straight at—Layla Lopez. The gun trembled in her hands. I shot him in the head. Had to—he was wearing the vest. I didn’t know if the bullet could go through the vest. I shot him in the head and the blood flew out and—

Layla licked her lips. “You know I need you to drop that weapon.”

Her teeth were chattering. “I-I need to make sure he’s not going to attack again.”

“He’s gone,” Eric told her quietly.

Her head whipped toward him. He was beside Mark’s body, his fingers at Mark’s throat.

“He’s gone, baby. You can put the gun down.”

Gone.

The gun felt too heavy in her hand, but she lowered it slowly, oddly terrified that if she just dropped it, the gun would go off. The bullet would fly out and someone would get hurt again.

A shudder rippled over Piper’s body. “I killed him.”

“I swear, I did this scene already.” Layla blew out a hard breath. Then she strode toward Mark. Blood-covered Mark. “Told you, sonofabitch, I don’t stop until I catch the killer. Knew it was you, as soon as I read your sister’s case file. Couldn’t leave the office, not until I did it.”

Eric moved to stand in front of Piper. “Baby?”

He was okay. She threw her arms around him and held tight. As tight as she could. Piper never, ever intended to let him go.

In that one moment, that one terrible moment when Mark had lunged up with the knife, she’d known that she would do anything to protect Eric. She’d squeezed the trigger fully aware that she was killing so that he wouldn’t be hurt.

She loved Eric. And if anyone threatened the man she loved again…

I will always defend him.

“Baby, I think I almost had a heart attack.” He wasn’t holding her back. He was stiff within her embrace. “And all I want to do is put my arms around you, but I’ve got his blood all over my hands. I love you so much. So freaking much and I never, ever want to find some bastard holding a gun on you again and—Shit! She’s shot!”

And Piper became aware of the burn in her shoulder. A burn that she’d been ignoring until that moment.

As she pulled back from Eric, she saw that her whole left sleeve was soaked with blood. And her shoulder…damn, was the bullet still inside of her? Her head turned as she craned to see the wound.

It pulsed blood. Heavy rivers that poured every few moments. And the blood wasn’t just dripping down her arm.

It was more like pouring down her arm.

A siren screamed in the distance.