He has to be okay. He has to be okay.

Harvey uses that moment of sheer panic to slam me into the wall again, and there’s a sting of fire in every single vertebra in my spine.

My grip loosens and Harvey throws me off of him. My head is pounding and my entire body hurts, but I look around for Aiden, barely registering Harvey behind me trying to catch his breath.

Where is he?!

That frantic feeling is clawing its way through me, choking me. I race into the hallway just as a sea of blue charges in.

The pounding in my head is just getting worse. My lungs aren’t working properly. Where is Aiden?!

Then I see him. He and Andrew are both being forced roughly into handcuffs. Andrew’s nose is crooked and there’s blood all over his face and shirt. There’s blood on Aiden but he looks okay. No bullet wounds.

I can barely take a second to allow myself to feel relieved because then I realize that they’re handcuffing Aiden.

“No, not him!” I force out, ignoring the officers talking to me, focused just on the ones trying to arrest Aiden. My head is pounding and the adrenaline surging through my veins is the only thing keeping me standing.

“My name is Amelia Collins, I made the nine-one-one call. This is his house.” I point at Aiden.

After some back and forth, Aiden is released, and I basically tackle him. His solid arms wrap around me and relief floods through me.

His hands tangle in my hair, and he pulls me close until our lips meet. It’s quick and frantic, like it’s our first and last kiss all wrapped up into one.

“Are you okay?” He pulls away so his eyes can roam my body.

“I’m fine, are you? The gunshots . . . ?”

“I’m fine. We were fighting over the gun, the shots went through the wall.”

I’m so overcome with joy and relief that I don’t know what to do with myself. All I can do is pull him back down to me and kiss him; kiss him with everything I have, because we came so close to losing it all.

He pulls away and leans his forehead against mine. “Why can’t you just stay out of it when I tell you to? I couldn’t have lived with myself if something happened to you because of me.”

“I’ll always be there for you. Nothing happened; we’re all okay,” I gently reassure him, and as if to emphasize my point, an officer leads Jason and Jackson back into the house.

They run up to us and wrap their arms around Aiden, and I’m surprised when they include me in the hug too. I didn’t think I’d ever see Aiden close to tears, but here he is, hugging his little brothers just as fiercely and protectively as they’re holding on to him.

“You guys are so brave,” he says to them with force behind his words. “I’m so proud of you. Everything’s all right.”