Seeking Happily Ever After (Ever After #8) - Elena Aitken Page 0,66

shoulder. “I got her.” She stepped in and grabbed the baby. She whisked the baby away, and Charlotte became his only focus.

“Char.” He moved her, laid her down flat on the floor, and immediately looked for a pulse. It was there. It was faint, but it was there. “Baby, no. Stay with me.”

He pulled her up, so her head was cradled in his lap. “Help!” His voice cracked and hot tears burned at his eyes. “I need an ambulance.”

He couldn’t lose her. Not now.

“Stay with me, Char.” He pressed his forehead to hers. “Help is coming. You’re going to be okay. It’s all going to be okay. Don’t leave me, Char. I love you.” The words slipped out with a sob. Unsure of whether she could hear him or not, he repeated them over and over until the paramedics arrived.

Chapter Eighteen

“Thank you both so much for your cooperation.” The police officer, she now knew as Constable Remington Walker, who insisted on being called by his first name, led Stephanie and Travis from the examination room, where they’d been answering questions about what they’d found and how the evening had played out.

“Of course.” Stephanie nodded and wrapped her arms around her waist. “Anything you need,” she said. “If we can be of any more help or…well, I still can’t believe he was living on the property.”

“He did a good job at covering his tracks,” Remington said. “He didn’t want to be found. Don’t beat yourself up.”

Travis shook his head. “I run those trails every day. How did I not see him? I don’t get it.”

“Like I said,” the officer said. “He was doing a pretty good job covering his tracks. He was up pretty high, past that last cabin. It looks like he’d been watching Charlotte for a while now. And, well, it all just went down at once.”

“Poor Charlotte.” Steph couldn’t even imagine what her new friend had gone through. To be confronted by the ex who she’d fled from. How terrified she must have been. And the gunshot? “Have we heard how she is?”

Remington shook his head, as did Travis. “No new updates,” he said.

“I just can’t…” She sniffed back the tears that threatened and forced a smile. “Well, thank you, Officer. I feel better knowing that Billy’s in custody now. And I’m sure Charlotte will…I mean…if…”

“When.” Travis put his hand on her shoulder. She looked up into his eyes, softened with worry. “When she wakes up,” he corrected.

The tenderness almost made her cry, but Stephanie swallowed back the emotion and stress of the night and managed a nod. “Right,” she agreed. “When.”

To say the last few hours had been exciting was putting it mildly. Between the gunshot, and Billy, and then finding Jessica overdosed less than an hour after taking the baby, it was like a scene right out of one of the movies Stephanie had starred in.

She took a deep breath and looked at the two men in turn. “I guess we’ll need a ride back to…” She didn’t know where they should go. The idea of going back to her cabin at Lynx Creek scared her, not that she would admit it. But that man had been living on the property with her so nearby and she’d never known. The idea…well, it terrified her and made her question a lot. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea for her to be up there living on her own.

She looked at Travis and back to Remington.

“I’d like to go to the hospital,” she said. “Would you mind?”

“Not at all.” Remington smiled kindly.

She started walking down the hall, toward the door, when she realized Travis wasn’t with her. She turned. “Are you coming?”

Travis gave the officer a look, that he clearly interpreted the way it was intended, because Remington cleared his throat and excused himself.

“I forgot that I should take care of some paperwork real quick. I’ll just be a few minutes, if you two are good for a few?” He didn’t wait for an answer before disappearing down the hall, back toward the offices.

When he was gone, Travis walked toward her and closed the distance.

It felt like a lifetime ago that she’d been in his arms, kissing him as if her life depended on it. And in that moment, it did.

But now…

Now he felt a million miles away, and she felt lonelier than ever before. Only worse because of what they’d experienced together.

The kiss had turned into more. And somehow they’d moved inside of Steph’s cabin. His hands