Settling an Old Score - Delores Fossen Page 0,68

roared with pain, their eyes met, and in that instant she saw that rage had tightened all the muscles in his face. There was pure hatred in his eyes. And she also saw something else.

That he was about to shoot her.

Dominick shifted, taking aim with his gun to do just that, and she knew at that range, he wouldn’t miss.

The blast came, thick and loud. It echoed through the room. Through her head. And it was followed by a second shot, one just as loud as the first.

Ashlyn braced herself for the pain. But it didn’t come. It took her a moment to realize that she hadn’t been shot.

But Eli had been.

Eli was in the doorway of the bathroom, and there was blood on his shirt. God. Blood. But despite that, he still had his gun aimed at Dominick. He was bleeding, too, and it was spreading across the front of his shirt. Eli and he had exchanged shots, and both had been hit.

Groaning, Dominick turned and jumped out the window.

Escaping.

Eli took aim again, but it was too late. Dominick was gone.

Chapter Eighteen

Eli felt the burning and the pain in his arm and knew he’d been shot. Despite that, plenty of things had just gone right. Ashlyn hadn’t been hurt, and Dominick hadn’t managed to get to the baby.

Now Eli had to make sure things stayed that way, along with catching Dominick and making sure he paid for all the things he’d done. Things that could have left all of them dead and Cora in the hands of a killer.

“Cora!” Ashlyn practically shouted.

Despite the alarm on her face when she looked at his bloody shirtsleeve, she scrambled away from him to get to the window. No doubt because she thought that Cora and Gloria were out there where Dominick could still get to them.

Eli hurried to her, took hold of her and pulled her from the window. He also slapped off the lights so that Dominick wouldn’t be able to see them.

And shoot them.

Because while Cora and Gloria weren’t out in the yard, Dominick was.

“Gunnar has Cora and Gloria,” Eli told Ashlyn, and even though she was still struggling to get away from him, he maneuvered her out of the bathroom and back into the hall where they wouldn’t be in Dominick’s line of sight.

It obviously took several seconds for his words to sink in, but Ashlyn finally stopped trying to fight him off, and blinking, she stared up at him. “Cora’s all right?”

Eli nodded. “Gunnar texted me about five minutes ago. He went in through the bathroom window, got Gloria and the baby out, and took them to the cruiser. It’s bullet-resistant,” he reminded her. “Gloria has the baby on the floor of the car so Dominick can’t see them. The hands are guarding them to make sure Dominick doesn’t get close.”

Her breath swooshed out, and she practically sagged against him. “Cora’s all right,” she said. “My baby’s all right.”

But her relief was very short-lived. Almost immediately, the alarm returned to her eyes, and Ashlyn’s gaze slashed to his shirtsleeve.

“Oh God. You’ve been shot,” she blurted out. “Dominick shot you.”

“It’s okay. I’m okay.” Though Eli thought it was more than just a scratch, he had no intention of telling Ashlyn that. Not when she was so close to panicking.

Ashlyn volleyed her attention between his face and the wound, and she shook her head. “How soon can an ambulance get here?” So, she wasn’t buying his I’m okay, and she eased up his sleeve to take a look.

“Soon. Kellan called for one, but it won’t be able to get on the grounds until we’re sure it’s safe.”

“Safe,” Ashlyn repeated. “You mean not until Dominick is caught.” She paused, her bottom lip trembling a little. Considering everything she’d just been through, that was a fairly mild reaction. However, he was betting that every nerve in her body was rattled right now. “You shot him.”

Eli nodded. Then he silently cursed himself. “I should have gotten off a second shot so he couldn’t get away. I should have killed him.”

Apparently, Ashlyn wasn’t the only one with rattled nerves, but it had cut him to the bone to see Dominick holding that gun to her head and hearing the man threaten to take Cora. It had also cleared Eli’s mind in a very unexpected way. The fear had cut through the old wounds, their pasts, and it had made him realize just how much Ashlyn and Cora meant to him.

They meant everything to him.

Everything.

“You