Author: Jane Blythe

Macey woke up a week later.

Seven days gone.

Seven days that they would never get back.

Seven days Tyler had feared that this time he had lost her for good.

Thankfully he had been unconscious for the first two of those days. The first words out of his mouth when he had woken up were about Macey. As soon as he found out she was alive but unconscious he had demanded to be taken to her room.

His doctor had refused.

He had tried to get out of his bed, promptly passed out, and woken up another twelve hours later.

Ever since then he had insisted to be put in the same room as Macey, and someone had pulled strings to get it to happen.

He had begged, he had pleaded, he had prayed, but she had remained stubbornly asleep. Shock, maybe, exhaustion definitely, the doctors had said but they hand answer as to why she hadn’t woken up.

Now finally her eyelashes fluttered on her cheeks.

“Mace?” he said, brushing his fingertips across her pale, hollow cheek.

“Tyler?” Just like that she snapped fully awake, her eyes growing wide when she saw him sitting in a chair beside her bed. “You’re alive.”

She launched herself out of the bed and into his arms. The movement tore at his healing chest wound but he didn’t care. The woman he loved was awake and holding onto him like she was terrified he might disappear.

He knew the feeling.

“I’m alive, sweetheart, and I don’t ever want to leave you again. Marry me, Macey.”

She leaned back, her arms still locked around his neck. “Are you serious?”

“Couldn’t be more serious.”

“Then, yes! Yes! Of course I’ll marry you. I love you, Tyler.”

She kissed him and the horrors of the last several months faded away, there would be hard days ahead, obstacles for both of them to overcome, but he had the woman he loved back.

“TYLER! Don’t You die on me, I just got you back,” Macey sobbed as she clutched his hand as though that would force him to come back to her.

Paramedics filled the room, voices floated around her, someone tried to pull her away from Tyler but she held on with all the strength that she had left, which wasn’t very much.

Her body trembled with exhaustion, her mind begged her to lie down and close her eyes but she ignored it. She couldn’t leave Tyler, if he didn’t know how much she needed him then he wouldn’t know how hard he had to fight to come back to her.

“Tyler, please,” she whispered as the medics shocked his heart.

“Got him back,” the EMT announced, and she sagged in relief.

“Thank you, Tyler.” Leaning down Macey brushed her lips across his cheek.

She thought she saw his eyelashes flutter but the world suddenly began to swim around her, and she reached out to grab something to steady her only there was nothing there and the next thing she knew she was falling into oblivion.

Cold.

Tyler was cold.

Freezing.

Wet.

He felt wet as well.

There was also pain.

Pain so strong it stole his ability to breathe.

Weeping.

He could hear someone crying.

Macey.

It was Macey.

Her tears cut through the pain and he tried to reassure her that everything would be okay.

A little flicker of an eyelid.

A tiny wriggle of a finger.

That was all he could manage.

Tyler had the feeling he was floating and then a moment later he was looking down at himself lying on his bedroom floor surrounded by a pool of blood.

Macey was on her knees beside him, sobbing as she begged him to wake up.

He wanted to.

He didn’t want to leave her.

But something was pulling him further and further away and he didn’t know how to stop it.

A presence beside her bed tugged her from sleep.

Macey’s eyes snapped open and her worst nightmare was confirmed when she saw Michael standing beside her bed, a gun in his hand.

Where was Tyler?

He had promised to stay right by her side when he tucked hr in earlier but now he was gone.

“Macey!”

Someone screamed her name.

Tyler.

It sounded like he was outside.

“Come on,” Michael growled, grabbing her roughly and dragging her from the bed.

She went willingly, unable to get her body to move, paralysed by shock and terror.

They were halfway to the bedroom door when Tyler burst through it.

Michael didn’t hesitate he just fired.

Blood bloomed on Tyler’s chest, his eyes widened in surprise, then he fell to his knees.

The sight of the man she loved slumping to the floor flicked a switch inside her.

Macey screamed, wrenching herself sideways.

“No,” Willian snarled, grabbing her wrist and wrenching so hard she felt her bones snap.

The pain was nothing compared to what she felt knowing Tyler was dead or dying.

Tyler’s gun had dropped from his hand when he fell, if she could just get to it she’d end this once and for all.

She could hear voices, help was coming, Michael must have heard it to because he snarled. “You do anything stupid and I will shoot every single person who tried to stop us.”

No.

That wasn’t happening.

With a howl that barely sounded human to her own ears she lurched sideways, managing to break free of his hold and lunged for the gun.

Her fingers curled around it, she swung in Michael’s direction and fired.

And fired.

And fired.

Until there were no bullets left and he lay dead.

“Michael,” she sobbed, crawling over to him. Why didn’t he let Ryder do his job? Why did he leave her side?

There was so much blood.

Tyler’s partner’s eyes met hers, filled with pain and sorrow.

And her heart cracked into a million pieces.

When he’d dreamed of getting Macey back alive Tyler had thought that the waiting would be over. Waiting for news, waiting for a lead, waiting for evidence, waiting to have her back in his arms where she belonged.

Now that he had her back he was still waiting.

Only now he was waiting for Michael Cummings to make his move.

Time to play the ultimate game of cat and mouse.

If the stakes weren’t so high, and so personal, then Tyler would enjoy the hunt, he loved his job, bringing down criminals gave him a rush, and there was nothing so satisfying as snapping handcuffs on someone who deserved to be in prison.

But this was Macey’s life they were playing with and that meant he just wanted this over.

She was fast asleep, tucked up in his bed, and he was glad she was getting some rest. The doctor at the hospital had given her some sleeping pills and he thought he was going to have to fight with her to get her to take them but she had acquiesced easily. That was a testament to the toll the last four months had taken on her.

Movement out the window caught his attention and he climbed off the bed, picked up his gun and crossed the room. It was dark out, and he scanned the yard, searching for anything moving.

Tyler was about to give up when he saw it again. Over by the back fence, behind the old oak tree that he and Macey used to sit under on warm summer evenings. There was a man.

“Ryder, back yard, there’s someone there,” he said into his radio.

“On it,” Ryder said.

He was about to turn back to the bed when he noticed a beam of light like from a flashlight. It looked like someone was trying to get a look at the house, maybe figure out which room Macey might be in.

It had to be Michael.

Since Macey was fast asleep he decided to head out there, Michael wasn’t going to go down easily, and there was no way the man was slinking away again.

Running down the stairs he burst through the back door as he saw Ryder round the house. The beam of light winked out.

“Ryder, over here,” he said running in the direction he’d seen the light.

Footsteps pounded and he knew that Michael was trying to flee again.

Not going to happen.

Picking up speed he caught movement to his left and didn’t even think, just threw himself at the other man.

Tyler connected with him, tackling him to the ground. Michael fought against him but four months of anger and frustration was fuelling him and he managed to spin the man onto his stomach, arms pulled behind his back, pinned in place.

“Cuffs,” he asked no one in particular, and when he was given a pair he snapped them on and rolled Michael over.

The man was wearing a black hood pulled low on his face, and Tyler shoved it back and then gasped.

This wasn’t Michael Cummings, it was some kid, from the looks of him barely old enough to drive.

A trick.

This had been a trick to get them out of the house, leaving Macey alone and vulnerable.

“Macey,” he screamed as he stood and tore back through the yard, praying he wasn’t too late.