Free A Hero to Rescue Me (Hero's Crossing) by Marteeka Karland Page B

Carver, I highly recommend–” Whatever the woman was going to say was wasted because no one was listening, least of all Chase. He stalked toward Dan. When the man jerked Melanie more fully in front of him, Chase grabbed Dan’s wrist–the one attached to the hand encircling Melanie’s throat—and squeezed.  With a groan, Dan let Melanie go. She wasted no time, instead ducking under his arm and lunging away.
    “Get away from me!” Dan shrieked. “Melanie is my woman. Everyone knows it. We’re getting married–”
    His words were cut off when Melanie, ever conscious of the open 9-1-1 line, interrupted him. “You got me fired from my job at your office, tried to get social services to take Abigail away from me, destroyed my car, and tried to strangle me! What part of that makes you think we’re in any shape or fashion a couple?” All the while, Melanie backed away from him, wrapping an arm around Abigail, ushering the girl farther into the apartment away from danger.
    Abigail had just disappeared into her old bedroom when a gunshot rang out, followed by a grunt of pain. With a cry, Melanie slammed Abigail’s room shut and darted back to the living room. There she found Chase and Dan locked in a grappling fight.
    Blood ran down Chase’s left arm, and Melanie noticed him favoring it. Dan took every opportunity to take advantage of Chase’s weaker side, punching and swinging at his left shoulder as much as possible.
    Chase might have been slower on the wounded side, but his eyes were steady, his movements fluid and deadly. Several times he landed solid hits to Dan, the other man crying out in pain but not backing off.
    When the glint of a gun flashed into view, Melanie saw red. Dan raised the weapon, ready to fire again, but Chase knocked his hand aside. Somehow, Dan managed to retain possession, but seemed unable to raise it a second time.
    Lunging for the bag Abigail had left out, she found a child’s ball bat sticking out of the end of the duffel. She snatched it and ran toward Dan...
    Just as he raised the gun in her direction.
    ***
    For the second time in his life, Chase was about to lose someone he cared about. Only this time, he knew he’d never recover. The gun pointed at Melanie might as well have been pointed straight at his heart.
    With a cry, he lunged for Melanie, not caring if he was shot again as long as she was safe. But his woman proved too quick even for him. With a battle cry to do any warrior on the battlefield proud, she swung her bat, the blow landing squarely on Dan’s gun hand. The weapon skittered across the room. Dan’s wrist snapped with a sickening crunch .
    Raising the bat to swing again, Melanie’s expression was a mixture of fear, anger and... anguish . In that moment, Chase realized the differences in their situations. He was a man she’d known only a few weeks, while Dan she’d dated a few years . Obviously, she’d expected to marry him or she wouldn’t have stayed with him for so long. Yes, they had issues. Yes, Dan had told her he hadn’t wanted Abigail. But did Melanie still have feelings for him? In such a violent struggle, would she choose Dan over Chase? Surely not. The man was a complete ass, as well as a certifiable bully.
    “That’s enough, miss.” The arrival of the police had gone unnoticed by everyone, including Chase. That was when despair hit Chase. As awful as it was to lose Ritchie, the thought of Melanie going to Dan instead of him felt like someone had not only gutted him, but sliced open his chest and cut out his still-beating heart, showing it to him like they’d won a trophy.
    Melanie dropped the bat, sinking to her knees, her body visibly trembling.
    “Melanie?” Dan’s pleading voice rang in Chase’s ears even as his shoulder began to sear him with pain where the man had shot him. Double whammy.
    As if in waking up from a trance, Melanie shook her head and shot to her feet, launching herself at Dan. Only, far from a sobbing, clinging woman