Seventeen years old, blood drying on my face, and sitting inside a police station, I was asked who they should call to come get me.

Time seemed to stop.

The smell of gunpowder filled the small wooden carriage house.

I hit the floor hard, scrambling back up to see Eleanor collapsing onto her side in the sawdust, clutching her left shoulder as dark blood instantly began soaking through her light coat.

"ELEANOR!" I screamed, the sound tearing from my throat with a raw, agonizing fury I had never felt before.

Marcus let out a roar of pure rage, lunging forward with the heavy iron wrench, striking Rossi hard across the side of his head. Rossi stumbled backward out into the mud, dropping his gun, where my father instantly materialized from the shadows of the storm.

Julian grabbed Rossi by his throat, slamming him violently against the side of an SUV, pressing his handgun directly beneath Rossi's chin.

"Give me one reason," Julian growled, his voice trembling with a terrifying, murderous rage. "Give me ONE reason I shouldn't end your pathetic life right here."

"Dad! Stop!" I screamed, sprinting out of the carriage house into the rain, my face covered in mud and tears. "Dad, help her! She's shot! Eleanor is shot!"

Julian froze. He looked at me, seeing the blood on my hands, then turned his gaze toward the open carriage house door where Marcus and Leo were kneeling beside Eleanor's motionless form.

Something inside Julian Cavanaugh broke in that second.

He didn't execute Rossi. Instead, he smashed the butt of his gun across Rossi's jaw, knocking the man unconscious into the mud, and yelled to his men, "SECURE THEM! CALL AN AMBULANCE NOW!"

My father sprinted past me, throwing himself down into the sawdust beside Eleanor.

"Miss Hargrove!" Julian said, his voice cracking—a sound I had never, in my entire life, heard from him. He pulled off his expensive charcoal suit jacket, rolling it up tightly and pressing it firmly against the bleeding wound on her shoulder.

Eleanor winced, her face pale, her lips trembling, but her clear blue eyes slowly opened, looking past Julian to where the four of us stood hovering over her.

"The... the boys..." she whispered weakly, her breath shallow. "Are they... safe?"

"They're safe," Julian whispered back, holding the pressure on her wound with trembling, blood-stained hands. "They're all safe because of you. Stay with us, Eleanor. Do you hear me? That's an order."

A faint, small smile touched Eleanor's lips despite the pain. "You... you can't give me orders, Mr. Cavanaugh... I don't work for you... anymore..."

"You aren't fired," Julian said desperately, his eyes shining with unshed tears as he looked at the woman who had protected his children when he wasn't there. "You aren't fired. Just stay awake. Please."

I dropped to my knees beside her, taking her cold hand in mine. "Eleanor, stay with us. You promised, remember? You said we couldn't break you. You can't leave us now."

Toby squeezed himself between Marcus and me, reaching out his small hand to gently touch Eleanor's cheek. "Please stay, Eleanor," Toby said, his voice quiet, clear, and steady. "I love you."