25
Pain unlike anything Ashure had ever experienced pierced him to his soul. The grief welling up inside him was too much to bear. Was this what Simon had felt when he lost his beloved wife? The sensation of being ripped in half was profound.
His breaths were coming in gasps, but it still felt like he couldn’t breathe. Tonya had become still. Her eyelashes lay like crescent moons against her pale skin. He looked down at the bullet wounds. One had pierced her chest, and the other bullet had struck her lower abdomen.
Rage poured through him, and he stared at the man who had shot her. He caught his breath again. This time it wasn’t because of the pain or the rage, but because the world around him had suddenly stopped.
He could see the man on the porch had turned, and his gun was pointed a
