As Dimitri and the other Smiths surge forward, Ryker turns and scoops me up in his arms. “It’s all right, baby, I won’t let him hurt you.”
“Ryker?” I cry, wrapping my arms around his neck despite the pain. “Your brothers?—”
“Can take care of themselves.” He stops, searching for a way out as Sver lands a punch to Killian’s jaw before he crashes to the floor.
“The balcony,” I whisper. “I climbed down.”
“Jesus,” he mutters, but starts for the doors. I bury my face into his neck as Killian picks himself up, and charges at Sver, pushing him out of the bedroom and into the hall.
I hear Sver’s roar. He must change the momentum, both he and Killian falling back into the room.
I watch over Ryker’s shoulder as Gris and Dimitri jump on Sver’s back.
But he surges up, pulling two pistols from his waist, he aims at Ryker’s back, and Gris only just yanks up his arm, the bullet whizzing just above our heads.
I scream, but Ryker only holds me tighter. “It’s all right, baby.”
“He almost shot you.”
“If he does, you keep going, all right? Don’t look back, just go.”
“Ryker?” These words dislodge something deep in my chest. Is he telling me he’d die to protect me? “You can’t leave me.”
He presses his finger to the lock pad, even as Sver tries to escape the pile of men pinning down his arms and pushing him to the floor.
The door unlocks and Ryker pushes it open. “Never. I told you. I’m yours for life. No matter what. My life is yours.” My heart hammers against my ribs as I stare at his profile, a sob rising in my chest.
And then he steps out onto the balcony as Sver roars, throwing off Killian and Rush.
Ryker closes the door, and the lock clicks back into place.
Sver charges the glass, banging on it, as the other men rush at him, pinning him to the door.
“It’s bulletproof, baby,” Ryker says as he brushes a kiss across my forehead. “He can’t hurt us now.”
He shifts my weight so that I’m upright.
“Wrap your legs around my waist. I’ll do the rest.”
“But…” I do as he asks. “Your brothers.”
“Will be fine. They might even appreciate that I’m gone. They’re as mad at me as you are.”
“I’m not…” I start even as Ryker swings a leg over the rail. “I loved you. I wanted to give you everything.”
“I love you too, baby. With my whole heart.”
Sver pounds on the glass as Ryker swings the other leg over. We’re even higher up than when I did this, and the daylight highlights how far to the ground we are if we fall. I close my eyes. “Don’t say that.”
“You can have all my money. All my property. I meant what I said. I didn’t understand before you, Sasha. I had closed myself off to everyone.”
A lump catches in my throat. Is he really telling me that I taught him to love?
I tip my chin up then, catching his lips with my own. He kisses me back like a drowning man.
“I’m still furious, but just in case we die.” But my throat sticks with the words and I know I’m softening.
One corner of his mouth tips up. “I could climb down these balconies in my sleep. And you are light as a feather.”
