20
Audra’s gazelanded on Diggs and she froze, her entire body turning to ice. He lay on the ground, struggling to roll onto his side, blood puddling on the concrete beneath him. Without thought, she forgot about the bullets flying around inside the warehouse. She forgot about Trigger. She forgot about everything butDiggs.
Abandoning her hiding spot, she rushed to his side and dropped to her knees. “Diggs, oh my God, someonehelp!”
“No,” Diggs began to say and immediately coughed and gasped, his already pale face goingwhite.
“Dammit, Hicks, King! Someone get over here now!” Audra ripped off the plaid button up she wore, leaving her only in her gray tank top, and pressed the cloth against Diggs’ belly. As soon as she applied pressure, he groaned, and she immediately yanked her hands back, hands that were now covered in his blood. She started to shake, her heart beating wild and frantic in her chest. She couldn’t lose him now, not when she felt like she’d only just really allowed herself to fall in love withhim.
“Audra, go.” His voice was harsh and filled with pain. He swiped her hand trying to knock it from his gut, but the attempt was weak anduseless.
“I’m not leaving you.” Where the hell was everyone? “Someone help him. He’s dying!” She frantically looked around the room for any sign of his teammates, but all she saw were scattered crates. Gunfire sounded from somewhere else, but the whole warehouse echoed like a big cavern, and she couldn’t tell what directions the sounds were coming from. They must be in some kind of firefight, had the colonel learned about their plans and attacked early? What was she supposed todo?
“I’ll helpyou.”
Audra spun at the cold, quiet voice, only to have her already cold blood freeze in her veins. “You.”
“So, he did tell you about me.” Jeremy’s colonel pulled a pistol from inside of his dark brown jacket and pointed it at her head. “You know, if your brother hadn’t stuck his nose in my business, he might still bealive.”
Audra knew she should be afraid, any rational, sane person would be when they were staring down the barrel of a gun, but in that moment, all she could feel was rage. Black, seething rage. “Murderer.”
The colonel shrugged, completely uncaring that he’d destroyed her life. “I’d call it more of a business decision. Your brother tried to stop me from making a lot of money. Money, I deserved. Money that you have. Where’s thegold?”
“Even if I did know where it was, I’d die before I told you.” Unfortunately, she didn’t actually have it, but the terrorists who’d set up the meet did. And she knew the gold was here somewhere, but apparently the colonel didn’t, which gave her power. “And I’m the only one who does know.” Audra glanced at the gun and then back up at Jeremy’s former commander, her voice scathing when she said, “Go ahead, shoot me. You’ll rot in hell a poor man, and I’ll be laughing down at you the wholetime.”
The colonel’s light brown eyes narrowed on her, and she caught the slightest whiff of indecision. “You’rebluffing.”
He smiled, easing slightly to her right so that she put herself more firmly between the colonel and Diggs. “Then you must not know me well. I don’t lie, about anything,” she said in a flattone.
The surrounding gunfire had died; their voices echoed through the warehouse. Diggs was breathing shallow and fast behind her, his cold fingers touching her ankle where she crouched beside him. She could practically feel his desperation and knew he was still conscious, although he wouldn’t have long. She needed to act, and she needed to act now if he had a hope of living through thenight.
“I don’t have to kill you to get you to talk.” The colonel dropped his aim from her face down to her leg. “You have five seconds to tell me where the gold is, or I’m putting a bullet in your leftkneecap.”
“You think I care? You took away the only person that I loved, and if you put a dozen bullets in me, you’ll still be just as ignorant and hopeless as you are rightnow.”
The colonel’s hand shook, and his finger dropped from the barrel to wrap around the Trigger. “One.”
Despite the rage burning up her insides, her heart jumped up and gave a huge whack against her rib cage. She felt Diggs’ fingers tightening ever so slightly against her ankle. Surely his team was closing in. They had tobe.
“I feel sorry for you. You took an oath to serve and protect, what kind of man completely betrays his men and his country for a littlecash?”
Rage blazed behind the colonel’s eyes. “Two.”
Audra lifted her chin. Maybe Diggs’ team had been killed, or injured like him. Maybe they weren’t coming to the rescue. “You know, we sent all the information to the FBI. We also sent them information for the meet tonight. They’re outside, waiting for us to bring you into custody. Even if you kill me, your life is over. You’re going to spend the rest of your days in prison, snuggled up with some man even worse thanyou.”
“Three.” The colonel practicallysnarled.
“Audra, tell him,” Diggs rasped out behind her. The light touch on her ankle firmed and his fingers wrapped around her skin, burningher.
If she died, so would he, and the thought of losing Diggs caused a pain in her soul even worse than Jeremy’s had. She knew that even if she sacrificed herself, Diggs would die, unless she did something drastic. She had watched the men arm up and knew Diggs had a knife tucked in his boot. A boot that was directly behind her heel. She let her hand drop from her hip to dangle at her side, forcing her mouth to go slack and her eyes widen, as if she were terrified. “Diggs, I can’t tell him. It will mean Jeremy died for nothing if I tell him. Please don’t ask meto.”
Triumph flared in the colonel’s face, and he sneered, “Better listen to your boyfriend, Audra. He sounds like a smartman.”
And you’re about todie.
Feigning terror, Audra glanced over her shoulder and met Diggs’ gaze, in that split second letting all the emotion inside her pour out of her expression. She tried to tell Diggs in that moment of silence how much he meant to her, how stupid she’d been not to acknowledge her love for him before now. “Thank you for teaching me how to love again,” she saidsoftly.
His own dark gaze widened withrecognition.
