“Oh shutup,” I gasp wetly. “I don’t…give a shit.”
A terrified scream rises up from deeper in the cabin and my heart jolts painfully as if shocked by an outside source.
Aerin!
I don’t have time for this fucker.
Turning, I lunge for the sideboard and hit the floor with a yell.
Just behind the ornately carved leg helping balance a sideboard that’s surely worth more than my entire life savings, I snatch up my stashed gun and roll over.
Two bullets fire and collide with the wire assassin just as he lunges over me, weapon raised.
He hovers for just a second, then he collapses down onto me and aggravates every agony currently blazing through my body.
Aerin continues to scream.
No time, Falco. Get up. Get the fuck up.
My legs wane as if I’ve been sitting on them for too long and they’ve grown numb.
Blood on wood makes the floors slippery, and it takes all my strength to push the body away, haul myself to my feet, and sprint down the hallway toward Aerin’s room.
If she’s screaming, she’s alive.
It repeats in my mind as her door draws closer and closer.
I slam my shoulder into it and crash into Aerin’s room.
She’s standing on her bed, brandishing her bedside lamp, swinging it wildly at the masked assassin dancing and laughing around the edge of her bed. He turns just as I raise my gun, and I shoot him twice right between the eyes.
“Falco!” Aerin gasps through her tears. The relief on her face lasts half a second, quickly morphing into a look of utter horror. “Oh my god, Falco!”
I take a step and my leg gives way.
Crashing to the floor, I’m barely able to put my good arm out to catch myself and stop my face from smashing into the wood.
“Aerin, you have to c-call for help!” My chest grows tighter and tighter with each word. In a sluggish blink, Aerin’s over the top of me. Her hair sweeps down like an amber curtain, and I’m struck suddenly by how simply beautiful she is.
“Falco? Falco, oh my god there’s so much…what do I do? Falco? Falco!”
“Call,” I gasp, reaching for her.
Her warm, trembling hands cup my face, but the touch feels impossibly far away. There could be more assassins. A bigger threat. She needs to call for help.
I can’t speak.
Darkness sweeps in and the last thing I see are her tear-filled, panicked eyes.
I’ve failed her.
Again.
23
AERIN
“Falco!”
