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“Stay with me, Mouse.”

“I will.”

Lucian reached the damaged sliding door first. He kicked several pieces of broken glass out of the way, checked the ramp, then motioned us forward.

We were halfway across the lobby when gunfire erupted near the front entrance again.

People screamed and dropped lower behind the furniture. Another section of glass shattered, and Gabriel returned fire while the Syndicate men forced whoever had arrived to stay near the front entrance instead of advancing into the lounge.

Lachlan pulled me closer.

“Let’s go!”

We ran toward the jet.

The G800 was right there, only yards separating us from the lowered stairs.

Achingly close.

Yet with gunfire behind us, those few yards suddenly looked impossibly far.

Lucian and one of the Syndicate men ran ahead while Lachlan stayed beside me. Behind us, Gabriel and the other two men withdrew in stages, covering one another as they gave up the lobby and came through the door onto the ramp.

Another burst of gunfire cracked from behind us.

I flinched.

Lachlan immediately shifted behind me, putting himself between me and the FBO.

“Keep moving.”

After a few more strides, the stairs were only a few feet away when another shot snapped behind us. Gabriel answered immediately, his return fire cracking across the ramp as I grabbed the rail and started climbing.

Lachlan followed so closely that his hand gripped my waist as we made our way inside.

Two men were already aboard.

I recognized Nikolai Volkov the moment he spoke in that thick Russian accent.

“Sit with Lachlan and buckle in. We’re moving the second everyone’s aboard.”

His pale eyes swept over me quickly before his attention returned to the open door.

There was nothing welcoming about him, but nothing cruel either. He was exactly as he’d sounded on the phone—controlled, watchful, and strangely calm amidst the chaos.

The other man was broader through the shoulders, with a pistol in his hand and his attention fixed entirely on the ramp. He barely looked in my direction.

Lachlan guided me into a seat beside the window, and I quickly drew the belt across me. He didn’t turn back toward the door until the buckle clicked.

Outside, Lucian and one of the DarkMatter men held the base of the stairs while Gabriel and the other two fell back from the FBO, covering one another as they came.

The man beside Lucian came up next. The moment he crossed the threshold, he turned and took a position at the open door.

One of the other two men reached the stairs next and climbed aboard.

Then the third.

Lucian backed up the stairs after them, keeping his weapon trained toward the FBO while Gabriel covered the final distance.