Kian
“Do you know what’s happening?” Renata asks me with wild eyes.
“The Clan is here,” I tell her. “Just like I told you they would be.”
She frowns. “Then why are we trying to hide?”
“Because at the moment, the Greeks and the Italians are all over the place, and we don’t know who we’ll run into. Now, come on. We’ve got to get Sarah somewhere safe.”
I get to my feet and heave Sarah into my arms. Renata looks around, flinching at every sound. I’m slightly surprised by how skittish she seems to be. And then I notice the way her hand curls over her stomach.
Of course.The baby.
“Stay close to me,” I order. “And grab a gun.”
She doesn’t hesitate when she reaches for one of the guard’s guns and plucks it from his dead grasp. Then, Renata sticking close to my side, we start to move. We turn into the first room we find and move behind the sofa.
“Hold on,” Renata says, grabbing a repulsive yellow carpet and throwing it over the floor first. “Okay. Put her down here.”
I place Sarah down on the shag carpet. Her eyes wobble even as her jaw stays clenched tight. She’s in pain, but she’s trying to bite it down. She’s a warrior, this one.
Renata grabs a pillow and places it gently underneath Sarah’s head. There’s a trickle of blood running down her nose, and she wipes it away slowly. “Kian,” she whispers, “what should I do?”
“We need to stop the bleeding,” I instruct her. “Press something soft against it.”
She nods, leaves Sarah’s side instantly, and returns a moment later with a piece of curtain fabric that she’s torn from the rod. She bunches up the material and presses it down over the gunshot wound. Sarah groans and sputters at the initial contact.
“Good,” I say. “Stay with her.”
“Where are you going?” Renata asks, the panic is back in her voice.
“I’m checking the situation outside.”
“Kian,” she says, grabbing my arm, “you’re only one man. And you’re badly injured.”
“Good. It’ll be an even playing field then.”
“Stop it,” Sarah wheezes. “I’m dying here. It hurts to laugh.”
I narrow my eyes at her. “Can you save the tough talk for when you’re not bleeding out?”
Renata looks between the two of us as though we’re both out of our minds. “You can’t go out there alone,” she says again. “It’s not safe.”
“I’m not waiting for them to find us, Renata.” The thundering of running footsteps has me on high alert again. I grab my gun. And then, on second thought, I grab another one.
Renata still has both hands on Sarah’s wound, but her eyes fly to the door in alarm. “Hey,” I whisper to her. “Listen to me. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. Or our baby.”
She needs to hear the words. Even if they don’t make a difference, she needs to hear them.
I wish I could say more, but we don’t have time. I rise slowly to my feet, prepared to shoot at a second’s notice. The footsteps are approaching.
“Kian,” Renata says softly.
“Yes?”
“You need to make sure nothing happens to you. We need you, too.”
I don’t have time to revel in the feel of those words, because a second later, the door bursts open and I’m staring at—