The sound comes from far away. “Leo,” she yells as the alarms above me get louder. A door swings open somewhere and I hear yelling, feet on a set of stairs, coming my way.
I turn to my left. Men are running down the stairs toward me. I grab my gun and fire. I hit the first of them. He falls and the others scramble back, hiding behind the door that leads into the basement, staying in cover, for now at least.
“Save Fleur,” Anna shouts to me. “You can get her and get out of here. Go.”
I look at the fire and I freeze again. “Leo!” Anna shouts. “Do something! We need you.”
The words break the ice covering my limbs. I can move again. She needs me. My wife needs me.
I run forward, straight through the flames and out the other side. My sleeve has caught alight. I tamp it down with my other hand, ignoring the pain. I untie the ropes holding Anna in place, twisting to do the same to Fleur as the flames start to lick at her feet. She screams and scrambles back from the chair.
I reach into my bag, pulling out the carabiner clips. I shove one around Anna’s midriff, yanking it tight. “What’s this for?” she asks as I get hold of Fleur and do the same to her.
“You’ll see,” I tell her as shots start to fire at us through the flames.
I return fire, sprinting toward the open door on the far side of the inferno as I shoot.
We burst through the flames, Fleur screaming and Anna saying, “Leo, you can’t jump. We’ll never make it.”
“Trust me,” I tell her.
The men by the door are all shooting, more and more of them running down toward us.
I reach the open doorway and jump into open space. “Leo!” Anna shrieks as we start to tumble. “We’re going to die.”
“Not today,” I reply, yanking the cord sticking out of my backpack.
At once our fall is arrested, a parachute bursting out of the bag and opening wide, slowing our descent. I take hold of the controls, guiding it down toward the beach. It’s coming too close. I can’t slow us down in time. “We’re going to hit hard,” I have time to say. “Brace for impact.”
Then we slam into the sand and my head hits the ground hard. The whole world turns black as shots fire down at us from far above. My last thought is to hope I get shot instead of those two.
21
Anna
Leo looks a wreck. He’s got a cut on his forehead from where he smacked into the sand. His knees and elbows are scraped all to hell. His clothes are torn and his face is white. His eyes are closed and he’s not moving. He looks half dead.
I’ve never loved him more.
High above, bullets are firing down, thudding into the sand and the water. We’ve dragged Leo beneath the overhang. We’re safe here, for now.
“What do we do?” Fleur asks as she unhooks the clip connecting her to Leo. “We’re trapped.”
“We get to the boat and try to get away,” I tell her.
“But they’re shooting at us.”
“We stay here, we’re sitting ducks. We’ve got to at least try to get away.” I unhook my own clip, kneeling down beside Leo. He’s not stirring. “We’ve got to take him with us,” I add.
“Do we?” she asks. “If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t be in this mess. Why not leave him to his fate?”
“That’s my husband you’re talking about.”
“You told me he forced you to marry him.”
I curse under my breath, imagining the consequences if Leo heard me right now. My ass tingles at the thought of being spanked for it. That would mean things were back to normal. All this would be behind us. Is that life even possible anymore? Or am I going to die on this beach, so close yet so far from freedom?
“You help me carry him or I’ll do it on my own,” I snap at Fleur.