His weapon had just cleared the holster when a shot rang out. He released her ankle, and she flopped flat on the ground while Mikhail stumbled backward.
A second shot sounded, and he dropped.
It was then that she’d noticed they’d backed all the way up to the storage pit. When he’d staggered back, he’d been on the cusp of the pit. The second shot had dropped him into the meter-deep hole.
She took in a ragged breath through her battered windpipe and glared at the body with a bullet to the heart and a second in the head. “Dammit,” she wheezed. “He collapsed another sidewall. More damage to the site.”
She wanted to laugh at her own terrible joke, but instead, she burst into tears.
Xavier was worried Audrey was going into shock. She was shaking and alarmingly pale.
George had appeared not long after the gunshots. He took one look at Audrey and said, “Be right back,” and ran in the direction of his cabin.
Minutes later, he returned with a blanket and a wheelbarrow, and Xavier wrapped her tight—even as she complained and said she was fine—and deposited her in the barrow and pushed it down the path.
“I can walk, Xavier,” she complained, and her voice did sound better. Color was returning to her face.
“I’m sure you can, but why do that when you can ride?”
It was a quick, albeit bumpy trek down the trail, which had a groove from all the trips George made along the same path with his trusty wheelbarrow.
When they reached George’s shop, Audrey insisted they take her SUV and not Xavier’s rental the short distance to the lodge. “I refuse to leave my car here again. Call me superstitious, but I’m not taking chances.”
Relieved she was sounding better by the minute, he tucked her into the passenger seat, ignoring his shoulder’s complaints at the required lift.
At the lodge, she climbed out herself. They entered the building, finding it empty of contractors. George remained up at the site, guarding the body, so they were alone in the vast room.
He’d made an initial call to NSWC immediately after the shooting. He’d wanted a medic flight for Audrey, but she’d insisted she just needed to get warm. They’d compromised by requesting an ambulance so she could be checked out by a medic. It would take investigators time to get here. In all likelihood the ambulance would arrive first, and she could be cleared healthwise before being debriefed yet again.
He sat her in front of the great hearth and turned on the gas to start a fire. The fireplace had a gas line to get the fire going without kindling, but burned real wood. The result was a wood fire that put out instant heat, which was just what she needed.
Once the fire was going, he dropped on the sofa next to her, pulled her into his arms, and faced the flame.
“I assume what he said was true. You and Chris both shot Katerina?”
He nodded, that nightmare moment playing again in his mind. The unfathomable sight of a very young pregnant girl—the victim they’d been sent to save—shooting Forsythe before anyone could grasp what was happening. A heartbeat later, she shot Adams before turning her gun on him.
“Mikhail looks like he’s in his forties. She was fifteen. He’d probably groomed her starting when she was thirteen or fourteen. Planning to use her to get to her father’s money. She was a victim. I’m sure she was terrified of being returned to her father. He’d realize she was in cahoots with Mikhail and had been for a long time given how far along she was in her pregnancy. I gathered she hadn’t been showing yet at the time of her abduction.”
She’d been a victim, and he’d had to shoot her to save himself. But it had been too late to save the others. “When I think of what Mikhail did to her, I’d like to go shoot him again.”
“And I wish I’d taken a shot too.” She cupped his face in her hands and kissed him. Her voice was low and raspy when she spoke, and again, he wanted to mangle a corpse. “I’m sorry I worried you. I just…had a moment there. But I’m fine now.”
“Sweetheart, you don’t need to apologize for that.”
“Okay. But really, I want you to know I’m fine now.” She leaned back. “It’s over now. All of it.” She threaded her fingers through his. “Over. Really and truly over. I don’t need to worry about sleeping alone anymore.”
“Too bad you won’t be alone.”
She smiled. “No. Not too bad at all.”
Xavier extracted himself from her and tossed another log on the fire. He glanced around the room. It was a bit the worse for wear, but they were all alone in the very room where they’d first met. When he’d first fallen under her spell.
He reached into his pocket as he lowered himself to one knee before her. “I doubt we’ll ever have a chance to be alone in this room again, so I’m not going to waste my shot.”
She looked at him in confusion as he reached for her hand and pulled it to his lips.
“Dr. Audrey Kendrick, you are the most amazing woman I know, and from the first moment we met, you pretty much stole my heart. I want to be with you for the rest of my days. Will you marry me?”