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Sebastian emerged from the trees, his grin smug, his eyes triumphant as he closed in on them. Penny gripped the pistol harder. Under her other hand, Damien’s breathing became dangerously shallow, scaring the life out of her. The urge to pull out the gun and shoot Sebastian in the head overwhelmed her but she didn’t have the confidence to execute the move. As it was, she barely remembered what to do with the damned thing.
“This is going to be fun,” he crooned, swinging his rifle over his back and pulling out a handgun. “Even better, there’s no one around to stop me.”
Every muscle in her body coiled in readiness to attack, but Damien’s hand gripped hers, keeping her in place. The gesture brought tears to her eyes. Even desperately wounded, he had enough awareness to keep her from rash action.
Penny stared up at Sebastian, now seeing the resemblance to his father and grandfather. The Mustang heritage ran strong. I have their strength, too. And she intended on using it against him.
“Killing us won’t solve anything.”
He laughed, the sound bouncing off tree trunks to echo through the forest. “Wrong. Killing you and your pesky husband will make up for his interference.”
She frowned in confusion. “It won’t release your father from prison.”
He shrugged. “Nor will it bring my grandfather back from the dead. I’m not stupid, but I know it will ease the burden in here,” he thumped his chest. “You can meet your daughter in the afterlife for all I care.”
Massimo was dead?
Relief took her breath away but she stayed strong, rising to her knees beside Damien. A glance down showed his eyes closed and his muscles slack, the image altogether frightening. His hand released hers and fell by his side. She wanted to ignore Sebastian and try to rouse him, but she dared not. The cunning in Sebastian’s eye signaled his urgency. He wanted to get it over and done with. Did he know bounty hunters were after him? Could he feel them on his tail?
Penny slid the gun out of Damien’s jacket and stood. Her hand shook as she lifted to point the weapon at Sebastian. He glanced at it and his smile grew wider.
“Well, well. She’s grown a pair.”
Penny released the safety and took aim. The muzzle shook. “Always had them.”
He laughed. “You won’t hit me.”
“Perhaps, but I won’t go down without a fight.”
She tightened her hold and set her finger on the trigger but the command to shoot wouldn’t come. Her entire career had been dedicated to protecting life, not taking it, and though Damien had urged her to aim for the body, the dilemma presented a problem. Her aim hovered between his chest and his arm, slowly moving back and forth between the two. The indecision mocked her need to protect Damien.
“I have to hand it to you,” Sebastian said. “You have one hell of a fighting spirit. If you weren’t a McCafferty, I’d almost be proud to call you a Mustang.”
Anger flashed in her chest, bringing the point of the gun back to the center of his chest. “McCafferty by name, McCafferty by heart.” Damien’s father’s words came easily. “There’s no Mustang here.”
Before she could fire, a body collided with hers. She crashed into the snow, the gun flying from her hand as whoever knocked her down covered her. She heard a commotion where Sebastian stood and opened her eyes to see two men in white wrestle him to the ground.
She struggled against the body on hers, trying to get back to Damien, but he held her down until the man who’d come to kill them had been disarmed and shackled. Only then did he release her and climb to his feet. He lifted his mask.
Riley?
He offered a hand to help her up. Looking up, she saw Magnus and Hollywood raise their masks as they detained Sebastian.
“Damien.” She scrambled to her feet to find Stevie tending to her father. Stumbling across the snow, she knelt beside them to find her daughter’s face filled with worry. “Is he—?”
“No.”
Riley joined them. “Chopper’s on the way.” He turned to Penny. “We should’ve got here sooner.”
“Dad?” Stevie snapped. Her head lifted and the fear in her eyes made Penny fret. “How long until the chopper gets here?”
Riley checked his watch. “Any minute now.”
Stevie reached across Damien’s body to squeeze Penny’s shoulder. “I won’t lie. It’s bad.”
The terror in Stevie’s eyes made her queasy. The urge to throw up pushed Penny to her feet and into the trees, where she allowed nature to take its course. Her stomach emptied itself with surprising force, sapping her strength. About to drop to her knees, she leaned against a tree and sighed.
Her gaze fell on Stevie, doing everything possible to save Damien. Her hands worked quickly to apply pressure to the wound. Despite the fear on her face, Stevie knew exactly what she was doing. The sound of a chopper thumped the air around them.
A radio crackled to life and she heard Riley relay their location to the emergency services. By the time Stevie raised her head, half a dozen police officers emerged from the forest. They converged on Sebastian, while a blond man approached her. He smiled and held out a hand.
“It’s Penny, isn’t it? I’m Senior Sergeant Neville Wilson. You can call me Neville.”
Numbness settled in, practically gluing her mouth shut. All she could do was nod and focus on Damien. The sound of the chopper grew louder until it thundered above them, whipping the snow into a hailstorm. Half shielding her eyes, she watched a metal basket descend through the trees on a wire. Riley caught it and set it beside Damien, before he, Hollywood and Magnus worked in unison to load her husband onto it.
Her husband...
That wasn’t true, was it? She’d enacted the ‘til-death-do-us-part clause when she died. Where did that leave them?
Seeing the others strap him to the litter, she felt a strange sense of déjà vu ripple through her and knew she couldn’t let him out of her sight. With an apologetic glance at the Sergeant, she rushed to Damien’s side as the stretcher began to lift from the ground. Penny grabbed Riley’s arm.
“I want to go with him,” she shouted.
He nodded and held up a harness. Penny allowed him to strap it on and secure her to the cable. Before she could say anything else, the cable jerked and her feet came off the ground. Cradled by the harness, she held onto the wire rim of the litter and stared down at Damien. As the forest fell away below her, she waited until they reached the door of the helicopter. A medic appeared and nodded, holding out a hand for her.
Once inside, she watched them load Damien into the cargo bay and go to work on his wound. An attendant slid the door shut and the volume of the rotors died down.
“I’m a doctor,” Penny offered, but they shook their heads.
“We’ve got this. Are you hurt?”
“No.”
The man who’d shut the door knelt before her and began gathering the seatbelt straps. Securing her, he placed a pair of headphones over her ears and she heard the medical team’s observations as they bared Damien’s chest. The bullet had struck his upper abdomen rather than his chest. Blood welled from the hole in his torso but the words she heard through the earphones eased her mind as the helicopter swung to the left.
He’ll be okay.