“Your rescue vehicle, madam,” Shane said as he slowed and clicked the doors open.
A shot rang out.
Shane suddenly jerked against her and then slumped forward, leaving Rachel baffled. What had just happened?
“Go!” Shane said, gurgling on his own blood, as he threw himself sideways off the snowmobile.
“Go!” he said again, but Rachel could do nothing but sit there as she watched his blood start to seep out against the fabric of his coat.
“You didn’t think you would get away so easily, did you?”
Rachel looked up as Gianni approached. She struggled to get her brain to function, to make her arms move, but fear paralyzed her.
She couldn’t leave Shane there, even if that’s what he wanted her to do. It was too late, anyway. Gianni was almost beside her, with a gun aimed directly at her head.
“Why?” she said, her voice trembling. She was trying to be brave, but Shane was lying there dying before her eyes and there was no way out.
“Because my brother needs to be taught a lesson. He may think he won something today, but all he did was kill off the men I would have had to destroy anyway. There can’t be any witnesses left when this is over. If I’m to take my rightful place on the throne, I have to look like the grieving brother, the savior coming home after the tragic deaths of my brother, his fiancée and his bastard children.”
Keep him talking. Rachel knew that’s what they did in every crime show she’d ever watched. She didn’t know why, didn’t know how it worked, but that’s what they did, and so would she.
“Adriane said that the crown was supposed to be yours but you didn’t want it.” Rachel spoke through chattering teeth.
“I didn’t know what I wanted when I left Corythia. I wasn’t much more than a child. My father is the one who sealed my fate. By the time I decided I wanted the throne that was due to me, he told me it was too late, that my ideas were wrong for Corythia. He’s the one who didn’t want to modernize. I will make a fine king, a king who will go down in history. This world may look at royal titles as nothing more than a show these days, but a little fear from my people is just what Corythia needs. I have a vision for my country — a vision both my father and brother were too weak to adopt. The people should respect their king — bow down to him — and pay, always pay, for the privilege of his rule,” he told her.
“If we promise to leave you alone, will you let us go?”
“You naïve, stupid woman. We both know that’s not how this works. You could make all the promises you liked while I had a gun pointed at your head, but the minute you were safe, you would be running to anyone who would listen to your story. I’m not a senseless man. So don’t insult my intelligence with your lies.”
“Then why not just kill me?” she shouted, growing fed up with this game. She’d rather he fired, took her life, gave Adriane some kind of warning, than force her to keep dancing around him, giving him this time to gloat.
“Good idea.” He raised the gun and aimed it right between her eyes.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, a goodbye to her family — to Adriane. Closing her eyes, she waited. She wished she were brave enough to look Gianni in the face.
The gun fired and an unnerving silence filled the air.
Rachel waited for the pain to start, waited for her knees to give out and for her body to slump to the ground next to Shane.
“Shane!”
Lia’s scream startled Rachel into opening her eyes. Where Gianni had been standing in front of her, there was now only empty space. Her body racked with trembling, she looked down and saw the man who’d been torturing her, now lying on the ground, blood trickling down his chin from his mouth as he tried to catch his breath.
Then she saw the blood spurting from his neck. He was clasping the spot with one hand, but the light was already leaving his eyes. His hatred undying, he attempted to lift the hand still clutching the gun, but his fingers failed him and the weapon fell beside him as he stilled.
Kicking the gun away and then turning, Rachel saw Lia rush up from behind, drop to her knees and grab hold of Shane.
“Shane, don’t you dare die! Do you hear me! I won’t let that happen,” Lia yelled as she pulled open his coat and looked at the blood coating his shirt. So much blood — too much. It had seeped through his shirt and coat. How could he survive?
“Rachel!”
Turning again, she watched as Rafe and Adriane pulled through the trees and skidded to a stop in front of her.
Suddenly there was movement all around her, everything happening so quickly. Lia was shouting as Rafe and Adriane picked up Shane and rushed him to the rescue vehicle that Shane had brought to that place.
Rachel couldn’t move — she was frozen to the spot.
Adriane rushed back over to her. “Were you hit?” he asked, opening her coat and running his hands all over her body to look for any wounds. Rachel shook her head, but she couldn’t get her voice to work.
Shock had taken over.
Adriane lifted her carefully into his arms and carried her to the car. He got in with her on the passenger side and cradled her in his lap, close to his chest, as he whispered soothing words into her ear and rubbed her back.
Shane was lying on the backseat with his head in Lia’s lap as she held a wad of material over the bullet wound.
“Where was he hit?” Rafe asked as he threw the SUV into drive and began moving.
“Between his chest and stomach. I couldn’t tell if it hit any vital organs. There’s just so much blood,” she cried.
“Keep pressure on the wound,” he called back.
“I am,” said Lia, her voice choked but strong. Then she yelled again. “Stop!”
Rafe lifted his foot from the gas, carefully tapped the brakes and came to a stop. “Why? What’s happened?” he shouted as he twisted in the seat, thinking it was too late for Shane.
“This is where our car went off the road. We have to get Ari,” she said.
“What?” Rafe asked as his head whipped around as he noticed the skid marks going off the road. Without waiting for Lia’s explanation, he jumped from the vehicle and rushed down the short drop, wrenching open the door.
“Are you all right?” he asked, nearly sobbing when he found Ari in the driver’s seat.
“I’m fine, Rafe, just a swollen knee. I couldn’t climb the hill. Lia heard a gunshot and then shouting, and she knew she needed to go help,” Ari replied.
“What in the hell were the two of you doing up here? You were supposed to wait at the hotel,” he said, but he was careful as he lifted her in his arms and then quickly began climbing back up the ditch wall.
“We couldn’t not help,” she said as they reached the vehicle and Rafe set her inside on the third-row seat.
“We will discuss this at the hospital,” he warned her.
Jumping back in the SUV, he went flying down the mountain, taking the slick roads far too fast, but somehow Rafe managed to keep them from sliding over the steep edge.
Rachel had no idea how long it took them, but she realized everything was measured in sound. The sound of Shane’s harsh breathing, the sound of Lia’s words of encouragement to Shane, of Rafe calling out orders, of Ari telling Lia that Shane would be fine, and of Adriane telling her that everything would be all right.
They skidded into the emergency room bay at the closest hospital and doors flew open as Rafe rushed from the vehicle.
“He was shot. He needs medical attention right now!”
“Do you have the weapon?”
“No!”
“Sir, please calm down.”
“Don’t tell me to calm down. Get him help now!” He looked like a madman.
“Officers!”