I snap my gaze to Alina just in time to see her slam her elbow into Gerald’s gut.
Gerald’s breath whooshes out in a pained gasp and his grip slackens.
Yara wrenches free, scrambling away to Alina’s side.
In that fraction of a second, I squeeze the trigger.
The shot echoes through the warehouse, impossibly loud.
Gerald crumples.
I find myself moving before I even realize it, crossing the space between them in three long strides.
I kick the gun from Gerald’s limp hand and drop to my knees, feeling for a pulse.
Nothing.
Gerald is gone.
And the two women he’s been terrorizing—the two women I had vowed to protect, no matter the cost—are finally, finally safe.
From him, at least.
I look up to meet Alina’s gaze, and see my own bone-deep relief and something else reflected in her eyes. Something like gratitude, and maybe, just maybe, a spark of something more.
A smile tugs at my lips as the wail of sirens in the distance grew louder.
We've made it. All of us. Together.
The smile slips from my lips as a fiery bolt of pain lances through my side.
I glance down to see a growing crimson stain seeping across my shirt.
In the chaos, I hadn't even felt the impact of the bullet. Now it's making its presence known, and the icy fingers of shock are starting to creep in.
"You're hit!" Alina gasps.
She's at my side in an instant, her hands fluttering over the wound.
"Oh God, there's so much blood."
The panic in her voice snaps me out of my daze.
"It's okay," I say, fighting to keep my own voice steady. "The vest caught it."
I fumble for the Velcro straps of my Kevlar, peeling it back to reveal a deep wound along my ribcage, skirting the side of the vest.
"Not life-threatening, but it's going to need stitches. Probably a lot of them."
The words are an attempt to soothe myself as much as them, because there's more blood pumping out of me than any stitches could fix.
Judging from the expressions on both of their faces, they're not buying my words any more than I am.
Alina makes a small, distressed sound, and Yara whimpers beside her. Their terror is almost enough to make me wish the bullet had pierced something vital.
Almost.
I can't stand to be adding to their pain.