Page 71 of Mile High Ruin

Vadim’s hand closes around the back of my neck. “Don’t look.”

I tear my gaze away.

The sound of gunfire intensifies from the far end of the tarmac. Marek is yelling something I can’t understand. Anton answers. One of Vadim’s security men runs from behind the damaged SUV to another vehicle and nearly loses his footing on the wet pavement.

Vadim suddenly shoves me lower.

A shot cracks.

He jerks. I feel it through the hand still holding me.

“Vadim?”

He says nothing, his face tightening.

Then I see the blood. It spreads rapidly through the fabric high on his left side, just beneath his ribs.

My stomach drops. “You’ve been shot.”

“It grazed me.”

“That is blood.”

“I’m familiar with blood.” He tries to turn back toward the gunfire.

I catch his arm. “Are you insane?”

“Sloane.”

“No.”

His eyes flash. “This is not the time.”

“You are bleeding through your shirt.”

Another shot strikes the ground near us, close enough to throw a small chip of concrete against my ankle. Vadim curses and pulls me tighter behind the stair support.

I hear shouting from the terminal now, and the sounds of engine roaring. There are more vehicles approaching.

Vadim glances toward the road leading into the private airfield, his attention shifting for half a second. That’s when another burst comes from our right.

I see the movement near the service hangar before he does.

A man raising something long and black.

A rifle.

“Vadim.”

He turns.

I don’t think. I throw myself over him. My arms go around his shoulders and I press my body against his, trying to cover as much of him as I can.

He swears violently. “What the fuck are you doing?”

“Shut up.”

“Sloane, get down.”