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“Rhianne?” Eric’s voice was jagged with concern.
“I’m okay.” She plucked out the large sliver of wood from her upper arm, the pain from the injury only registering now. And it made her understand that no matter what Eric said about her odds, she could not crouch here and wait. There was no safety to be found here in the compound. They needed to getout—and she wasn’t leaving without Robyn. She stiffened her spine.
“Cover me.” It wasn’t a request. “I’m going to make another push for the platform.” She was preparing to get up off her knees and fight, when a deafeningboom!came from outside, shaking the entire room.
The hell?All Rhianne could think wasearthquake.
“That’s our cue,” Eric said, the drawn lines of his face looking even grimmer.
It seemed it was Arturo’s cue too. He yelled out a string of instructions about codes and safeguards and protocols and two of his guards ran out of the room, headed into the corridor beyond.
“Two down,” Eric commented.
Which meant the gunfire lessened, giving Rhianne her chance. She thrust herself to the edge of their shield—then around it. “Robyn!” she yelled, unable to make her out on the platform. “Run for it! Come—”
Her attempt at directing her sister finished in a half-squawk when Eric yanked her back and she landed on her ass, her breath knocked out of her. She turned on him, furious, just as a bullet whizzed over her head, the closest one yet. It lodged in the wall behind her, splattering plaster and drywall dust all over them. She choked and coughed.
“It’s too dangerous!” Eric yelled at her, cold fury in his words. “Rhianne, we can’t do any more here and now. If you keep trying to get to Robyn, you’re just going to get one or both of you killed. We’ll have to come back with a plan.”
“What? You—” Rhianne saved her breath and her strength for the fight—with Eric, who was pulling their wooden barrier back and to the right, taking them with it. He was retreating? No!
“Bomb!” was heard from outside in the corridor—one of Arturo’s guards shouting in Spanish.
“The fire’s spreading,” shouted someone else.
The other auction guests had fled as soon as the first shots were fired, but at this latest turn, even Arturo’s guards and staff members were starting to panic, stampeding for the doors.
Oh God. Robyn! “I can’t leave her another second!” Rhianne shouted.
But before she could do anything, Eric grabbed her and picked her up. Physically, as if she were a baby or as if she weighed nothing to him.Meantnothing to him, more like.
“No!” Rhianne wailed, her breath emerging jerkily when, with a twist of his arms, Eric threw her over his shoulder. She beat his back with her fists, but made no impression on him. He didn’t even react, as though he’d tuned her out completely.
“Don’t you dare, you fucking coward! Let me go! Just because you don’t have the balls—”
She wasn’t sure what she shouted at him after that, beyond knowing it was more of the same furious, bitter accusations—terrible things she knew she’d probably regret later, once the red mist had cleared. But at the moment, being rushed through an emergency exit and along a narrow corridor, being carried upside down, hanging over Eric’s shoulder as if she were a bag of dirty laundry, anger and hurt consumed her.
Hurt at his betrayal. He’d given his word and now was going back on it. And just when she was so close to rescuing Robyn! Oh God, Robyn’s tear-stained face. Her anguish. How much deeper she must hurt now, seeing Rhianne abandon her.
She was hoarse with yelling and her fists aching with beating on Eric by the time they burst through to outside. “Put me down now!” she ordered, only for Eric to ignore her.
Continuing to ignore her, he raced around a small building and into the small forecourt at its side where the dark shape and running engine told her a vehicle was waiting. A Jeep Wrangler, she saw as Eric plucked her from his shoulder and threw her into the backseat. She landed with a whump and struggled to sit up, only to fall back again when the vehicle accelerated, even before Eric had slammed the door closed as he jumped in beside her.
“Drive,” Eric barked, and the Jeep swerved in a dizzying half-circle, and they were off.
“C-Charlie?” Rhianne tried to get her bearings. “And Ian?”
Charlie was driving, but Ian half-turned in the passenger seat and gave her a mock salute.
“Backup,” Eric explained tersely, checking out of the side and back windows. He snagged a heavy jacket from the back and passed it to Rhianne, motioning at her to take it and put it on.
It was a bulletproof vest, she discovered, struggling into it as Eric donned a similar one. She wished her fingers didn’t tremble, but she couldn’t seem to steady them. She felt like she was shaking from head to toe. She had so many questions, but so many emotions beat at her that she couldn’t form a coherent thought, never mind a sentence. It felt like every time a thought or question presented itself, it got battered back.
She wanted to ask how they’d get off the compound, but Charlie speeding through a side gate, one that was blown off its hinges, answered that. They were taking a different route to the way the bus had brought them to thefinca, she saw, this one more “off-road.”
“Okay back there?” Charlie threw over his shoulder, taking them down a bumpy slope, then up a rocky incline.
Rhianne nodded, uncaring that he might not be able to see her in the rearview mirror.
