Chapter 6 - His Hand on My Waist, A Gun in His Fist
The hallway erupted into a furious firefight.
Liam stood like an immovable titan, his left foot planted firmly on the floorboards while his right hand fired controlled, devastating rounds into the advancing mercenaries. Every shot from his .45 took down a target, his tactical muscle memory completely overriding the blinding agony in his shattered leg.
Leo moved in synchronization with him, tossing a flashbang grenade down the grand staircase.
BANG! FLASH!
A chorus of blinded shrieks and disoriented curses echoed from the foyer below.
“Leo! Clear the rear fire escape!” Liam ordered, reloading his empty magazine with a single flick of his wrist. “We take the underground tunnel to the garage!”
“Boss, the tunnel elevator is disabled!” Leo shouted back, firing a suppressive burst down the stairs. “You’ll have to take the back stairs on foot!”
Liam glanced down at his pinned leg, then at me. There was no hesitation in his eyes.
He lowered his weapon, reached down with his powerful left arm, and pulled me up from behind the headboard, wrapping his thick arm securely around my waist.
“Lean on me,” I pleaded, wrapping my arm around his torso to support his right side. “Liam, put your weight on my shoulder!”
“We move together,” he growled, the pain turning his voice into a jagged rasp. “Stay tight to my left flank.”
With his left arm locked tightly around my waist, holding me flush against his side, and his right hand leveling the Kimber .45 ahead of us, Liam Mercer moved forward.
Every step was pure agony. I could feel the violent tremors wracking his powerful frame, the wet warmth of blood soaking through his sweatpants as the titanium pins tore at his deep muscle tissue. Yet his grip on my waist never loosened; it was an iron band keeping me shielded from the chaotic gunfire around us.
We reached the rear corridor. A masked gunman stepped out from behind a linen closet, raising a shotgun directly at my chest.
Before the gunman could pull the trigger, Liam twisted his entire body, throwing himself in front of me to act as a human shield, and fired a single shot straight through the man’s tactical visor.
The gunman collapsed backward into the closet.
“Keep moving!” Liam commanded, breathing hard, his face drenched in cold sweat.
We reached the heavy steel fire door at the end of the hall. Leo kicked it open, revealing the concrete spiral staircase leading down to the underground garage.
“Go, Clara!” Liam pushed me gently into the stairwell ahead of him. “Leo, take the front!”
Leo led the way down the concrete steps, clearing each landing with his rifle. I supported Liam from behind, feeling his massive weight sagging as his blood pressure plummeted from the sheer physical strain.
When we reached the bottom floor, the heavy hydraulic doors of the subterranean garage were already sliding open. A bulletproof, matte-black Mercedes SUV was idling in the center bay, its engine purring with suppressed power.
Leo threw the rear door open. “Get in! Now!”
I scrambled into the leather backseat, turning immediately to help pull Liam inside.
Liam dragged his ruined leg into the cabin, collapsing onto the leather seat beside me with a ragged groan of complete exhaustion. The gun slipped from his blood-slick fingers, clattering onto the floor mat.
Leo jumped into the driver’s seat, slammed the SUV into reverse, and floored the accelerator.
The armored vehicle shot out of the garage, bursting through the perimeter security gates and tearing down the winding mountain road into the pitch-black forest just as a second explosion consumed the western wing of the stone mansion behind us.
The interior of the SUV was silent except for the heavy, labored sound of Liam’s breathing.
I immediately tore open the emergency trauma kit stored under the seat, ripping open his pant leg to inspect the damage. Two of the external fixator pins had bent under the extreme torque, and the surrounding tissue was tearing open, bleeding profusely.
“You fool,” I choked out, tears finally spilling over my eyelashes as I pressed a pressure pad against his mangled thigh. “You absolute fool... you could have crippled yourself permanently.”
Liam slowly opened his eyes. He reached up with his trembling, bloodstained hand, his fingers cupping my chin, lifting my face toward his.
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“I told you, Clara,” he murmured softly, a faint, tender smile gracing his pale lips. “I’d burn this entire world to ash before I let them touch a single hair on your head.”
I leaned down, unable to hold back the overwhelming tide of emotion any longer, and pressed my forehead against his chest, weeping as his strong arms wrapped around me in the darkness of the speeding car.
