Page 90 of Redemption

“I’m leaving here, even if I have to crawl,” I say. Can she sense how sweaty I am? How nerves have spilled out of me in the last few hours? I steel myself. Maybe I won’t make it out of here. But I’m not giving her the gift of my fear. I’m not feeding her obsession.

She readjusts her grip on my arms, and I try to wrench myself free. Her nails dig into my skin, and the knife pricks my side.

“Careful, Carys, or you’ll be dead before he arrives. I’m so looking forward to seeing his expression when he realizes he can’t save you.”

“I’m looking forward to seeing yours when you realize how terribly you’ve underestimated him.” The shouts are outside the door, so loud they almost drown out my comment. Therat-a-tat-tatof gunfire rounds my mother’s shoulders as she cries more silent tears. She thinks we’re going to die. Not today, Mother. Not today.

The door flips open, but no one enters at first. “Carys?” Finn’s voice, strong and sure, stops my heart.

“In here. She’s got a knife. A detonator to the bomb in her pocket.” The words leave me in a rush. She’d have to loosen her hold on my arms or on the knife she has digging into my side to stop me from talking. “My mother and father are tied to chairs. There’s a bomb in here. I haven’t seen a gun on Jade, but she’s got a knife pressed to my side. A very sharp knife.”

“Tell him whatever you want,” she murmurs. “Nothing will save you. He can’t save you.”

Waves of hot and cold run through my body. Finn is here. Even if she stabs me, he’ll get me to a hospital. He won’t let me bleed out on the floor. She’s no match for him. The words are a mantra in my head.

The door stays open, but no one enters. There’s low, indistinguishable talking outside and the sound of more distant gunfire. Then, Finn steps in the entryway, and my heart kicks.

He’s here. He came.

“Let her go.” His voice is gruff. His gun is trained on her and me because she’s using me as a cover “You’re outnumbered. Outsmarted. There’s no way out of this.”

“I’ll stab her over and over again before you even get a shot off.” She presses harder with the knife, and it slips in before she slides it out. I give a muffled cry. “How does it feel? To know she can’t be saved?”

Finn chuckles. “Feels like you don’t know me very well.” He shifts to his right and fires low. Jade’s left leg collapses, and she digs the knife into me again before releasing me. She tries to brace herself against the corner.

She struggles to grab me, but he lunges, bringing me to his side. The knife, still lodged in my side, burns. How deep did it go? She makes eye contact with him and smirks. “Doesn’t matter. This is the tip of the iceberg. So many Van de Berg employees will greet me on the other side. They’ll never realize I was the cause of their demise. You can’t stop what we’ve set in motion.”

Finn answers her smirk with one of his own. “I would say ‘watch me’ but you’ll be dead. Whatever you hoped to accomplish, I want you to understand you failed.”

She stares at the spot where the knife is still embedded in me, and a slow smile spreads. “See you on the other side.”

When Finn’s gun goes off, I squash my face into his chest. A second shot follows, and there’s a loud thump as Jade’s body hits the concrete floor.

A sob rises from my toes, the fear I wouldn’t let myself experience rushes up and out, and he holds me tight. He takes my tears and my pain and my fright. I glance at Jade’s lifeless body, unable to believe she’s dead, that this is over.

“I’ve got you,” he whispers into my ear. “I’ve got you.”

Lorcan and Kim rush around the room, releasing my mother and father. Kim crouches near the bomb, checking the connections and wires.

“The bomb might be a decoy. Doesn’t look like anything I’ve dismantled before. I’ve phoned it in. We need to get out of here,” Kim calls over her shoulder. “Thomas’s men are covering us. There’re still a few live ones out there.”

Finn lifts me into his arms and carries me out of the building, past the dead PLA agents, past some of Thomas’s men who are also dead. Sporadic gunfire goes off around us. He climbs the stairs from the basement to the main floor, and I burrow into his chest, relishing his closeness. My side aches from the knife.

“She stabbed me,” I murmur to Finn. “In my side, at least twice.” Tiredness is seeping in.

“She’s losing blood, Finn. A lot of it,” Kim shouts from behind us. “Get her to the hospital. Lorcan and I will wait here for backup.”

“I need a driver.” He catches one of Thomas’s men. “You. Drive us to the hospital.”

At the SUV, he slides me into the back seat and follows me. The man he flagged as the driver wheels us out of the parking lot and speeds along the highway.

“It is a lot of blood?” I try to lift my head, but I’m woozy. “I think the knife is still in there.”

“No, no.” Finn brushes a hand over my hair. “You’ll be fine. Just fine.”

The tension in his voice makes me realize maybe I won’t be, but I don’t have the energy to argue. Instead, my cheek settles against his leg, and my eyes drift closed.

Chapter Forty-One

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