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Shaking, she did as Gerard asked and helped him stand. She found little comfort in the fact that he was surprisingly steady on his feet. He shoved her behind him, shielding her body with his. She tried to protest, but he only pressed her closer to his back, holding her there with his right arm.
“Let Linda go,” Gerard said. “She has nothing to do with this. This is between you and me.”
Tony’s lips tightened. “Not anymore, Doctor Leon. She became involved the moment she asked her dear old brother to snoop into Jane Orwell’s files. You say he didn’t do it,cara, but he’s the only one with the know-how and a motive. Unfortunately, he didn’t realize she had an alarm system, too. And hers works.” He winked at her peeking over Gerard’s shoulder. “Her IT security team was too late to prevent Giovanni from accessing some of her data, but they stopped him from getting any more of it. My people haven’t traced the hack back to him—he is one clever bastard—but now that I know it’s him, I’ll point them in the right direction. Sadly, like you, we can’t go to the police. It seems we have to keep it in the family. Such a loss to the computer world. Once I get rid of Orwell and arrange an accident for him—he still drives that motorcycle way too fast—I’ll have nothing more to worry about.”
“If anything happens to my brother I swear I’ll—”
Tony laughed. “You’ll do what? You’ll be pushing up daisies of your own as the Americans say. Enough talk. It’s time to end this. I have other business to attend to tonight before I fly out of the country.” He lifted his gun in a final salute.
“It won’t do you any good to kill us,” Gerard said quickly. “It’s too late.”
While he spoke, he pressed her harder against him. She knew his arm must be killing him, but she held on. As she grabbed his waist tighter, she felt something hard pressing against her stomach. A gun! Gerard had a gun tucked inside the waistband of his jeans.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Tony tried to sound bored, but Gerard had piqued his interest.
Trying to make herself as small as possible, Linda fumbled to slide the gun out from under Gerard’s shirt.
“A few hours ago, as prearranged, my friend Jean-Paul and I released our formulae on the internet. It’s available to any research facility or pharmaceutical company who wants to pursue their potential use as a cancer treatment.”
Linda couldn’t believe her ears.
Tony’s sharp intake of breath was followed by an incredulous laugh. “Ha! You nearly had me fooled for a second, but even you couldn’t be that stupid or that altruistic, Doctor Leon.”
“Go ahead and check for yourself. We released it simultaneously on several websites.” Gerard named some of the best known ones.
Though his voice was steady, sweat beaded on his brow, dripped along his neck, and ran down his back. He had to be in pain. How much blood had he lost? It was still running down his arm. What if he bled to death while she was standing behind him like a coward?
Determination filled her. Without taking her eyes off Tony, she grabbed the gun and fit the grip into her palm. Both she and Giovanni had studied marksmanship in their teens. Giovanni had been passionate about it, while she’d hoped it was a skill she would never use.
The gypsy’s words ran through her mind once more.You will have one chance. Do not hesitate.
She didn’t know whether or not Gerard was bluffing to buy time, but his words rang true. It didn’t matter. He’d given her the chance she needed. Her lover needed her. Her cat needed her. The children at HOPE needed her. Whatever happened next was justified.
Tony took out his phone, bent his head, and accessed the internet.
Linda slowly released the safety on the gun. She thought the sound was incredibly loud, but Tony didn’t appear to have heard it. He’d lowered the gun a fraction, his attention focused on his phone. After a few moments, he lifted his eyes to them, the gun now pointed at them once more. The shock and fury on his face told her Gerard had spoken the truth.
“You fucking bastard!” Tony cried, his face red with fury. “You’ve ruined everything!”
Linda felt Gerard’s body tense. He was going to lunge at Tony to try to save her. She had to act first. If someone was going to die today, it wouldn’t be either one of them. In one fluid motion, she shoved Gerard aside with all her strength, aimed the gun at Tony, and fired.
Linda paced the hospital corridor, staring at posters advising people to avoid sugar, to drink water, to exercise and follow a balanced diet. Ha! She did all of those things and her life was as far from balanced as it could possibly get. How could things change so drastically and irrevocably in just a matter of hours. Twenty hours ago, she’d been waking up to the beastly sounds of that damn rooster. Now, she was in the hospital awaiting news about the two men who had changed her life forever.
Gerard had been in the operating room for over an hour. Since the bullet hadn’t nicked any major arteries, his life wasn’t in danger, but it had torn the ulnar-collateral ligament, which ran along the inside of his elbow. He would recover, but it would take time and hours of physical therapy.
One floor up, Tony was also just out of surgery. The bullet from Gerard’s gun—the one she’d fired—had missed his heart by an inch. The surgeon leading the team operating on him had assured her he was going to live.
After Tony’s shocking confession, Linda wasn’t sure that was a good thing. Maybe she should join a shooting team and improve her aim. The fact she could even harbor such a thought shamed her. In any case, he would spend his life behind bars.
“Miss Coriola?” A nurse opened the door to the intensive care unit, jarring Linda from her thoughts. “Doctor Leon’s awake. You can see him now, but only for a few minutes. He needs to rest.”
“Thank you.”
Linda followed the nurse, her heart pounding madly. It was hard to believe she didn’t have a single scratch when both of the other men with her had been seriously injured. Even wounded, Gerard had protected her with his body, and had been ready to die for her.
As the Bible said,There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends.She couldn’t think of any stronger proof of Gerard’s love for her than that.
She walked toward the bed, steeling herself to be strong for him. All her courage had evaporated after the standoff with Tony. Had her ex been a better shot, Gerard would be dead. The distance from his arm to his heart was a mere matter of inches. Look how close she herself had come.
