Page 125 of Betrayal and Vows

I shoot his guard clean through the skull and drag Lena away from him, but another pops out behind a column and fires. The crack of the bullet is deafening.

But it’s Lena’s scream that stops me dead in my tracks.

She collapses.

Blood spreads across the fabric of her dress.

“No!” I’m down beside her in an instant.

“Where are you hit?”

“My arm,” she groans.

I see the blood seeping from her arm. I rip the sleeve and expose the injury.

It’s high. Clean. Through the meat. It hurts like hell, but it’s not fatal. Not if we get her out now.

I press my hand to the injury causing her to cry out.

“Anton,” she gasps, her hand clutching my shirt. Her eyes lock onto mine with the kind of desperation I’ve only ever seen on dying men. “I didn’t betray you. I swear, I didn’t. He said he’d kill you. I had to push you away. I’m sorry.”

“Shh,” I murmur. My lips brush against her lips. “You’re okay.”

She thinks she’s dying.

As if I would ever let her leave this world without me.

“You’re okay. I need you to run, Lena.”

“I’m not leaving you!”

“Lena. I have to finish this.”

She shakes her head.

Gunfire and bullets zip by me.

I drag Lena, avoiding the stampede of guests. I get her outside the ballroom. “Stay here. I have to get Dmitri.”

Mikhail’s voice cuts through the screams, “Kill him! Now!”

Vadim rises slowly from his place beside Leonid, brushing off his suit like a man bored of the entire performance. “Enough,” he says calmly.

He’s acting like he’s bulletproof.

But surprisingly, no one shoots.

Even I hesitate.

“I said I would protect my family,” Vadim says. He turns to his men with a sharp nod. “Take them out.”

Now, I’m fucked.

But the bullets that are blasting aren’t hitting me.

Vadim’s guards open fire on Mikhail’s loyal men.

Dmitri appears from my left. “Go!”