“You’re okay,” Julian said, squeezing her hand. “I’m going to check the luggage closet and see if Tufa was telling us the truth.”
Mena stepped back, her mind swirling with confusion and terror as she held her breath. Julian gripped the gun tightly as he approached the door near the back of the compartment. Lifting the latch to open the closet door, he tugged at it and the door swung open. Inside, Mena could see Adam Russell, bound and gagged. His body twisted at an awkward angle to fit into the space. A gash with dried blood was on his head, above the temple.
Julian squatted low and pressed his fingers against Adam’s neck. “He’s still breathing.”
Standing, Julian stood up and closed the door. “We’ll leave him in there for now.”
Mena walked over to Julian.
“What’s our next move?” Mena asked.
“We wait until the pilot lands the plane in St. Basil and we make a run for it there—”
A gunshot blast rang through the air.
Hot searing pain sliced through Mena’s arm. She looked down at the blood oozing from her bicep as she fell backward onto the floor, her landing softened by the body of one of the dead gunmen.
Julian spun around.
Mena screamed as bullets whizzed through the cabin.
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Julian looked at the man with two gunshot wounds to the chest wedged between the open cockpit door.
Bastard must have been one of the pilots. Would the other one come out firing too? Julian weighed the risks, standing his ground as he pointed the rifle toward the open door.
Leaning slightly, he looked for any signs of another threat from the cockpit. The Gulfstream likely had an auto-pilot function, but he was gambling that the lead pilot wouldn’t leave his post to join the fray, especially with his co-pilot bleeding out in the doorway next to him. Keeping the plane steady and headed to its destination without crashing probably was his greater concern.
Turning around, Julian rushed over to Mena. She was sweating profusely, her face a mask of pain as she gripped her bloody arm with her left hand.
“It hurts like hell,” Mena said, through shaky breaths. The dark red blood staining her fingers as it coursed down the length of her arm. Her body was propped against one of the dead gunmen sprawled on the floor near the center of the cabin.
Julian scrambled down to the floor and wrapped his arms around Mena. Rising to his feet, he carried her to the couch. Her body trembled as she struggled to deal with the pain.
“Can you move your hand away? Let me take a look,” Julian said.
Leaning her head back against the cushion of the couch, she slowly uncurled her fingers from her bloodied arm. The wound was nasty, skin and muscles ripped to shreds but luckily, he detected an exit wound. Julian suspected the bullet had damaged her muscles and not hit her humerus bone. Dealing with a gunshot wound would be tough enough. He didn’t want her dealing with a broken bone on top of that.
“How bad is it?” Mena asked, her eyes clenched tight.
“You really want the answer to that?” Julian asked, scanning the room for materials to stop the bleeding. The blood was gushing at a rate faster than Julian would have preferred. A sign that the major brachial artery in her arm could have been hit. He had to make sure she didn’t bleed out before the plane landed and he could get her to the hospital.
“Good question. The less I know until I get to the hospital, the better. Nothing we can do until we land anyway,” Mena said.
“Have you forgotten that you’re dating a highly trained ex-special forces veteran of the military?” Julian said, giving her a wink.
A laugh erupted from Mena, then she winced in pain. “Don’t make me laugh.”
“I love your laugh. It’s good to hear, despite this fucked up situation,” Julian said.
Moving toward the cabinet next to the couch, Julian opened the door and pulled out the first aid kit. Inside, a row of four clear medical vials were secured to the lid. Julian removed one of the vials and peered at the clear contents. No label or markings to indicate what was inside. He’d hoped it was an antibiotic, but couldn’t take a chance of giving it to Mena without knowing for sure. Julian slipped the vial into his pocket just in case, then turned his focus to the other contents. Grabbing a handful of triangular bandages, roller gauze, scissors, and the bottle of pain relievers, he headed back to Mena.
“Take four of these,” Julian said, opening the bottle and shaking the pills out onto her hand. He wrapped her arm in bandages secured by roller gauze to staunch the bleeding.
Mena popped the pills in her mouth and swallowed, looking up at him. “Is it over?”
Glancing around at the gruesome scene, Julian paused. He’d killed three men on the plane to protect Mena, tied up Quentin Tufa, and left Adam Russell in an unknown state, but alive, bound and gagged in a luggage closet.
