Page 150 of Sheltering You

Qasim pressed his hands to the back of his head.

Rapid gunfire saturated the morning air.

The terrorist dropped to his knees. Then, fell forward, splat.

The snow stained red.

Derrick hardly registered what was happening, just ran.

Grant shouted, “Down, down!”

Derrick was already diving. He wrapped Jasmine in his arms, bringing her to the ground with him, taking their weight on his shoulder and hip. He rolled over her, protecting her with his body.

Another volley of gunshots.

Jasmine stared up at him with wide, terrified eyes. “What’s happening?”

“I don’t know.” Not much, anyway. Someone had a machine gun, shooting from a boat, he guessed.

The staccato rhythm stopped, leaving nothing but silence. Slowly, other sounds drifted in. The surf crashing against the cliff below. The distant call of a seagull.

Jasmine’s quick breaths, the most beautiful sound of all.

“There!” Dad’s shout came over the walkie-talkies.

Derrick angled up and saw the back of a boat as it sped away.

Michael yelled, “Can you stop him? Bryan?”

A rifle shot was followed by two more.

“He’s too far,” Bryan finally said through the walkie-talkie. “I could’ve gotten him if not for the waves.”

Michael uttered a curse.

Beneath Derrick, Jasmine squirmed.

He was crushing her and angled off. “Sorry, sweetheart. Are you okay?”

“I think so.” She rolled to her side as if to stand. “What is happening?”

“Stay down. Let’s find out what’s going on.”

She did, shivering beside him. She’d taken her hair down, standing brave and strong against her tyrant husband, and long silky tendrils lay across the trodden snow. Her skin was flushed from cold, and dark smudges lined her red-rimmed eyes. But her expression held a mixture of fear and wonder.

She was here, safe and alive.

The most beautiful woman in the world.

He wrapped his free arm around her and crushed her to his chest. “Thank God. Thank God.”

As soon as Qasim and Jasmine had disappeared down the steps from the patio, he’d grabbed his walkie-talkie, but the explosion had cut off his words.

There’d been screams and shouts of “Fire! Fire!”

He had no idea what had happened inside. Only that it’d taken precious seconds to get through on the walkie-talkie with everyone asking questions and trying to figure out what was going on.

“Qasim has her!” Derrick had said the words over and over, all the while, standing, trying to get his bearings despite the dizziness caused by the blows to his head.