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“You have created a lot of trouble, Ms. Kauffman.” His gaze dropped to the necklace. “The Red Devil belongs to me.” He motioned with his gun. “Come.”
Finn stepped fully in front of her before she could move. He was careful to keep both hands up, but Lauren felt the panic radiating from him. “She’s not going anywhere. Look, you can have the necklace, okay? Just let her walk.”
Her heart squeezed hard. Without his weapon, what chance did they stand? If she didn’t go with these thugs, they were all dead. If she did as they said, maybe they’d let Finn and Archer go.
Tears burned her eyes. “Finn—”
She reached out for his arm, but he shrugged her off, his voice growing hard. “No. This is bullshit.” He refocused on the leader. “Take the fucking necklace but let her go. She’s not gonna tell anyone about this, okay? No one will know what happened here. I’m the one you want. I’m the one who shot down that helicopter and killed your men on the roof at Palladium. Take me, instead. Blame the whole fucking thing on me.”
He was sacrificing himself for her. The enormity of the moment slammed into Lauren, stole her breath. Yeah, he was her bodyguard, and keeping her safe was his job, but this was more than that. This was his surrendering everything for her. This was personal.
The leader’s gaze shifted from her to Finn. And his eyes grew dark and hard. The weapon in his hand moved until the barrel was pointed at Finn’s chest. “My brother Manuel was in that helicopter.”
No! Lauren’s muscles coiled tight as she reached for Finn’s arm. A scream echoed in her head but she heard the roar of it outside herself. The leader shifted his finger to the trigger. Around them, the foliage rustled again. As the man’s head swiveled to the right, Lauren realized the roar hadn’t come from her.
A blur of black flashed from the trees, slammed into the leader and the man next to him. Before they could lift their weapons and shoot, a horrific cry tore out of both men. They hit the ground hard. A snarl echoed, and Lauren’s eyes flew wide as she scrambled back from the enormous black jaguar sinking its teeth into the leader’s throat.
She was right. They had been watched. Only it hadn’t been by a drug cartel as she’d assumed. It’d been by a beast.
The man next to Santiago tried to get up. The jaguar swiped out with its claws, caught him by the throat and chest. Blood spurted in every direction. His body slumped to the ground before he even had time to scream.
“Lauren! Run!”
Tearing her eyes away from the carnage, she saw Archer and Finn struggling with the remaining two thugs. Fists met bone. The terrorists’ machine guns lay on the ground at their feet. The man Archer was fighting went down with a crack and didn’t move. The jaguar snapped its jaws as it tore into the man, and roared again. Lauren looked down and saw Finn’s gun had been knocked free when the beast had attacked.
She reached for the weapon just as the jaguar’s head swiveled toward the struggle to her right. Finn’s fist slammed into the other thug’s jaw. The man hit the ground on his ass. The jaguar roared and abandoned its kill, stepping toward the commotion. Hands shaking, Laurenlifted the gun, pointed.
The man Finn had knocked down whipped toward the sound. His eyes flew wide open when he saw the beast stalking his way. A scream ripped from his chest a split second before he scrambled from the ground and tore off into the jungle.
The jaguar’s muscles flexed. Sensing a chase, it bounded across the ground after the man, nothing more than a blur of black that disappeared into the trees as fast as it had appeared. A scream echoed deep in the jungle, followed by a roar. Then nothing but silence filled the humid air.
“Fuck me,” Finn said, breathing hard as he turned Lauren’s way. “No way that just happened.”
Archer leaned over, rested his hands on his thighs and sucked in air. “You’re not fucking invited to stay. You got that, Tierney? I’ve been here six months and haven’t seen a damn jaguar. You’re here ten minutes and every beast in the goddamn place is coming out of the woodwork for you.” He reached down, picked up the semi-automatic weapon. “I swear to God you’re cursed.”
Heart thundering, Lauren lowered the gun.
Archer swore under his breath as he moved past her toward what was left of the leader. “Man, that’s gross.”
Lauren didn’t look. Her pulse pounded in her ears, her heart raced in her chest, but her gaze stayed locked on Finn. Bloody, bruised and covered in a mixture of dirt and sweat, he was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.
“It’s over,” he said in a low voice.
Relief rippled, but it was short lived. Movement behind him caught her eye. The man on the ground pulled a handgun from somewhere in his shirt and raised his arm, pointing the weapon at the back of Finn’s head.
Lauren’s adrenaline surged. She lifted her arm, braced the butt of the gun against her other hand and fired. Gunshots echoed. She wasn’t sure how many times she pulled the trigger. The man’s eyes went wide a split second before his body slumped back and the weapon flew from his fingers to thump against the jungle floor.
In the silence that followed, Finn looked from the body now sprawled across the ground with three holes dead center i
n the chest to her with surprised eyes. “Where the hell did you learn to shoot like that?”
“The range,” she said, staring at what she’d done.
“The range?”
His question pulled her attention. “Why do you think I haven’t needed a bodyguard until now? My brother made sure if I went into modeling I’d know how to take care of myself.”
Finn stepped toward her and reached for the gun. “Give me that.”
