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“I’ll do whatever you want.”
“What I want!” The sheikh yelled, then he flung his head back and burst into a loud cackle that sent a chill up my spine. I stayed stiff at Jack’s side, and I tried to stop the tremors rocking through me to no avail.
I hated that I felt this weak. The nausea earlier today still churned through my system and made it impossible for me to breathe without quaking inside. My stomach was twisting into a thousand knots, and my knees felt weak too.
“What I want,” Zayed continued in a low tone that sounded even more dangerous. “Is your life, Muller.”
Jack stood erect, and I wondered what his plan was.How do we get out of here?
Through my corner gaze, I saw some of the sheikh’s men reach for the gun at their sides, and I screamed at the same time that Jack pulled out another pistol from his left side and fired.
Many shots reverberated in the air all at once. I saw the man to my left aim for Jack, and I moved quickly and wrapped my body around Jack to stop the bullet from hitting me.
The bullet pierced through me, and I felt it. It was a strange, prickly feeling at first, and I barely even heard any sound after that. I smelled smoke, and then something metallic.
Jack yelled, “No!” He pulled me into his arms at the same time I dropped to the ground. The doors around us burst open, and the gunshots continued. There was smoke everywhere.
“Take cover, Jack!” someone yelled to Jack and began pulling him to his feet.
Jack pulled me with him to a corner of the warehouse. Another of the sheikh’s men pointed a gun at us, but Jack fired first at him, then at the three others that tried to shoot at us.
He looked down at me again when his men surrounded the room and made their arrest. “Nina!” Jack called, and he patted my cheeks to bring me back to consciousness.
I had started to slip into the oblivion of darkness that offered me peace from the pain spreading through my back, but Jack wasn’t letting me.
“Stay with me, Nina … I need you,” he whispered as he framed my cheeks and rocked me into him. “Stay with me, please.”
“You left me,” I whispered back, and I smiled while trying to raise a hand and touch his cheek. Jack was here right now, but it didn’t mean that the pain of him leaving without a word had faded.
“I was scared; I’m so sorry, Nina … I’m so …”
My lids drooped closed again, and then Jack lowered his face to rest his forehead on mine. “I’m sorry,” he repeated till the shots stopped firing around us. “I should have stayed. I should have called you or tried to work things out, but I was scared of hurting you and I didn’t know how to handle my feelings and …”
He stopped, then licked his lips and released a trembling breath. “I love you, Nina. I’ve been in love with you from the start. I know I’m late and I should have said this to you a while ago, but ...”
I coughed because the pressure in my chest was rising too high and I couldn’t breathe well.
“I’m scared, Jack,” I cried out with the last strength in me. Hot tears burned down my cheeks. “I’m so scared … I don’t want to die.”
“You won’t,” he quickly answered. “I’m right here with you.”
My breath came out in slow puffs now, and there was no way to stop the ache from spreading through me. I knew this was the end, and I didn’t think I would make it out of here alive anyway.
The loud blares of sirens cut into the fog forming around my brain. I forced my eyes to stay open, but I couldn’t stay awake for long. Jack’s eyes filled with tears too, and I saw the torn expression on his face as he looked at me and held my hand tight.
“I’m so sorry, Nina.”
Jim came to us then and paramedics flooded the room. Jack clutched my hand as they put me on a gurney, and he rushed out of the warehouse with me till we got in the ambulance.
I slid in and out of consciousness the entire ride to the hospital, and Jack’s eyes stayed on me until we arrived. The last thing I remember was when the nurses surrounded my bed and Jack whispered words I couldn’t understand. He ran beside the gurney while they pushed it in, and the nurses tried to get him to stop but he wouldn’t. I tried to speak but I couldn’t, and I feared I would never get the chance to tell Jack the words racing through my mind.
I love him.I have always felt this way for him, and those feelings have lingered in me from the beginning. His fingers slipped out of mine while they rolled me into the operating room, and I closed my eyes, then sucked in one last breath before letting the darkness consume me.
Chapter Twenty
Jack
Ryanmetmeatthe national hospital, and he stayed with Nina while I went with Jim and the FBI to give a full report on the shootout that happened at the warehouse downtown.
