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Ryker reached the last unopened door and cracked it enough to see in. The room was pitch black except for a soft red light flashing from the corner. He could see the outline of someone sitting in a chair in the darkened den. Bingo. They’d found the den.
He pulled the door shut silently without entering the room. He didn’t want to signal their presence on the security camera before the others were in position.
He was about to radio his team for a situation report, or a sitrep as they called it, when a gunshot fired upstairs and an audible scuffle followed. Some screamed from inside the den.
Ryker flew into action. He shoved open the door, flicked on the light, and rushed in.
“Sitrep ASAP,” he barked into his earpiece.
Jade’s eyes found him. “Ryker,” she breathed, with audible relief.
She had dried blood in her hair and some minor abrasions on her arms, but luckily she appeared mainly unharmed.
Lyra, though, was in rough shape. Her face was swollen and bruised, one eye looked completely swollen shut, and she had cuts and contusions all over her. She looked stable but she had to be in so much pain.
Ryker crossed the room to cut Jade free, and Roark went for Lyra.
His knife easily sliced through the duct tape binding her wrists.
He studied her face as he cut the bindings around her body and her ankles. Tears rolled down her cheeks and she cried as she watched at him.
“You did great, sweetness. This is almost over. We’re going to get you both out of here.”
Benny came over the earpiece. “Hostile incoming! Headed your way, boss!”
Ryker heard footsteps thudding loudly down the stairs.
He spun toward the door in time to see the male kidnapper rush through it, gun first.
Ryker jumped in front of Jade, drew his gun, and fired on instinct.
The explosion that reverberated the room seemed louder than expected...
Intense pain spread through Ryker’s chest and knocked the air right out of his lungs.
Everything seemed to happen in slow motion.
Ryker stumbled and fell from the impact of the bullet at the same time as he watched the hostile collapse to the floor. They’d fired at each other at the same time.
He tried to gasp for air, but his lungs wouldn’t expand. His chest burned. He couldn’t breathe.
“Man down, man down!” Ryker heard Roark shouting into his earpiece.
The last thing he remembered before everything went dark was Jade’s face as she knelt over him. He found comfort in the fact that if he was going to die, at least she was safe.
Chapter 27
Jade
Jade’s heart shattered when Ryker fell to the floor and struggled for air in front of her. He’d jumped in front of a bullet intended for her!
She panicked and scurried across the floor to him. She took his face in her hands. His eyes met hers and she almost thought she saw a faint smile cross his lips before he passed out. He wasn’t breathing...
“No, Ryker, no! Stay with me!” she screamed.
Roark left Lyra’s side and practically leaped across the room to the thug kidnapper, who struggled to reach the dropped gun with his uninjured arm. Ryker’s bullet had gone through the guy’s left shoulder.
“You bastard,” Roark roared. His fist connected with the guy’s face and knocked him out with one punch.
