Thomas shook his head and never took his gaze from the cabin. “It was a trap, all along.”
“For us? Or for that jerk out there, bleeding out?”
Patrick was moaning and begging for help.
Fury and fear churned within Noelle. Did your victims beg, too?
“Is the woman in there?” Aaron wanted to know.
They hadn’t gotten a glimpse of the shooter, not yet.
But Noelle didn’t need a glimpse. “She is.”
Aaron grunted. “So, we’re looking at two people in—”
“Only one,” Noelle interrupted. “Just one.”
As comprehension sank in, Aaron whistled. “Paula Quill got free and found a gun in the place, huh? Payback is a—”
The cabin’s door opened then. A small, hunched figure appeared.
Paula.
She had a gun in her hand. She lifted the gun and aimed it at the begging Patrick.
Paula walked forward. Her grip on the gun was steady and her steps were slow.
She’s going to kill him.
“Stop!” Thomas shouted.
Paula’s head jerked up. So did her gun. She pointed it at Thomas.
“No, Thomas,” Noelle said as Thomas stepped forward, “that woman isn’t a victim.” Noelle was seeing her for exactly what she was.
Patrick’s partner.
Paula fired. So did Thomas. His bullet hit its target, and Paula fell back, slamming into the side of the cabin.
But her bullet had hit, too. Thomas’s blood sprayed in the air, and Noelle gave a frantic cry as she grabbed for him.
No, not Thomas. Not—
Aaron sprang forward, running toward Paula.
Thomas grabbed Noelle’s hand. Blood streamed from a wound near his upper arm. “Just a flesh wound, baby. I swear, I’m fine.”
And she realized she’d been pleading, so desperate for him to be all right.
His hold tightened on her. “It would take a lot more than this to slow me down.”
Yes, yes, it would. Relief had her feeling light-headed, but they didn’t have time to waste. She and Thomas rushed after Aaron.
The other agent had already kicked the gun away from Paula. Paula’s wound was almost an exact mirror image of Thomas’s.
But Paula was screaming, and Thomas was eerily silent.
Aaron locked his hand around Paula’s uninjured shoulder. “Wrong move, ma’am, wrong.”
“Help...me...” Patrick pleaded when Noelle drew closer to him.
She stared down at his bloody chest. His breath was wheezing in and out. If he didn’t get medical attention, he’d be dead in moments.
Noelle dropped to her knees beside him.
“What are you doing?” Paula shrieked. “Let him die! After what he did to you, let him bleed out!”
Noelle shook her head. “That’s not who I am.” She ripped his shirt away. Saw the gaping wounds. She tried to apply pressure.
“He has to die!” Paula screamed. “He killed Lawrence! He abducted me! Let. Him. Die!” She started sobbing then, deep, wrenching sobs, which shook her whole body.
Aaron swore. “Look, it’s going to be all right...”
Noelle frantically shook her head. “He didn’t abduct her—”
But it was too late. Aaron had lowered his guard, and Paula—Paula grabbed his gun.
She lifted the weapon, aimed for her target. But her target was right behind Noelle, and when Paula fired, standing less than five feet away while Noelle crouched on the cold snow, Noelle knew that bullet was going to hit her. It would hit her, then go through her as it rushed toward Patrick Porter.
She tried to brace herself. Thomas, I—
The bullet didn’t hit her.
Thomas jumped in front of Noelle.
The bullet hit him, and Noelle screamed.
He had his gun up, but Thomas didn’t get the chance to fire. The weapon slipped from his hands as he staggered back and fell into her. Noelle wrapped her arms around him. Held him tight. “Thomas, Thomas!”
Aaron wrestled the gun from Paula. The woman crumpled then, crying pitifully, but Noelle knew it was all an act. A show.
Thomas slumped against Noelle.
She felt the stickiness of his blood. Not from the wound near his shoulder, but from the wound at his heart.
He hit the snow beside her. She grabbed for him, shaking him. “Thomas!” His eyes were closed.
The wound... Desperately, quickly, Noelle looked for the entrance wound. An inch from his heart. But there was no exit wound. If there’d been an exit wound, she would’ve been hit, too. Instead, the bullet was lodged inside him.
Her head whipped toward Aaron. “We have to get him to the chopper, now!” Thomas’s blood wasn’t just on her fingers now. He was bleeding so much that the blood coated her hands.
No, no, no.
Aaron swore and rushed toward her, pulling Paula in his wake. The woman was still sobbing, still—
“I...love you...”
Thomas’s rasped words had pain welling within Noelle. She held him tight, tried to stop that precious blood from pumping out of him. “I love you, too!”
His eyes were still closed and with every second that passed, he seemed to be growing paler.
“Thomas, I love you, too! Do you hear me?”
She didn’t think he did.
Terror clawed through her.
“You said you wouldn’t leave me alone. Not ever again.”
He barely seemed to be breathing.
“Don’t leave me. Don’t.” She pressed a kiss to his lips. “I. Love. You.”
But Thomas didn’t answer her. When Mercer and two deputies rushed through the woods moments later, Thomas was unconscious. Unresponsive.
They loaded him into the helicopter. Patrick was pushed in beside him.
Patrick was still wheezing. His color had turned ashen. Thomas... She couldn’t hear his breaths at all.
She held him tight. I won’t let you go. “Keep your promise,” she whispered as the tears burned her eyes. Then she looked toward the open door of the chopper.
Aaron stood there. A deputy had cuffed a sobbing Paula.
“Don’t let her go!” Noelle cried out. “She’s the key to this mess.”
Paula’s head lifted. Her gaze darted from Patrick to Thomas.
Paula smiled.
The chopper lifted in the air.
* * *
THOMAS KNEW HE was in a hospital even before he opened his eyes. It was the smell that told him, that antiseptic scent and the steady beeping of a nearby machine.
He remembered getting shot. Remembered the desperate fear he wouldn’t get to Noelle in time to save her. So when he forced his eyes open and struggled to speak, her name was the first word he uttered. “No...elle...”