Chapter 29
Shane
What the fuck? Why was she shooing me away?
Blocking my fucking shot? Was she was actually protecting that son-of-a-bitch?
I looked through the rifle sight at Red’s face, which was chalky white, her pale lips repeating that word, shaking her head, violently.
If the helicopter moved, she shifted too, always blocking my shot.
What the hell was she saying? It looked like ‘mom.’ The hell?
Then she crawled up onto the wide balustrade and stood there, teetering, wobbling.
That splotch of red from Halliwell’s bullet was dark on her shoulder and spreading.
She looked up at me, still desperately waving her hands, shooing me away.
I focused on her lips, her desperate eyes, her go-away gestures.
Her hands were bloody. She was forming the same word, over and over. What the hell? Mom, mom, mom?
It hit me like a brick. Bomb.
Then she pitched herself off the balustrade and fell. Fuck!
“Bomb! Bomb! Get away from here, quick!” I bellowed into the mic.
Amos instantly did as I asked, swerving the chopper away as my eyes followed her down, down, down… three seconds… four… and a white parachute flowered open.
Oh, Jesus. My heart had almost stopped in my chest.
“Follow her!” I bellowed into the mic. “She’s landing in the water!”
The wind had caught the chute and filled it, carrying her out over the heaving waves.
Boom.
The blast wave was huge, buffeting us. We looked up. The entire fucking complex was expanding out into a huge fireball. Red had warned us away just in time.
Amos swept us away from it, following that white parachute as it floated out over the water.
Jesus, that was a tight jump. I’d done plenty of parachuting in my day, but never from a fucking cliff.
Base jumping was not my jam. I didn’t crave adrenaline that much.
On the contrary, I was sick to death of it.
That woman had a set of brass gonads on her.
Or else she was out of her fucking gourd. Or maybe both.
Remy and Ethan both helped me secure the rope in the helicopter as we descended closer to the water, knotting it around me.
We had no safety harnesses, so we’d just have to wing it.
Red had hit the water. The chute was billowing out like an enormous jellyfish, parts of it sinking fast. Red’s head was nowhere to be seen.
They let the rope out and lowered me down. I fought panic. Had to stay cool, methodical, as I swayed over the soggy fabric billowing in the water, searching… searching… and then her dark head popped up, hair over her eyes, gasping for air. Yes.
The helicopter shifted. They let my rope down further.
My feet hit the water. I seized her under the arms, pulled her up. Undid the snap buckles, pulled the harness off her shoulders. I wrapped myself around her and hung on for dear life as my people pulled us back up into the sky.
I was never letting go of her again.