The Billionaire Op - Lori Ryan Page 0,74

she could somehow cover the baby to protect it from whatever was about to happen.

Jennie’s phone beeped, indicating an incoming text message and almost immediately began to ring again. She stood up, not knowing what she should do, but knowing she needed to put some distance between her and this woman.

“I’m going to get that—”

In that moment, several things seemed to happen at once. Chad and Mike burst through the door at the same time Jennie saw Caroline Waters shoot to her feet, pulling a gun out of her purse.

Jennie’s blood ran cold. Somehow in that moment, she wasn’t frightened for herself; she was terrified for Chad. If she lost him, she knew she wouldn’t live through it.

She wasn’t strong enough to go through that again. Not this time.

She was vaguely aware of Mike talking to Caroline. Caroline’s arm shook as she tried to hold the gun on all three of them. Chad was talking to Jennie, reaching for her, telling her to come to him.

She stood several feet from Caroline and across the room from Chad. Jennie knew Chad wanted her near him so he could protect her. He had turned from the Chad she knew into a highly trained warrior, ready to fight for her, ready to die for her.

But, Jennie couldn’t let that happen.

The world seemed to slow down in that moment. The tension was almost palpable and Jennie knew this would end badly. She could feel it in the cold dread crawling up her spine. She looked from Chad to Caroline and back again.

Chad was still talking but Jennie couldn’t hear what he was saying. She knew Caroline would start shooting her way out of the room if the desperate, cornered look on her face was any indication.

“No,” Jennie whispered. She wasn’t speaking to Caroline or Chad or even herself, for that matter.

She was speaking to the universe in general. To whatever it was that thought it was okay to take two men from her. To take first her husband and now the father of her unborn child. Jennie’s fists clenched and she felt the bite of her nails breaking the skin of her palms.

“No.”

She wouldn’t let this happen. She lost Kyle, but there was no way Jennie would lose Chad, too. She lunged at Caroline, aware in the back of her mind that Chad was screaming at her and charging for her. Jennie heard a gunshot but didn’t feel anything as she tackled Caroline to the ground.

The gunshot was louder than she expected it to be. Her ears were ringing and she thought to herself that the whole world seemed to be moving in slow motion. Everything sounded fuzzy. Everything looked fuzzy, she thought with a strange dazed feeling.

Jennie felt Chad’s arms around her, lifting her as she saw Mike subdue Caroline. He secured the gun Caroline had dropped when she fell to the ground.

Jennie turned to Chad and ran her hands over him, frantically trying to figure out where he’d been shot. As she ran her hands over his chest, his arms, desperate to know where he’d been hit, he lifted her up.

He ran through the door with her, holding her in his arms. Jennie saw other agents in the hallway and heard someone call out that an ambulance was waiting downstairs.

Why is Chad carrying me if he needs an ambulance? This is so silly.

She looked into his face as he entered the elevator and pushed the button. He cradled her in his arms and was talking to her, but she couldn’t hear him over the ringing in her ears. Jennie must have been closer than she realized to Caroline’s gun when it went off.

She followed Chad’s line of sight to her arm and stared in shock at the blood pouring down her arm and dripping onto her hand. Chad’s hand was wrapped around her forearm, applying pressure to try to slow the bleeding, but the blood was seeping through his fingers. It was only after seeing it that her body seemed to register the sensations, the pain.

The blood was hotter than she’d thought it would be as it dripped over her hand and onto the elevator floor. And her arm felt numb, except for the back of it.

The back of her arm felt like someone had dug into it with a stick made out of salt. It burned like nothing she’d ever felt before. The pain was so intense, her breath seemed to stop and she stared up at Chad, finally understanding.

He hadn’t