He’d only known her for a short while, but he knew better than to refuse. He gently cut her zip ties and she snatched the knife and ran to the cage holding the children and began working on the lock with the knife.
Shit.
What could he do but stand guard?
Just as he heard the click of the lock, a movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention and he whipped around, weapon high.
There was no time to think. No time to aim. Because it was Ming Kow, and the bastard had his weapon pointed at Nat.
Cooper pulled the trigger and Ming Kow crashed back into a crate. Bullets arched high into the air, plunking into the tin roof of the warehouse. Unfortunately, Coop had only winged him and the bastard found his feet and lifted his weapon to return fire.
A bullet ripped through him with screaming agony. It was like a scorching blade through his chest. The force of it slammed him back, nearly made him lose his balance. His fingers went numb. He lost hold of his Walther and it fell to the ground with a clatter.
At the same moment, Nat yanked open the cage door and yelled to the children to run. And God help them, they did. They scattered.
The unexpected movement startled Ming Kow, who, for an instant, was unsure of which target to take.
His hesitation was his undoing for, in a blur of movement, Natalia rolled on the ground, grabbed Cooper’s Walther, and fired. She hit Ming Kow just to the left of his chest, a direct shot to the heart.
But consummate professional that she was, she followed it with another tap to the brain pan.
Ming Kow stared at her for a heartbeat, a dribble of red on his forehead, and then he crumpled.
In the resonant aftermath of her fatal shot, silence echoed.
It was then—in the realization that Ming Kow was dead and gone, in the realization that Nat was safe—that Cooper’s pain returned. All of it, as the adrenaline faded, welled up and threatened to claim his sanity. He slumped to the ground—so he wouldn’t suffer the indignity of swooning—and pulled back to look at his wound. Blood welled on his chest and it hurt like hell, but he knew it wasn’t a fatal wound…or he’d be dead by now.
He closed his eyes because his lids were far too heavy.
“Cooper?”
Nat’s voice hovered somewhere around his head. “Hmm?”
“You’re shot.”
“I am.”
“Darling. Look at me.” He thought she shook him, but he wasn’t sure. Maybe the world was just spinning. “Cooper?”
“Is he dead?” A high-pitched voice asked. Surely that wasn’t Gregor, was it? Coop forced open one eye and focused on a beautiful face with enormous brown eyes.
“I’m not dead.”
Surely that tiny face did not look put out.
“Does it hurt?” Someone poked him…just where it hurt and he groaned.
Another tapped him on the forehead.
Yet another pinched his nostrils closed.
“Now, now, children. Give him some room.”
“He’s bleeding,” Someone said in what sounded like a gleeful voice.
“Do you think he’d going to die?”
Cooper frowned. “Are you sure you didn’t make a mistake saving them?” As children went, they seemed fairly bloodthirsty.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Nat said. “Close your eyes. Rest.”
He did. He tried to, but Gregor’s voice roused him. “He got himself shot, I see.”
His tone made it clear that in the same position, Gregor would have managed to avoid the bullet. Cooper tried to snarl at him, but lacked the strength.
He lacked the strength for much of anything. Felt his consciousness slipping away. But somewhere in the deep well of his soul, he knew it would be okay to let go.
Because Nat was here with him.
He wasn’t alone anymore.
* * *
The hardest thing for Natalia was sitting by Cooper’s bed at the hospital and waiting for him to wake up. The doctors said he would be fine…other than residual aches from the tissue and muscle damage, but she couldn’t relax until he woke up.
Gregor and Vasili had taken care of everything else. They oversaw the clean-up at the warehouse with their contact from the Chinese government, disposed of the bodies and collected more intel from the warehouse office. They’d even taken Donovan—the bastard—into custody, which pleased Natalia to no end. He would enjoy his time in Chinese prison, she was sure of it.
Gregor had even gone so far as to install the children in a suite at the hotel and given them free rein of room service. No doubt they were happy at the moment.