Page 38 of Sinner's Salvation

She pointed at Luca, who was still trying to breathe and failing miserably. “Shoot him.”

Evan glanced down at the Italian, who was trying to push himself into a kneeling position. He had another knife in his free hand. He lurched forward, thrusting the knife at her face this time.

Evan shot the Italian before he could land his strike, point blank between the eyes. Luca recoiled and flopped onto the floor.

Anna reached up with her right hand, grabbed the hilt of the knife in her chest, and slowly pulled it out. The pain was excruciating, sharp and cold, as if she’d fallen into a deep crevasse of a glacier. She shivered, and the world faded again.

“Anna,” Evan shouted. He kicked Luca out of the way so he could put a hand over the wound. “Stay with me,” he ordered, as he pressed firmly, his face only a couple of inches from hers, his eyes ablaze with worry.

She covered his hand over her heart and held on. “I’m not going anywhere,” she promised, allowing herself to fall into his gaze. His focus was totally and completely on her. All his energy, intelligence, and desire was hers and it did something to her, altered her view of the world just a little. Made room for him on the very short list of people she trusted.

“What the hell?” The paramedic in the driver’s seat shouted. “Did you just kill those two guys? And where the hell is my partner?”

“I’m okay,” the paramedic she’d manhandled said, as he levered himself to his feet. “Just a little uncertain of how I got over here.” He blinked and tried to maneuver around Anna and Evan.

“Stay where you are,” Brian ordered, sounding confident and sure, nothing like he usually did.

Anna blinked. People seemed to have changed positions, but she didn’t think she’d lost consciousness.

“I’m FBI,” Brian continued. “He’s Army, and she’s a foreign diplomat. This was an assassination attempt.”

“Holy shit,” the driver breathed.

“We need to get moving before the killers try again,” Brian said.

“The people in the cars around us all ran away when the shooting started,” the driver said. “I’m stuck.”

“Can you force your way through?” Brian asked. “The FBI will cover the damage.”

Where had this take-charge version of Brian come from? And why hadn’t she seen him before?

“Tony?” the driver asked, looking at the paramedic in the back, making the name a question.

“Do it,” Tony said, looking around with a confused frown. “We’re all dead if someone else shows up and starts shooting in here.”

The driver put the ambulance into gear and moved forward until the bumper contacted the first of the cars blocking their way.

“Brace yourselves, this might get bumpy,” he said, and stepped on the gas.

Metalscreechedand rubberscrapedacross the cement roadway. Then they hit the second car in front of them and the noise got worse.

Evan, his face pale, shifted back, slowly pulling his hand away from her chest. He waited for a moment, poised to continue putting pressure on the wound, but the bleeding had stopped.

He let out a big breath, but his gaze dropped to Luca, who was sprawled on the floor. He grabbed the Italian by his collar and the waistband of his expensive slacks and heaved him out of the back of the ambulance like he was a sack of rotten potatoes. His body hit the pavement with a meatysmack.

Tony the paramedic made an odd grunting sound of protest.

Evan closed the doors and locked them.

He looked at the paramedic as he sat down on the floor again. “He would have killed you if you hadn’t tripped over Anna,” Evan said to him. “You were nothing more than a door or a piece of furniture blocking the route to his goal.”

The ambulance jerked as they pushed past the cars, then gained speed.

“I don’t think there’s much damage to the front of the vehicle,” the driver called back. “The roll bars on the front did their job.”

Tony fell rather than sat next to Anna. “Who are you?” he asked. He was staring at her as if he’d never seen a human being before.

“I’m a government official in my country,” she replied. “Those two men are notorious European criminals. The police have been trying to track them down for some time as they are wanted for the assassination of other members of government.” She gave him a wan smile. “I didn’t think they’d try to kill me in the United States where so many people carry guns.”

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