Page 71 of Protected Hearts

“Don’t move!” he ordered her and pushed off to run into the fray.

She grabbed on to his calf, her fingers digging in so hard that he’d be wearing half-moon bruises. “Don’t go, Oaks!”

“I have to. This isn’t over.” He met her wide blue-gray eyes and shot forward.

Immediately, he picked out Colt’s plaid shirt sleeve from behind one of the planes. This crazy bitch was going to shoot a gas tank out and the whole building would blow.

Why the hell weren’t he and his brothers wearing communication devices? Because there had been no time to grab a set and now they would need to rely on other ways of communicating.

He shot a brief glance to his right to see Carson and William locked in a wrestling match that William could never win. But adrenaline from his gunshot wound and the fear of life behindbars gave him enough push to try wrenching the weapon out of Carson’s hand.

His brother delivered a kick to the man’s midsection that doubled him over. With both of his brothers accounted for, Oaks realized the sheriff and his deputy were pinned down by the woman raining bullets on them.

“You’ll never take me!” Her high-pitched scream dripped with desperation.

As Oaks looked on, she dropped a spent magazine and slammed a new one into her weapon.

The woman was not playing around. She was prepared to take out anybody in her path.

She fired at him. He dove behind a rolling cart of tools. From his cover, he popped out and returned fire. She threw herself to the side, hiding behind an airplane wing.

Fuck. He couldn’t take that shot and risk striking that gas tank. Most frequently they were in the wings of small crafts.

He had to draw her out. Just one step into the open and he could finish this.

In the back of his mind, he realized that the focus of his hatred all this time had been Shiloh’s ex, but he was too weak and had the Russian spy doing his dirty work.

“Come out!” she screamed at Oaks.

Suddenly, his mind pitched him backward to the moment when they got Decker out of those inhumane conditions and found out he could no longer talk.

No. No. No.

He grabbed his skull, willing those images of horrific wounds and the stench of fear and death that clung to his nostrils away. The fog cleared, only allowing a worse one to roll in and envelop him fully.

The moment when he got word that Eric had gone over the edge and was no longer on this earth.

Extreme flashes of pain lit his mind like strikes of lightning. He should have done something more to help Eric. He should have been with Decker, and then maybe they wouldn’t have captured him.

Oaks had failed.

He dug his fingers into his skull and battled for what felt like hours but could only be milliseconds.

Tension pulsated in the room, and his ears rang from the sharp gun blasts and the crash of bullets off steel walls.

He had to get it together and finish this. He may have failed his best friend and his brother-in-arms, but he wouldnotfail Shiloh.

He remained completely silent, waiting for the Russian operative’s next move.

When he peeked out, he could only see her ankle.

He took the shot.

She shrieked and crumpled.

She also unloaded her weapon at him.

Now that she was on the ground, he had a clear shot that wouldn’t hit the gas tank.

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