Page 41 of Undercover Hacker

I needed to be close to Zane. I stood and ran toward the man I had feelings for.

Mia was working on loosening his ropes. Kat and Zane screamed at the same time for me to stop. I didn’t listen. I continued, needing to get to Zane and make sure he was okay.

A large hand wrapped around my waist. I could feel the cool metal through my light shirt. It took only a second before Sanchez’s cologne hit my nose.

“Everyone back,” he demanded.

Sanchez used me as a shield to get to the exit. When he got close, Zane leaped forward. Sanchez moved his gun and fired.

Zane dropped to his knees. Sanchez shoved me forward and ran out the door. Everyone was focused on Zane. They didn’t go after Sanchez.

I ran to Zane’s body lying on the floor. Antonio was working on ripping his shirt open, revealing a bulletproof vest. At the site of the vest, I relaxed.

John was on the phone with 911, getting an ambulance.

I grabbed Zane’s hand and his eyes fluttered open. I could see the pain I caused by not listening. He wouldn’t have been shot a second time if I hadn’t run after him.

“Fuck!” Antonio screamed.

Time stopped.No, I can't be seeing this. He had a bulletproof vest on. Why is there so much blood?Antonio unbuckled the vest. Zane was losing blood from a hole in his stomach.

I reached to cover the hole and hoped the ambulance would make it here in time.

“You can’t leave me.”

Tears were streaming down my face. Someone was trying to pull me away from Zane. Didn’t they understand I was trying to save him? John squatted next to me. “Sophie, you need to let the paramedics do their job.”

I hadn’t heard them come in or noticed them standing there. I looked up, and a young man was trying to get to Zane’s wound. Another paramedic was putting a mask over Zane’s mouth.

I released my hold on Zane’s wound, and John pulled me into his arms.

“Zane will be fine. He will be angry at you sneaking out of the house. Brock has been going crazy trying to find you and Kat for the last hour.” John’s words faded out when I heard the paramedics yell.

“I need the panels. We lost his pulse.”

18

Zane

For three days, I’d been in a hospital bed, waiting for Sophie to come see me. She wasn’t answering my calls. Brock and Antonio said she was fine. They didn’t know why she wasn’t talking to me. She asked for an update every time someone came from the hospital.

The pain was still radiating through my body. The events at the warehouse kept coming back full force. When Sanchez had the gun pointed at Sophie’s head, I’d lost it. He used his own niece as a shield to get out of the warehouse.

The soft footsteps entering my room had me opening my eyes. I saw Sophie.

Her emerald eyes were sad. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“You didn’t. I was thinking.” My voice was horse from the tube they had in my throat during surgery.

“Hi.”

I squeezed her hand. “Stop crying, Red. I’m fine. The doctor patched up the hole. I’m as good as new.”

At the mention of my gunshot wound, Sophie started to cry harder. “I can’t do this.”

“Can’t do what? We’re sitting here talking. Well, I’m lying down.”

She gave me a watery smile. “I did this to you. If you hadn’t been brought into the case, you wouldn’t have almost died.”

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