Page 35 of Going Rogue
Her thoughts raced as fresh sweat broke out at her temples. It would be difficult to outreason him. She glanced at Crane, but his gaze stayed focused on the threat. Fingers of fear started to claw at her lungs. When her hand shook, she changed her grip, bringing her other palm up to steady the Glock. She shifted her target, training her sight on Jordan with her finger poised against the trigger. Ready for any chance tobreak it and fire the bullet that would end this. But could she manage it fast enough without Crane becoming a casualty?
Because she wasn’t sure, she tried to stall for time. “There’s no way you walk away from this clean. TOP already knows you sold me out.”
His smile hinted he didn’t believe her. “If that’s true, where are they?”
She pulled answers from thin air, hoping a real solution might present itself. “They’re waiting for you. Right outside these walls. If Crane and I don’t walk out those doors, you better believe you won’t either.” She managed to come off as smug and hoped it made the lie convincing.
Out of the corner of her eye, something moved. She glanced over to see the blade of Crane’s Ka-Bar flying through the air. Jordan, who’d been watching her, tracked her shift in focus and dodged the knife just in time. It wedged itself in a beam beyond his head.
With a coolness the situation didn’t warrant, the deranged asshole smiled and said, “Thank you for relinquishing your otherweapon.”
Crane snarled and clenched his hands into fists. Silently, she cursed at him for doing something so stupid.
Jordan nodded at her gun. “Strip it, or the hulking birdman here will be sporting bullet holes.”
For the first time in years, Rogue felt stuck. She didn’t know what to do. Shoot Jordan and he’d shoot Crane, unless . . . a wild idea, but an idea, nonetheless, went off like a blazing lightbulb. “I’m sorry, Crane,” she murmured. Though her attention appeared to be on him, her aim didn’t waiver from Jordan.
As expected, Crane’s head whipped toward her, his caramel eyes questioning. They went from confused to fearful in the space of a blink as he realized she meant to fire on Jordan. But before she had the chance to step in front of him and take her shot, Jordan used his weapon.
“No-o-o-o-o-oo!” Everything moved in slow motion, even her yell. Her finger squeezed the trigger, firing at Jordan as Crane’s hands lifted tohis right side.
When he staggered back a step, she moved to catch him, but they both crashed to the floor under his weight. He landed half on top of her. She sat up with a grunt and cradled him in her arms.
“Oh God, Crane.” Blood gushed from his abdominal wound. On instinct, she lifted her hands to put pressure on the spot, but she still held the Glock. She shifted her gaze to Jordan. He was down for the count. She didn’t need her weapon any longer. Setting it aside, she grabbed Crane’s big mitt and used it to cover the hole in his gut.
“Jordy—” He lifted his head, and his face contorted in pain, making her wince in sympathy.
One of her bullets had gone through Jordan’s left eye, the other through the center of his forehead. “No longer an issue.”
“Good.” Crane tried to smile at her; she saw the struggle in his eyes, but it ended with a grimace before his head flopped backward. “I’m sorry, squirrel.”
“Why areyouapologizing?” Frustrated tears pricked at her eyes. How had she let this happen? Her thoughts circled each otherin a frantic rhythm, running through all the ways she could’ve acted to avoid this outcome.
It’s my fault.
“I failed. I was supposed to get you home, but—”
His words snapped her out of the spiral of guilt she’d fallen into. “Don’t say it!” She couldn’t bear to hear him give up on her. “You still can!”
His eyes closed despite her desperate assurance. “I’m sorry.”
Fear choked her, and she gasped, “Don’t you fucking die on me, Crane. Don’t you do it!”
But his hand slid away from his side to lay limply on the floor beside him. A strangled cry tore from her lips as she covered the wound with her own palms. Despite the pressure she placed over the spot, warm blood continued to seep through her fingertips. She felt it but she didn’t see it. Tears dripped down her face and blurred her vision.
Don’t die. Don’t die. Don’t die.
The chant sounded over and over in herhead while her body shook, her breaths coming as choked gasps of air. Everything seemed to shudder with violent tremors from her hands to her lungs as one thing became starkly apparent.
She’d fallen in love with him.
Crane’s love for her was like a beacon, guiding her out of the dark and into a world filled with that love and all its possibilities. It had always been there; she’d just been too stubborn to see it.
Rogue didn’t know when she’d fallen exactly or if people even knew that, but she did know this fact.
If he died, her heart would die with him.
Fear crept in and began to strangle any speck of hope. She’d never be the same now that she’d felt his love.
