Page 177 of Hunter's Revenge

I shoot him right in his heart, the place he was shot at that attack in Uzbekistan. Except this time,thisbullet will kill him.

Jim drops his gun, and Gwen makes a move to run toward me, but before she can take one step, Jim wraps his arms around her and pulls her back to him.

Everything crushes inside me as I watch them both fall off the roof, going over the side into the dark abyss below.

ChapterForty-One

Malik

Gwen went over the side.

No, no, nooo.

The terror of watching Gwen falling catapults me forward, and I almost run off the roof in an attempt to save her.

I barely manage to stop myself from plunging into the river below, but it’s like I’m still going. My hand is still stretched out trying to reach her, and my cry of anguish is still clinging to the wind.

Gwen went over the side. I couldn’t save her.

I couldn’t stop her from falling.

That fucking fall must have at least been forty feet, and I don’t know how deep the river goes. Or what’s down there. There could be rocks, or it could have been too shallow to swallow the fall.

I don’t know if there’s even a chance that she could have survived.

No.I can’t stand here thinking shit like that.

Love pushes the thought out of my mind and fuels my body with determination. I can’t give up. I have to try and save her.

I race back the way I came, practically leaping across the roof.

“I saw them fall!” Zakh shouts in my ear when I reach the stairs. “I’m heading there now.”

Fuck.Thank God. “Zakh, she’s tied up and can’t swim.”

“I’m getting in the water now.”

The battle is still going on inside the hangar when I reach down there, but I manage to get past the gunfire and run outside.

I use every ounce of strength I have to run as fast as humanly possible, but it’s taking too long.

I’mtaking too long.

Minutes later, I reach the riverbank. My sense of hope awakens when I see Zakh emerging from the dark waters with Gwen in his arms, but there’s blood seeping from her head.

“She hit her head,” Zakh calls out. Blood covers his shirt, too.

He gets out of the water and sets Gwen down on the grass. When I join them, I pull out my pocketknife to cut away the gag from her mouth and hands.

I check her vitals. Terror fills me again when I notice Gwen’s not breathing.

“She’s not breathing, Zakh.” I can’t remember the last time I sounded so panicked and afraid. “She’s not fucking breathing.”

“I’ll call the ambulance.”

While he does that, I start mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

I try to calculate how long she must have been in the water. It had to be around five minutes. Maybe a little longer.

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