Page 11 of Liam
“Who are you?”
The guy growled, his chest heaving. “Get the fuck off me!”
“If you don’t talk, you’re useless to me and I shoot. Who are you?”
“I’m no one. Just a guy who wants to see you and everyone like youdead!”
Liam’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”
“Watch out!”
The shout came from one of the servers, and it gave Liam enough time to roll to the side as a man fired from the door. Liam fired back—two shots in the chest. But when he looked back to the first man, he saw that the bullet meant for Liam had hithim.
Fuck.
He pushed to his feet and moved to the two chefs. He didn’t need to touch their pulses to know they had faint heartbeats.
Blood roared between his ears and fury pulsed through his veins as he instructed the others in the kitchen to apply pressure to the wounds before he returned to the ballroom. Guns no longer fired. In fact, there was almost no sound at all. His team slowly stepped out into the open, scanning the room and watching each other’s backs as they went.
It was over. But did that mean they didn’t have a single survivor? Someone who could tell them what the hell they’d been doing here tonight?
The men all moved to their women, checking on them. Checking on the guests. Liam scanned the room too. Where was Nylah?
Sirens wailed from the street. He started to cross the room but stopped at a sound from the right corner. It was like a cross between a groan and a gasp.
He moved toward a door and tried the knob. Locked.
With a frown, he turned the knob harder, breaking the lock with a single twist—and what he saw inside made fury wash through him like a tidal wave.
Nylah, on her side on the floor, her face bleeding.
He was across the room and on his haunches in a second. She flinched, readying for an attack, but then her eyes met his.
“Liam,” she breathed.
Gently, he slipped his fingers around her upper arms, helping her sit up. “What happened?”
“I helped a woman and her daughter get out. A guy came in, and when I tried to stop him from following them, he attacked me.”
A woman and her daughter… Willow and Mila, Blake’s wife and daughter? Mila was the only child in attendance tonight that he knew of.
When Nylah touched her face and groaned, Liam growled. “Tell me the man who did this is dead?” Because if not, Liam would find the fucker and murder him.
She opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, a paramedic burst through the open door and dropped to Nylah’s side.
CHAPTER4
Sitting in the back of an ambulance, Nylah barely suppressed a flinch as the paramedic pressed and prodded at her cheek.
“Sorry,” he said softly, inspecting her face. “I’m done now. Nothing appears to be broken.”
She sighed as he handed her an ice pack. “That’s good.” She hadn’t thought anything was broken, but getting the confirmation was a relief. It meant less recovery time.
She also had an ice pack on her bruised knee, but again, the paramedic had confirmed there seemed to be no broken bones. Though he encouraged her to go to the hospital for X-rays to be certain. Right now, she just wanted to go home. She kind of felt like one big bruise.
Memories flickered in her mind…of the stranger’s big body on top of hers. Of the anger in his dark eyes. She shuddered. There was no doubt in her mind that if Liam hadn’t tried to open the door when he had, she wouldn’t be here right now.
She’d been lucky. People had died tonight, and not just the bad people. She ached for every innocent who’d suffered. The servers. The guests.
