Page 93 of Ruined By a Devil

“Let’s move!”

The few remaining steps feel like miles, my mind playing out every possible worst scenario as I keep holding onto Jade’s image. Her voice, her eyes, the way she laughs when I say something serious…

I can’t lose you.

The heavy metal doors of hangar seven are fully open when we reach them. Inside the massive, echoing space is a white private jet with its airstair lowered and its engines running, but there doesn’t seem to be any trace of Nolan or his man. Or Jade, for that matter.

My chest tightens as I step through the doors, keeping my gun raised.

And that’s when I see her and the scene in front of me completely stops my breathing.

Jade is fighting for every single inch of ground on the concrete floor near the base of the stairs. Her shirt is torn, her hair wild, a look of pure fear in her beautiful dark eyes. One of the guards tries to drag her toward the metal steps, but she kicks out violently, hooking her boot around the heavy wheel of a yellow ground-power generator. She pulls it hard, causing the heavy cart to tip over, crashing directly into the path of the aircraft’s front landing gear.

That’s my girl.

Nolan Devlin is there, standing a few feet away, watching her fight with a cold, amused smile on his face. I realize this is it, this is the opportunity that I have been waiting on forever. I raise my gun, lining the sights up perfectly with the center of Nolan’s chest.

But before my finger can pull the trigger, a man steps out from the shadow of the aircraft’s wing, holding a dead-man’s switch in his right hand, his thumb pressed down hard on the trigger. A thick web of explosive wire is wrapped tightly around the main aviation fuel line connecting the underground tank to the jet.

“Fuck!”

Nolan turns his head towards me, the smile on his face widening.

He immediately walks over to Jade, grabs her roughly by the arm, and hauls her up against his chest. He pulls a handgun from his waistband and presses the barrel hard into her temple.

“Step away from her!” I shout, but he doesn’t even blink.

“Drop the guns, Malachi!” Nolan says, his voice barely carrying over the loud jet turbines, but the command is unmistakable.

I freeze in place, the cold, calculated predator in my brain completely short-circuits at the sight of the steel barrel pressed against Jade’s skin. I can’t put her life at risk like this, I’ve already done enough damage.

“If you take just one step closer,” Nolan yells, his eyes locking onto mine, “my man lets go of that switch. Or would you prefer if I put a bullet through her head instead?”

“Don’t fuck with me, Nolan!”

“Drop the guns!” He repeats.

My brothers remain still, neither of them obeying Nolan’s orders.

My eyes go back at the man holding the detonator, analyzing the explosives wired to the fuel tank. One precise bullet can kill him, but if his thumb slips from the switch, the entire concrete building turns into an incinerator. And Jade is standing just twenty feet from the blast radius. There is no way she would survive it.

I slowly lower my gun, pointing the barrel at the concrete floor, my stomach twisting.

“Back up!” Nolan orders, dragging Jade backward toward the airstair. “Clear the runway!”

I take a slow step backward, shifting my weight slightly to the left, sliding half a foot laterally, and lining my body up perfectly with the guard holding the detonator.

I need a clear angle.

All I need is one fraction of a second where Nolan’s gun isn’t pressed to her skull.

Jade’s dark eyes lock onto mine as if she can read my mind. Or maybe she can, if anyone can see every micromovement in my body and notice the slightest change on my face, it’s her. She sees the slight shift in my stance and reads the calculation in my eyes. She knows I am entirely boxed in as long as Nolan has a grip on her.

And being the most perfect wife a man can dream of, she creates an opportunity for me.

Jade suddenly stops fighting the backward drag. She lets her legs go completely slack, dropping her entire body weight toward the concrete. The sudden shift pulls Nolan off balance and as he stumbles forward to keep his grip on her, the barrel of his gun slips away from her temple.

“Perfect,” I smile, my voice barely a whisper.