Chapter 1
Derek
I WATCHED IN HORROR as Sam threw herself in front of the bullet. Jacob’s eyes were wild, and it felt as if everything was moving in slow motion. It was like my brain couldn’t process what had just happened. It couldn’t process Jacob with a gun and the words he was speaking. Jacob, and the barrel of the gun he pointed right at my chest. Then him pressing the trigger.
Jacob and his goal to kill us both.
I lunged for Sam, trying to knock her out of the way. I had no idea what she was thinking, but I wasn’t going to allow her to get hurt. After everything we’d been through and everything we had experienced, the last thing I was going to let her do was take a bullet for me. Sure, she probably saw it as something to do with her job, but despite the conversations we’d engaged in, I couldn't see her get hurt.
Because I knew if she did, I couldn’t be held responsible for anything I did next.
“Sam!”
I yelled her name, and she turned her face toward me. I watched the bullet embed itself into her arm as she went down behind my desk. She’d been hit. Holy fuck, Jacob had shot Sam. I was seeing red, literally, as blood pooled on her skin and began running onto the carpet of my office. It looked like a lot of blood, more blood than I thought should be pouring from an arm.
Did arms bleed that much?
“Sam! Sam, look at me. Can you hear me?”
I tapped her cheek, crouching down beside her as I covered her with my body. If Jacob was going to take another shot, he wasn’t getting anywhere near her. Despite the footsteps and the commotion going on, my only worry was her. Sam was not coherent, unresponsive as she groaned on the floor. Her eyes fluttered open and closed like her body was debating between staying and going. Her left arm was limp against the ground, and I could hear Jacob shuffling.
My body was vibrating with anger as I stood to my feet.
I couldn't charge a man with a gun, especially a man who wanted me dead. I looked up at Jacob and saw him fiddling with his gun, mumbling something to himself as he did so. Sam was groaning at my feet, whimpering and wincing with the pain flooding her body. It felt like I was having an out of body experience. Like I was standing in the corner looking in front from a third perspective. It felt like I wasn’t there, even though I knew I was.
I stared down the barrel of my best friend’s gun as he aimed it at my face.
“Fine. Then the both of you can go.”
I heard him cock the gun, and I reached for the nearest thing I could grab. It was a paperweight, and ironically enough, it was a gift Jacob had given me a year ago. A bullshit birthday present before we went out for drinks. It was his way of getting me out after my breakup with Gretchen. Sam had been right. Out of all the women I had dated, Gretch was the one who had influenced me the most. She was strong, intelligent, and never took shit from anyone. She was full of life and passion and spontaneity that rivaled my rigid schedule very well.
She had left her mark on me, just like Sam had.
When Gretch and I had broken up, I swore off women. My business was more important, and my company had grown two hundred fold that year. But Jacob knew what was going on. He knew I was heartbroken and needed to get out. The paperweight I held in the palm of my hand was his way of striking up a conversation before getting me out and getting me drunk.
Jacob. The man I had considered my best friend for years.
“You son of a bitch,” I growled and then chucked the paperweight at his head, knocking him right between the eyes. The gun didn’t fall from his hand, but he did stumble backward. I broke his second pair of glasses as he fumbled with them on his face, and it gave me enough time to try and charge him. If I could get him out of my office and drag Sam into the washroom, I could get us into the elevator and out the back door before Jacob even knew what happened. I knew Sam well enough to know we had this shit on video. Every single fucking camera she had installed would catch this asshole in the act of trying to kill us both.
The only thing I had to do was get Sam out of here alive.
But before I could make a move, I heard a noise. A grunt, followed by a raging scream as Sam catapulted over my desk. Her leg vaulted her off the edge as her body careened toward Jacob, her fist knocking against his jaw with a thunderous crack. They both went falling to the ground as Jacob’s gun rattled across the hardwood, headed right for the toes of my shoes.
I kicked it off into the corner, far away from anyone’s grasp as Sam stood to her feet.
Her skin was pale as blood continued to trickle like a river down her arm. She teetered on her feet as Jacob scrambled to his. Sam lunged for him again, but this time, he fought back. His balled-up hand came down onto her wound, causing her to cry out before he scrambled out of my office like the fucking coward he was.
I sprinted to my phone and picked it up. I pressed the button that sent me straight to building security. Jacob wasn’t fucking going anywhere. The moment I had this place locked down, there was nowhere he could run or hide. The only elevator that would still work would be my private one, and the only access to it was through the washroom.
And he sure as hell wasn’t accessing it from there.
“Mr. Steele, we heard gun—
”
“I know what you heard, and you listen to me. Lock down the damn building. No one goes in or out without approval. Jacob Carl doesn’t get off this plot of land, do you hear me?”
“Mr. Carl? Yes, sir. We’ll make sure he’s detained. Are you sure you want—?”
“If you fucking question me, you’re fired. Detain Jacob Carl the moment you see him. He’s no longer armed, but don’t take any chances.”
“Yes, sir. Anything else?”
“Call Doctor Farlow. Tell him to meet me at our space. He’ll know what you’re talking about. And get me a fucking ambulance,” I said.
I slammed the phone down, ran over to Sam as she stumbled around the room. I could tell she was disoriented as she tried to get her balance back. I wrapped my arm around her, pulling her into me as I tried to steady her on her feet. Her skin was pale, and her stance was weak. Her body was being drained of blood faster than I’d ever seen before. I was afraid for her, afraid I would lose her to some well-placed bullet in her fucking arm.
What fucking arteries ran through the human arm?
“I gotta ... he can’t—”
“Don’t go after him,” I said. “We’ve got it on camera. I’ve got building security locking down the building. He’s not getting anywhere.”
“He can’t get away. Let me go,” Sam said.
“Sam, even if he does get away, it’s not like he can hide in some sort of criminal underworld. He’s just a businessman who got too greedy too quickly. Now come on. I have to get you to a clinic.”
“Derek. Stop. I have to—”
I pulled Sam flush to my body as I picked her up in my arms. Her blood was permeating my suit jacket, warming my chest as I ran into my washroom suite. I strode us into the elevator and pressed the button for the ground floor, not wasting any time in controlling her movements.
She was stubborn to her core, and if she got her way, she would bleed out before she got down the damn stairs.
“I’ve got you,” I said. “Just hang on, okay?”
The elevator was sinking at a snail’s pace like we were moving through Jell-O. I was trying to put on a brave face for her and be the person she needed me to be right now. But she was moaning in pain, and I could feel the life dripping from her body. She felt light as a feather in my arms, her muscles going limp as her eyes finally closed.