Way of the Shadows (Shadow Agents 8)

“What are you doing?” Paula shrieked. “Let him die! After what he did to you, let him bleed out!”

Noelle shook her head. “That’s not who I am.” She ripped his shirt away. Saw the gaping wounds. She tried to apply pressure.

“He has to die!” Paula screamed. “He killed Lawrence! He abducted me! Let. Him. Die!” She started sobbing then, deep, wrenching sobs, which shook her whole body.

Aaron swore. “Look, it’s going to be all right...”

Noelle frantically shook her head. “He didn’t abduct her—”

But it was too late. Aaron had lowered his guard, and Paula—Paula grabbed his gun.

She lifted the weapon, aimed for her target. But her target was right behind Noelle, and when Paula fired, standing less than five feet away while Noelle crouched on the cold snow, Noelle knew that bullet was going to hit her. It would hit her, then go through her as it rushed toward Patrick Porter.

She tried to brace herself. Thomas, I—

The bullet didn’t hit her.

Thomas jumped in front of Noelle.

The bullet hit him, and Noelle screamed.

He had his gun up, but Thomas didn’t get the chance to fire. The weapon slipped from his hands as he staggered back and fell into her. Noelle wrapped her arms around him. Held him tight. “Thomas, Thomas!”

Aaron wrestled the gun from Paula. The woman crumpled then, crying pitifully, but Noelle knew it was all an act. A show.

Thomas slumped against Noelle.

She felt the stickiness of his blood. Not from the wound near his shoulder, but from the wound at his heart.

He hit the snow beside her. She grabbed for him, shaking him. “Thomas!” His eyes were closed.

The wound... Desperately, quickly, Noelle looked for the entrance wound. An inch from his heart. But there was no exit wound. If there’d been an exit wound, she would’ve been hit, too. Instead, the bullet was lodged inside him.

Her head whipped toward Aaron. “We have to get him to the chopper, now!” Thomas’s blood wasn’t just on her fingers now. He was bleeding so much that the blood coated her hands.

No, no, no.

Aaron swore and rushed toward her, pulling Paula in his wake. The woman was still sobbing, still—

“I...love you...”

Thomas’s

rasped words had pain welling within Noelle. She held him tight, tried to stop that precious blood from pumping out of him. “I love you, too!”

His eyes were still closed and with every second that passed, he seemed to be growing paler.

“Thomas, I love you, too! Do you hear me?”

She didn’t think he did.

Terror clawed through her.

“You said you wouldn’t leave me alone. Not ever again.”

He barely seemed to be breathing.

“Don’t leave me. Don’t.” She pressed a kiss to his lips. “I. Love. You.”