That wasn’t going to happen, not on his watch.
“Hey, the door’s open,” someone shouted.
The crowd turned as one and began running back to the stairway door. Liam saw Aubrey slip from Gideon’s grasp and fall to the floor.
“Aubrey!” he shouted.
A fireman appeared in the middle of the crowd and grabbed Aubrey up. A rush of relief flooded through him. Shoving people out of the way, Liam ran toward her.
As he got closer, something clicked in his mind. Where had the fireman come from? Why was there only one? How had he suddenly appeared within the crowd?
“Gideon? You copy?”
“Yeah. I got pushed back.”
“The fireman. He’s got Aubrey. I think he’s the killer.”
“I’m coming, man.” He heard Gideon roar, “Move!”
Feeling as though he was fighting upstream against a herd of terrified buffalo, Liam continued to push people aside. A hallway door pushed open, and the fireman stepped inside, Aubrey still in his arms.
Liam surged forward, practically leaping over the heads of two people. He grabbed the fireman before the door could close.
“Not so fast.”
A knife slashed toward him. Aubrey screamed and grabbed the man’s hand. In a nightmare scene, Liam saw blood bloom on her arm as the knife sliced through her jacket.
Roaring with fury, Liam leaped onto the man and took him to the floor. Grappling the knife from his hand, he managed to spare a glance at the door. Gideon appeared, and Liam yelled, “Get her out of here! I’ve got this.”
He locked eyes with Gideon, and he knew the man understood. They’d had this conversation already, and now the possibility was a reality.
Liam turned back to the man who’d gotten to his feet and had taken off his breathing helmet. A grin covered the man’s face, a face that looked vaguely familiar, though Liam couldn’t recall why.
“Guess I’ll just have to get the girl another time. But you, I’ll take care of now.”
Liam dropped his suit jacket to the floor. Yeah, he was more than ready for this.
“Bring it,” Liam growled.
Chapter Forty-Six
Lights, sirens, and people shouting surrounded Aubrey. She sat on a chair someone had pushed her into. While a paramedic cleaned and bandaged her arm, she stared frantically up at the twelfth floor. Where was Liam? They’d left him there to handle the killer on his own. How could they do that? The man had killed so many. How could Liam handle a trained killer?
Tears blurring her vision, she glanced wildly around and spotted Serena running toward her. Aubrey jumped up and then sat back down when the paramedic snapped, “Sit still.”
She did as she was told but yelled at Serena as soon as she thought she could hear. “Liam’s still in there. We have to get him out. He’s in there with a killer.”
“He’ll be fine.”
“No, you don’t understand. He’s got a knife.”
“Have faith,” Serena said. “He—”
A loud blast brought their attention back to the building. Fire exploded from the windows of the twelfth floor.
Ignoring the warnings, Aubrey was back on her feet and running toward the building. They’d just left him in there. He was going to die, and no one was going to save him. She couldn’t let that happen. She would not lose him again. She couldn’t.
“Aubrey!”