Peeking through the hair that had fallen over her face, she saw Gavin lunge toward Allerton, jerking the cane out of his hands and beating him with it like a madman.
One of the guards closest to her fell like a tree, his head landing near hers with blank eyes and a hole between them. Ginny didn’t have to guess that he was no longer a threat.
“Find the keys to the handcuffs!”
Ginny recognized Viper’s voice as she lay still. Moving her gaze away from the dead guard’s face, she saw Gavin continue to beat Allerton with the cane. She could tell from his expression that he wasn’t going to stop until Allerton was dead.
“Reaper, stop! That’s enough!” Hammer yelled, grabbing the cane away from him.
Reaper just started kicking Allerton with his boot.
“Reaper!” Viper shouted out in the sudden silence as the sound of bullets stopped. “The FBI wants him.”
“They can have what’s left of him.” Gavin’s voice held no emotions, like the others who were yelling at him to stop, yet the blows he landed on Allerton were vicious.
“Stop him, or we’ll never find out what happened on Clindale.”
Recognizing Agent Collins’ ragged voice had her looking over to see two of the agents supporting Agent Collins as the third helped him rise, then her view was blocked when Shade’s stark face appeared before hers, as he reached out to touch her.
“Please, don’t,” she managed to get the words out through swollen lips.
“Reaper! Stop! We need to get the fuck out of here before reinforcements come. Jesus, just shoot the fucker if it’ll make it quicker!” Cash shouted as he, Viper, and Rider tried to get him away from Allerton, while Hammer tried to drag Allerton in another direction, away from Reaper’s vicious kicks.
“Good idea.” Gavin’s struggles stopped as he raised his hand to point a handgun at Allerton.
“Gavin ….” Ginny sobbed at the pain of shouting for him. “Gavin, please, I need you.”
Gavin’s eyes flew in her direction. “Get him to the plane before I change my fucking mind!” he roared, moving toward her.
Hammer lifted Allerton over his shoulder in a fireman’s lift, then took off running out of the room, while the three agents supported Collins out as well.
“Let me have her,” Gavin demanded.
Shade moved away, and then Gavin was there, kneeling beside her. Ginny looked him over carefully, feeling a tear slide down the edge of her nose. “They didn’t hurt you, did they?” she whispered through mostly closed lips, so her jaw wouldn’t hurt as much.
“No, nymph. They didn’t hurt me,” he said gently, reaching out to move her hair away from her face.
“Reaper, we have to go!” Viper was at the desk, looking at the computer screen.
Ginny saw Gavin reach out to lift her. “Don’t. I can get up.” She attempted to pull herself into a sitting position, but her hand collapsed under her weight at the searing pain in her shoulders and upper back. At her mewling cry, Gavin slowly slid his arms under knees and lower back to gradually lift her into his arms.
“Shade, you go first. Cash, Rider, watch the rear,” Viper ordered when Gavin had her in his arms.
Ginny let her head fall to Gavin’s chest as they ran down the hallway, expecting them to go to the elevator, but they moved past it as Knox ran out from behind Allerton’s assistant to run on the other side of Gavin.
Embarrassed by the pain-filled whimpers she couldn’t help coming from her lips, Ginny clutched Gavin’s shirt to shove it into her mouth to smother her cries. The vibrations of his movements sent shards of stinging pain through her body.
When he stopped walking, Ginny raised her head from his chest to see what he was doing. Embarrassed that Gavin saw her biting his shirt, she pulled it away from her swollen mouth to take a shuddering breath.
“This is going to hurt like a motherfucker,” he warned, not showing an ounce of sympathy for her.
His pitiless regard had her wanting to burst into the tears she was trying to hold back. Would it hurt the big jerk to show a softer side to her just one time, to show that he freakin’ cared about her? Soul mates could cry alongside each other, couldn’t they?
Gavin could put her down, then. She could just walk. She didn’t need his help.
Anger boiled up, displacing the pain she felt … until she parted her lips to tell him to put her down. She looked in his eyes to show him how serious she was and saw all the emotions his face wasn’t expressing. His eyes were mirrors to the pain and torment she was suffering.
Unable to bear his suffering, Ginny looked over his shoulder, taking another shuddering breath as she saw Cash and Rider with their guns pointed with deadly intent toward the stairwell door, waiting for someone to ambush them. When Cash turned his head to see what the holdup was, Ginny read the urgency on his face.