Chapter 5 - Blood in the Ballroom“Get down!” Aiden roared.
Before I could even process what was happening, Aiden’s body slammed into mine, shielding me with his own bulk as a hail of bullets chewed through the plaster walls behind us. He dragged me down behind a heavy, mahogany-paneled pillar just as Luca and three other armed guards materialized from the smoke, drawing their weapons and returning fire toward the shattered entryway.
“Boss! It’s a coordinated hit! Vance’s men!” Luca shouted over the deafening roar of gunfire. “We have to move, now! The armored car is waiting in the service alley!”
Aiden looked down at me, his face carved from stone, his eyes burning with lethal fury.
“Can you run?” he asked, his hand gripping my arm with just enough pressure to guide me, but careful not to hurt me.
“I run in scrubs every single night,” I said, my adrenaline spiking, pushing all fear aside. “Let’s go.”
We bolted through the service corridors, ducking past panicked caterers and screaming socialites. The smell of cordite and burnt gunpowder hung heavy in the air. As we rounded a corner toward the loading dock, a masked gunman stepped out from the shadows, a submachine gun leveled directly at Aiden’s chest.
Without hesitation, I grabbed a heavy metal fire extinguisher off the wall bracket and hurled it with every ounce of my athletic strength straight into the attacker’s face.
The man staggered back with a brutal crunch of cartilage, giving Aiden half a second to draw his SIG Sauer and fire two precise shots into his chest.
The gunman dropped instantly.
Aiden stared at me, dumbfounded, standing over the fallen assailant. “Did you just... throw a fire extinguisher at an armed syndicate assassin?”
“He was pointing a gun at my husband,” I panted, wiping sweat from my forehead. “Move! Before more of them show up!”
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Aiden let out a breathless, disbelieving laugh, grabbed my hand—really grabbed it, his fingers locking tightly with mine without a trace of hesitation—and hauled me out into the pouring rain where the black armored SUV was idling with its doors wide open.
Luca slammed the doors shut the second we tumbled inside, and the vehicle tore out of the alleyway, tires screeching against the wet asphalt, leaving the burning wreckage of the hotel behind us.
