Page 44 of Fully Loaded

“Oh, definitely. But I thought we were talking about honest ways to make a living.”

“Ah. Yeah, I guess selling my body wouldn’t fall in that category. All right, I suppose I’d start a clothing line.”

She tilted her head. A vague memory of him talking about wanting to design fitness wear flashed in her head. “Oh, I think I remember you mentioning fitness apparel before. Would you go that route?”

“I think so. Fitness is one of my passions, and I’ve always dreamed of creating clothes to fit the way I want.”

She beamed. “Well, we don’t have any excuses anymore, do we? It will be interesting to see where we end up after this.”

He caught her chin between his thumb and forefinger. “You need to get out. I’m going to hold you to it.” A heaviness settled in his voice.

Talking about it with him was making her mind work. Rather than something to pursue one day, it finally felt like something she could do now. She wriggled her fingers into his hand and led him away from the rail. “Enough serious talk. I want to see the Iron Lady lit up.”

They walked to the elevator at the north pillar and rode to the main level. Elegantly dressed couples and groups of tourists milled around at the entrance. Brock stiffened his hold on her arm and led her to the busy grassy area. She glanced over her shoulder at the glowing yellow tower just as the blinking lights snapped on in a blitz.

She yanked on Brock’s arm. “Look!”

He spun around and pulled her in front of him. “That’s amazing.” His arm slid across her chest and his face dipped so it was next to hers. “It’s almost as beautiful as you are.”

Her cheeks tingled and warmth fired to her toes. She reached above her shoulder and placed her palm on his cheek. He turned to press a kiss to her hand and then nuzzled close to her face.

Crack, crack, crack!

The sharp bursts of fire made her jump. Fear coiled around her spine. “What was that?”

Brock’s chest hardened against her back. She glanced down to see his gun hovering at her hip.

Crack, crack, crack, crack, crack!

Screams filled the night air. She gripped his arm in her fingernails. Her pulse raged against her skin, but she couldn’t tear her feet from the grass. People charged in every direction. Brock clung to her.

“It’s a fucking gun.” His words hit her with such force they chilled her to the core.

She searched the shadows, but every frantic face shook her focus. Then she saw him. A large form with a machine gun across his chest moved in the distance.

“There!” she cried. Brock’s attention shifted to where she pointed, and he whirled her around to face him.

“You need to hide. Get to those trees,” he said, pointing to the ones that lined the grass less than ten feet away. “And stay down. I’ll come for you in a minute.” He shoved her in the direction of the trees, but she planted her feet.

Ice took hold of her breath, making it almost impossible to speak. She shook her head. “No.” She could only mouth the syllable. He couldn’t leave her.

Crack, crack, crack!

More screams penetrated her eardrums and people collapsed on the ground, dark fluid spurting from their bodies. Terror seized her throat, choking off her scream.

He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and rushed her to the safety of the trees. “Dani, I might be the only one here with a gun. I need to stop him before he slaughters more innocent people.” He shook her shoulders. “Please, babe. Hide. I need to at least try to get a shot at him. I swear to you, I won’t get close.”

Tears clouded her vision. He pressed his lips to hers and broke away from her panicked embrace. She stretched out her fingers, still clinging to the tree trunk. The dark lines of his tuxedo disappeared into the waves of screaming people.

Chapter

Sixteen

This motherfucker was going to pay. Brock knocked into one crazed civilian after another. Random bits of pained and terrified words in other languages assaulted him. He stopped in the middle of the field and threw a glance toward Dani. His heart pumped in his chest and his brain screamed at him to move forward and take out the shooter, but his body resisted. Weight crushed down on his lungs. He forced his eyes to lock on the assaulter. Leaving Dani behind was the hardest thing he’d ever had to fucking do, but he couldn’t let the bastard kill all these people—or worse, find Dani. He wasn’t stupid. There wasn’t a chance in hell this shooting didn’t have something to do with Chrisolicom XII. This asshole wanted the formula and he’d kill Dani and anyone around her to wipe out her connection to it.

I never should have brought her here.

More bursts of fire cut through the screams followed by the crumpling of bodies. The sparks of light from the shooter’s assault rifle caught his attention. Brock crouched and made a beeline for him. A clearing opened and the shooter turned in a circle, exposing his back. Brock knelt down, steadied his aim, and fired two shots. The guy’s body jerked once as the first bullet hit his back, then twice as the second ripped through his shoulder blade. The man clothed in black crumpled to his knees then fell flat on his face. Brock charged for him. Sirens echoed in the sky, their shrill warning getting louder by the second. He’d never been so relieved to hear sirens.