Audra’s gaze landed on Diggs and she froze, her entire body turning to ice. He lay on the ground, struggling to roll onto his side, blood puddling on the concrete beneath him. Without thought, she forgot about the bullets flying around inside the warehouse. She forgot about Trigger. She forgot about everything but Diggs.

Abandoning her hiding spot, she rushed to his side and dropped to her knees. “Diggs, oh my God, someone help!”

“No,” Diggs began to say and immediately coughed and gasped, his already pale face going white.

“Dammit, Hicks, King! Someone get over here now!” Audra ripped off the plaid button up she wore, leaving her only in her gray tank top, and pressed the cloth against Diggs’ belly. As soon as she applied pressure, he groaned, and she immediately yanked her hands back, hands that were now covered in his blood. She started to shake, her heart beating wild and frantic in her chest. She couldn’t lose him now, not when she felt like she’d only just really allowed herself to fall in love with him.

“Audra, go.” His voice was harsh and filled with pain. He swiped her hand trying to knock it from his gut, but the attempt was weak and useless.

“I’m not leaving you.” Where the hell was everyone? “Someone help him. He’s dying!” She frantically looked around the room for any sign of his teammates, but all she saw were scattered crates. Gunfire sounded from somewhere else, but the whole warehouse echoed like a big cavern, and she couldn’t tell what directions the sounds were coming from. They must be in some kind of firefight, had the colonel learned about their plans and attacked early? What was she supposed to do?

“I’ll help you.”

Audra spun at the cold, quiet voice, only to have her already cold blood freeze in her veins. “You.”

“So, he did tell you about me.” Jeremy’s colonel pulled a pistol from inside of his dark brown jacket and pointed it at her head. “You know, if your brother hadn’t stuck his nose in my business, he might still be alive.”

Audra knew she should be afraid, any rational, sane person would be when they were staring down the barrel of a gun, but in that moment, all she could feel was rage. Black, seething rage. “Murderer.”

The colonel shrugged, completely uncaring that he’d destroyed her life. “I’d call it more of a business decision. Your brother tried to stop me from making a lot of money. Money, I deserved. Money that you have. Where’s the gold?”

“Even if I did know where it was, I’d die before I told you.” Unfortunately, she didn’t actually have it, but the terrorists who’d set up the meet did. And she knew the gold was here somewhere, but apparently the colonel didn’t, which gave her power. “And I’m the only one who does know.” Audra glanced at the gun and then back up at Jeremy’s former commander, her voice scathing when she said, “Go ahead, shoot me. You’ll rot in hell a poor man, and I’ll be laughing down at you the whole time.”

The colonel’s light brown eyes narrowed on her, and she caught the slightest whiff of indecision. “You’re bluffing.”

He smiled, easing slightly to her right so that she put herself more firmly between the colonel and Diggs. “Then you must not know me well. I don’t lie, about anything,” she said in a flat tone.

The surrounding gunfire had died; their voices echoed through the warehouse. Diggs was breathing shallow and fast behind her, his cold fingers touching her ankle where she crouched beside him. She could practically feel his desperation and knew he was still conscious, although he wouldn’t have long. She needed to act, and she needed to act now if he had a hope of living through the night.

“I don’t have to kill you to get you to talk.” The colonel dropped his aim from her face down to her leg. “You have five seconds to tell me where the gold is, or I’m putting a bullet in your left kneecap.”

“You think I care? You took away the only person that I loved, and if you put a dozen bullets in me, you’ll still be just as ignorant and hopeless as you are right now.”

The colonel’s hand shook, and his finger dropped from the barrel to wrap around the Trigger. “One.”

Despite the rage burning up her insides, her heart jumped up and gave a huge whack against her rib cage. She felt Diggs’ fingers tightening ever so slightly against her ankle. Surely his team was closing in. They had to be.

“I feel sorry for you. You took an oath to serve and protect, what kind of man completely betrays his men and his country for a little cash?”

Rage blazed behind the colonel’s eyes. “Two.”

Audra lifted her chin. Maybe Diggs’ team had been killed, or injured like him. Maybe they weren’t coming to the rescue. “You know, we sent all the information to the FBI. We also sent them information for the meet tonight. They’re outside, waiting for us to bring you into custody. Even if you kill me, your life is over. You’re going to spend the rest of your days in prison, snuggled up with some man even worse than you.”

“Three.” The colonel practically snarled.

“Audra, tell him,” Diggs rasped out behind her. The light touch on her ankle firmed and his fingers wrapped around her skin, burning her.

If she died, so would he, and the thought of losing Diggs caused a pain in her soul even worse than Jeremy’s had. She knew that even if she sacrificed herself, Diggs would die, unless she did something drastic. She had watched the men arm up and knew Diggs had a knife tucked in his boot. A boot that was directly behind her heel. She let her hand drop from her hip to dangle at her side, forcing her mouth to go slack and her eyes widen, as if she were terrified. “Diggs, I can’t tell him. It will mean Jeremy died for nothing if I tell him. Please don’t ask me to.”

Triumph flared in the colonel’s face, and he sneered, “Better listen to your boyfriend, Audra. He sounds like a smart man.”

And you’re about to die.

Feigning terror, Audra glanced over her shoulder and met Diggs’ gaze, in that split second letting all the emotion inside her pour out of her expression. She tried to tell Diggs in that moment of silence how much he meant to her, how stupid she’d been not to acknowledge her love for him before now. “Thank you for teaching me how to love again,” she said softly.

His own dark gaze widened with recognition.

The colonel pressed his gun into her left shoulder. “Enough with the talk. You got two seconds left to tell me where my gold is.”

Audra mouthed the words, “I love you.” And grabbed the bottom of Diggs’ pants leg.

* * *

Diggs tried to shift away from Audra, panic and terror ripping up his insides, but he was too weak to even move his mouth. He had to do something. He couldn’t just lie here and let her sacrifice herself. He’d never prayed a day before in his entire life, but right now he desperately pleaded with a higher power to give him the strength to move. All he had to do was shove her out of the way, grab his knife, and sink it into the colonel’s throat.

“Four.”

Audra’s fingers closed around the hilt of the knife. He couldn’t see her, but he could feel her. He could smell her anger and her determination. She was ready to die for him.

No! Don’t do it!

But he couldn’t yell, as dizziness blurred his periphery, and he blinked rapidly to stay awake. His head fell to the side, his neck not strong enough to keep it upright anymore. It was then he saw Trigger crouched just a few feet away, a silent snarl curling his lips back, the hair down his spine standing on end. For the first time since Diggs had seen the dog, he felt a surge of hope. The dog had been overseas with Jeremy; he’d watched his handler die.

And if the colonel had been there—Trigger had seen the betrayal.

Diggs knew he didn’t have any special powers, and he couldn’t actually communicate with the dog, but he used all his remaining energy to silently plead for Trigger to attack.

Trigger’s eyes bounced to Diggs for a split second, and then he zeroed in on the colonel and crouched. Audra pulled the knife free from the sheath at his ankle. Diggs shook his head no and Audra mouthed the words, “I’m sorry.”

“Time’s up, Princess—” the colonel shifted the gun to her leg.

Trigger sprang, the most ferocious snarl Diggs had ever heard bursting from his mouth as he went for the colonel’s throat. Audra cried out and dove sideways. The colonel flinched back, but it was too late. Trigger’s mouth closed over his arm and bit. The sound of bones snapping popped and the colonels gun clattered uselessly to the floor. He screamed and punched Trigger in the side. Trigger let go, dropped to the ground and growled.

The colonel cradled his mangled arm, watching the dog with wariness. “You.”

Trigger crouched and sprang. His wrath didn’t need words.

The colonel threw up his good arm and tried to block Trigger, but it was a useless action. Trigger’s mouth closed around the man’s throat, cutting off his scream into a garbled moan. Trigger threw him to the ground, his bite unrelenting. Audra’s body blocked his line of sight, but Diggs didn’t need to see to know that Trigger had exacted his revenge on the commander.

All of his energy gone, Diggs let his eyes slide shut, focusing on the sweet sound of Audra’s very healthy and very rapid breathing next to him.

He was close to slipping into the sweetness of unconsciousness, when a bullet pinged into the concrete just feet from his head. His eyes flew open and somehow, he flung out his arm and knocked Audra to the ground, rolling on top of her, sheer agony blinding him. He let his head hang down past her shoulder and rest on the floor. A bullet blasted from near the crates at their side, pinging into the metal roof overhead.

“What’s going on?” Audra breathed.

He wanted to tell her, he wanted to warn her about Dawson, but he couldn’t. The blackness was close again, and this time he knew he wouldn’t be strong enough to fight it off. At least, at least maybe he could buy some time for the rest of his team to get here. Even if he had failed to be her hero in the end, he could die with her sweet scent feeding his nostrils. Her silky hair caressed his cheek, and her soft body cushioned his.

He thought back to that heavenly moment, seconds ago, when she’d mouthed the words he’d been waiting to hear. Yes, he was a failure, and he didn’t deserve it, but she loved him.

And that had to be enough.