Sworn to Protect (Vows of the Heart) (36 page)

“Ethan, how can you do this to me?” she whispered into his ear. “How can you condemn me to watch you die then live without you - if Cordova lets me live at all.”

“I’m sorry, sweetheart, it’s our only chance of one of us getting out alive. That second gunshot you heard. That was them killing Nathan.”

“How do you know it wasn’t Nathan killing one of them?”

“Nathan would have been here by now. I’ve lost everyone I’ve ever cared about, I can’t lose you too.”

“I can’t do it, Ethan, I can’t live without you. I love you.”

His arms tightened around her and his lips brushed her ear as he spoke. A glorious fire raged within her with his touch, a fire she would never feel again. “Yes, you can, sweetheart,” he whispered. “You know why. If you live, then something of me remains alive with you and our baby. I won’t sacrifice you or our child, Bethany. I can’t.”

She sobbed against him. Damn the man for being so stubborn - so noble. Yet she loved him for those very reasons. He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her deeply, a kiss so powerful and poignant it brought to vivid memory the passion they had shared so intensely. Their souls had known that they may never have tomorrow, and they had loved accordingly.

But damn it, Bethany wasn’t willing to give up what she had sought all her life.

Cordova cleared his throat pointedly.

Ethan backed away, still cupping her face in his hands. “I love you, Bethany. Never forget that. You made my life worth living again and gave me the greatest gift I have ever known.” He smiled
, but it never reached his eyes. The regret of loss she saw so clearly in the steel gray color nearly undid her completely.

He gripped her shoulders and firmly pushed her a pace away, then took another step back and held out his arms, his back against the railing of the boat. “All right, Cordova. Make this quick.”

Cordova smiled. “I’ll definitely miss you, Lancaster.” He took aim, pointing his gun at Ethan’s chest.

The hairs on Bethany’s arm stood upright as the chill of death descended on her. Her head came up as a demonic wail filled the air. “Aaron.”

Ethan looked at her sharply.

Cordova’s face lost all color. He did not look at Ethan
, but above him. “What the hell?” His gun dipped slightly.

Bethany watched Aaron’s spirit attack Cordova. “Ethan, now!”

Suddenly Cordova’s gun pointed at Ethan again. His finger tightened on the trigger.

Something within Bethany snapped, a wave of emotion crashed into her and she simply
reacted. She could never bear to watch Cordova murder the man she loved. It couldn’t end like this - she wouldn’t allow it.

“No!” s
he screamed and exploded forward. She collided with Ethan’s shoulder, shoving him to the side. His solid weight stood her up straight, turning her to face Cordova, but her charge had given her enough momentum to knock Ethan down.

Cordova’s gun fired.

Something slammed into the center of chest. White hot pain exploded in her heart and lungs, radiating into her arms. Air whooshed out of her and she could not draw another breath. An invisible force picked her up and flung her backwards. She slammed into the railing of the boat and her body went over.

For an endless moment she was in a free-fall. Terror screamed through her. Her back smacked into the water as hard as if she would have hit pavement. Black water, icy cold, closed over her head. Her lungs fought for air as she plummeted downward. Darkness grabbed at her consciousness.

****

Time seemed to stop for Ethan. The moment he felt Bethany’s body plow into his, the world canted at a strange angle. Although his mind never truly acknowledged what was happening, his training
took control. He turned his fall into a roll, he grabbed his gun he had dropped on the deck and jumped to his feet.

His gaze focused on Bethany.

Cordova’s bullet struck her squarely in the chest and knocked her over the edge of the boat. Before Ethan could move, she vanished under the water.

Cordova had killed her.

For a heartbeat, the excruciating torment crippled him. His sanity stretched to the breaking point, snapping like fragile strands of a spider’s web. The woman he loved, whom he had sworn to protect, was dead.

His child died with her.

Grief drove daggers into his core of his being. The door that had opened to a new and glorious future had not only slammed closed, but had been completely destroyed. Sorrow shredded his heart and the abyss engulfed his soul.

Without warning, the agony within him vanished as what was left of his spirit plummeted into the black chasm. All feeling faded until he was left with absolutely nothing.

No pain, no heartbreak, no emotion whatsoever. In the eternity of a split second, everything within him changed. What and who he was vanished under the dark water with Bethany. Before Cordova could recover from the shock of what Bethany had done, Ethan sprinted two steps to the railing and dove over the edge, following Bethany.

The depths of the waters were murky
, but Ethan thought he saw a dark shadow in front of him. He kicked hard and was suddenly caught in a strong undertow. He hurtled toward Bethany and managed to grab her around the waist. Fighting the current, he shot for the surface. His head broke the water and he sucked in a ragged breath.

“Bethany?” Ethan choked, treading water and turning her. Then he stared in surprise. No blood.

She coughed and spluttered. “I...I can’t breathe.”

He looked up, noting that the undercurrent had carried them well away from Cordova’s boat. Ethan ripped at Bethany’s shirt, then he saw the vest with a single bullet buried in the Kevlar.

That damn Kevlar vest from the first safe house. He had completely forgotten about it, but Bethany hadn’t and it had just saved her life.

Ethan sighed raggedly. Relief overwhelmed him and with it came the return of emotion. Powerful, primitive, feral. He looked back again at Cordova’s boat which slid from the dock. Wrapping Bethany in a rescue hold, he swam hard, trying to put as many boats between them and Cordova as possible.

Ethan found a small dinghy and boosted Bethany over the edge. She fell hard on the deck, but was instantly up, grabbing his arms, trying to pull him over.

A gunshot sounded. Blinding pain ripped through Ethan’s left shoulder. He snarled and released the boat, dropping back into the water.

For a moment, he barely had the strength to keep kicking. Blood clouded in the water around him. He broke the surface enough to grab a breath of air and saw the man shooting at him.

Rick Gunther.

“Ethan!” Bethany screamed.

“Get down!”

Bullets hit the water beside him and he dove again. Dizziness assailed him. He was bleeding like a stuck pig. He wouldn’t last long like this. His Colt was useless in water, but he reached for his backup weapon. At least Glocks were waterproof even though his ammunition wasn’t. The bullets cutting through the water made strange paths around him. He kicked again and surfaced, firing.

Three shots missed
, but sent Gunther diving for cover on the dock. Ethan took another deep breath and dove as Gunther returned fire. On his second ascent, another bullet slammed into his left shoulder. Pain screamed through him. He fought to cling to awareness as the force of the bullet knocked him deeper. He was going to drown.

****

Bethany bit back her screams of terror watching the gunfight. She knew Ethan was bleeding and the water would only make it worse. She crawled on the deck, searching for some sort of weapon. Cordova had taken her Glock. Then she spotted the emergency kit on board...including a flare gun.

Bethany seized the gun, two flares was all she had, but she would make them count. She loaded the first and went to the edge of the boat, searching for Gunther.

Ethan’s head broke the surface again, and he gasped loudly for breath. Gunther appeared, but somehow Ethan moved faster. His Glock came up and he fired, killing Gunther and sending his body into the water.

Coughing and spluttering, Ethan struggled for the side of the boat. Bethany placed the gun beside her on the deck and leaned over the rail. She barely managed to catch his hand and pulled with all her might. Ethan came up and over, falling to the deck, his shoulder covered with blood.

“Oh God,” Bethany choked.

Automatic rifle fire sounded, ripping through the edge of the boat. Cordova’s yacht rapidly approached theirs. Ethan pushed himself up. He raised his Glock. It clicked when he squeezed the trigger.

“Damn,” he snarled, dropping back to the deck. “The water got to the ammunition.”

Bethany snagged the flare gun and popped over the edge. There wasn’t much to aim with, a flare was supposed to be shot into the air. She pointed the snub-nosed weapon at the hull of Cordova’s boat and fired.

The flare sizzled and sparked, making a strange winding path through the air, heading for the yacht. It pierced the hull and the boat exploded. Men flew into the water, debris lifted into the sky. Tiny bits of wood and sparks rained around them. Bethany instinctively covered her head. When it was safe, she peeked over the edge. Ethan, struggling, managed to join her.

“Damn, girl, I think you got him.” Suddenly his good arm wrapped around her and he held her tight. “God, I thought I lost you.”

She returned his embrace, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Ethan, I love you. I couldn’t watch Cordova kill you.”

He smiled down at her, caressing her cheek with shaking fingers.

Her gaze returned to his injured shoulder. “Come on, we got to get you some help.”

Bethany struggled to get Ethan off the boat, stunned when a hand reached down to help her. She blinked up and saw a man wearing a suit, and automatically recoiled.

“Leonard,” Ethan said in shock.

“Don’t worry,” Leonard replied. “I was the one sent to catch the mole, Lancaster. I teamed up with the reporter, Wolf. I know you’re innocent.”

Ethan gave a ragged sigh and sagged against Bethany.

“We have to get him to a hospital,” she said.

“An ambulance is rolling now.”

“Hey!”
a voice shouted. Stunned, Bethany looked up and saw Nathan, his face and clothes bloody, walking toward them. His hand gripped the arm of a very wet man, one who could barely walk. “Look who I fished out of the water.”

Cordova.

“Nathan?” Ethan gasped. “Sweet Jesus, I thought you were dead.”

“
Shhhh...don’t give away all my secrets.”

“Where’s Tommy?”

“Over here,” he growled, leaning heavily against a crate. “One of those bastard’s shot me in the knee. I couldn’t crawl fast enough.” One of the medics ran to him.

Leonard helped Ethan and Bethany to the dock and suddenly Ethan collapsed, his consciousness abandoning him.

“Ethan!” Bethany called.

Two more medics ran toward them.

“Don’t worry,” Leonard said, gently. “He’ll be okay.”

“Gunther’s body is in the water.”

“We’ll find him. This way.” Leonard and his men took her and Ethan to the ambulance while another agent put Cordova in cuffs. Wolf and his cameraman appeared as if by magic, capturing the arrest and broadcasting it to the world.

“Is it really over?” Bethany asked Leonard.

“Yes, Miss Kress, it’s over. You and Lancaster don’t have anything to worry about.”

“Thank God,” she whispered, clinging tightly to Ethan’s hand as the medics put him on the stretcher.

A second time Bethany felt the hairs on her arm stand on end, but the cold did not seem as powerful. She braced herself and looked around. In the weak light of a lamp over the dock about twenty paces away, she saw Aaron materialize. She blinked in surprise. His wounds were gone, his face no longer covered in blood. The hatred in his eyes was no longer evident. He glanced at Ethan on the stretcher and nodded once then looked at her again. For a long moment he did not move. Giving her a gentle smile, he turned away and walked down the dock. Bethany watched in stunned silence as Aaron vanished into the darkness.

****

Bethany paced the hospital waiting room nervously as Ethan was forced to go through yet another surgery to repair the damage to his left arm, but this time it was removing two bullets from his shoulder. She had a bandage on her own shoulder from when she was shot at the hotel, but it was through and through, nothing major. Finally, they allowed her and Nathan into Ethan’s room, waiting for him to recover consciousness.

The doctor’s prognosis for Ethan and his arm was encouraging. Bethany remained at Ethan’s side, holding his hand, and leapt to her feet when his fingers squeezed hers.

“Ethan? Can you hear me?”

Nathan immediately moved to her side. “Hey, bro, you awake?”

His eyelids fluttered open. “Yeah, but I hurt like hell.”

“That’s to be expected, love.”

Nathan reached up and hit the button for the nurse.

“What’s that for?” Ethan asked.

“They want to know when you wake up. Probably to give you pain medication to knock you out again.”