Page 84 of After the Spy Seduces

He swung the gun toward Kit. “Not if I kill you first.”

A dark smile stretched across his face as he said quietly, “I’m already dead.”

“No,” Diana whispered, finding an untapped resolve deep inside her heart. She’d lost one man whom she’d loved. She wouldnotlose another.

She lowered her mouth and sank her teeth into Paxton’s wounded arm.

He howled, and his arm jerked from the fresh pain.

Diana shoved herself out of his grasp. She ran forward, desperate to reach Kit and the safety of his embrace. She looked back to see Paxton raise the pistol with an animalistic snarl, his face distorted with fury and hatred.

Arms went around her, spinning her in a fast circle—Christopher. He shielded her with his body, twisting at the waist to raise his gun and point it back at Paxton.

Two gunshots ran out in rapid succession.

Before Diana could scream, the boathouse erupted around them. The windows smashed in a shower of glass and splintered wood as half a dozen men crashed through them. The door flung open, hitting the stone wall behind it with such force that it twisted on its hinges. Lanterns blazed to light, and from all around them came the metallic click of cocking pistols.

Paxton stood frozen in place, his white face contrasting against the scarlet blood dripping onto the boards at his feet. He sank to his knees, then fell forward onto his face. Dead.

Behind him at the top of the stairs stood Garrett. Smoke curled from the end of his spent pistol.

“But there were two shots.” In confusion, Diana turned toward Kit and placed her hand on his upper arm, the same arm from which he held his pistol, still loaded and unfired. “If you didn’t shoot, who did?”

Then she felt it…a sticky, wet warmth spreading beneath her fingertips as she clutched his arm. She stared up at him, her lips parting in sudden panic.

His face was hard, but his color was paling. Beads of perspiration broke out across his forehead.

“Diana,” he whispered, dropping the pistol to the floor with a clatter.

“Christopher!”

Her arms went around him as he began to sway, catching him as his knees buckled. Using all of her strength, she lowered him gently to the floor. The blood from his arm blossomed like a red flower through his jacket sleeve.

“He’s been shot,” she cried out to Garrett as he rushed forward. “Send for a surgeon—now!”

Garrett shouted orders to his men, two of whom nodded and raced from the boathouse into the dark night.

“I’m going to be all right,” Kit assured her, reaching to cover her hand with his and unwittingly smearing blood across the backs of her fingers. “Might have ruined my jacket, though.”

“That’s not funny,” she scolded, the worry inside her growing more intense with every passing second that no surgeon arrived to help. Of all the times to joke— So much blood!She grabbed her skirt and ripped off the hem, then wrapped the fabric around his arm to staunch the bleeding. “Christopher…” Hot tears formed on her lashes, yet she choked them back as she cradled him in her arms. “It’s all my fault… I’m so sorry.”

“Shh,” he whispered, reaching up to touch her face. Even now, his thoughts were focused on reassuring her and not on his own pain. “You couldn’t have stopped any of this.” He sucked in a deep but ragged breath. “I’m so glad…”

Glad? How on God’s earth could he be glad about this? She wanted to scream!

“That you found me. You saved me, Diana…more than you’ll ever know.”

Dear God! Why was he talking like this? “I’m not going anywhere,” she insisted. “Neither are you.”

His lips twisted into a grim smile. “You did it.” His voice grew softer, more breathless. “You stopped Paxton…before he got away…with the diary.”

“Westopped him,” she corrected, agonizingly aware of how long it was taking the surgeon to arrive, of how Garrett lingered nearby but didn’t come closer. As if giving them time alone to say goodbye.

No.This wasn’t goodbye—it wasn’t!

“You used the knife.” His smile widened slightly with pride. “Good girl.”

“You did say that if a man ever tried to reach beneath my skirt that I should use it.” Despite the teasing, her eyes grew so full of unshed tears that his face blurred, and she couldn’t blink them away fast enough.