CHAPTER 4
Leo hurled the silver canister around the corner of the bar, where it detonated with a blinding flash and a thunderous boom that shook the floorboards beneath them.
The disoriented mercenaries shrieked in agony as the blinding light and pressure wave destroyed their night vision and inner balance.
Leo moved like a ghost, rising from behind the bar and executing both men with cold, clinical efficiency before the smoke even began to clear.
He immediately turned back to Clare, scooping her up into his powerful arms despite her initial resistance and holding her tightly against his chest.
"We have two minutes before their backup team locks down the service elevators and the lobby," Leo said, carrying her through the ruined suite toward a hidden utility door behind the kitchen.
"My things... my purse and my coat are in the staff room downstairs!" Clare cried out, her hands clutching his neck as he kicked open the metal door to the service stairs.
"Forget the purse," Leo snapped, his heavy boots pounding down the concrete stairs in rapid, rhythmic strides. "I will buy you everything you lost ten times over."
"I don't want your money, Leo! I just want my life back!" she screamed over the echoing noise of shouting men ascending the stairwell below them.
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Leo stopped dead in his tracks on the landing between the forty-fourth and forty-fifth floors, his steel-hard eyes narrowing as he heard the heavy footsteps approaching from below.
He gently set Clare down behind a concrete pillar, stepping in front of her to form an impassable barrier between his ex-wife and incoming death.
