I needed to stall, to give Gideon time to get into position. "They're encrypted. Stored on a secure server. Even if I wanted to give them to you, I couldn't access them from here."
"Then call your tech guy," Rice demanded. "Have him send everything to my phone."
"That would take time," I said, taking another careful step forward. "Time I don't think Vivienne has. She doesn't look well."
Indeed, Vivienne's face had gone ashen, her breathing shallow and rapid. Whether from genuine fear or an act to help us, I couldn't tell.
Rice glanced down at her, momentarily distracted. It wasn't much, but it was enough.
Emily moved with a speed that surprised even me. She threw herself backward, knocking into the legs of the guard behind her. As he stumbled, I lunged forward, tackling the second guard just as Gideon burst through the opposite door, weapon raised.
"Federal agents! Drop your weapons!" he shouted, adding to the confusion.
Rice swore, shoving Vivienne aside and raising his gun toward me. I rolled, narrowly avoiding the first shot, then surged to my feet as he fired again. The bullet grazed my arm, a line of fire that I barely registered in the chaos.
Gideon had taken down one guard, while the other scrambled for his fallen weapon. Emily, still bound, had managed to kick it away.
Rice backed toward the window, using Vivienne as a shield.
"Let her go!" I shouted, advancing on Rice despite the gun still trained on me.
"Stay back!" Rice snarled, dragging Vivienne with him. Her eyes were wide with terror, tears streaming down her face. "I'll kill her, I swear to God!"
"You're not walking out of here," I said, my voice deadly calm despite the blood dripping down my arm. "It's over, Rice."
His eyes darted frantically between me, Gideon, and the exits—a cornered animal calculating his chances. "Maybe for me," he hissed. "But I won't go alone."
Everything happened in a blur of motion. Rice shoved Vivienne forward with brutal force, sending her crashing into me as he swung his weapon toward Emily. I heard myself roar—a primal sound that ripped from my throat as I lunged past Vivienne.
Three shots rang out in rapid succession.
I felt the first bullet tear through my shoulder, the impact spinning me sideways. The second missed as I continued my forward momentum, tackling Rice with every ounce of strength I possessed. We crashed through the rotted window frame together, glass shattering around us as we fell.
The third shot came from Gideon, catching Rice in the chest mid-fall.
For one suspended moment, we hung in the air—Rice's eyes wide with shock, my hands locked around his throat. Then gravity reclaimed us. I twisted, using Rice's body to break my fall as we slammed onto the metal awning one floor below.
The impact drove the air from my lungs. Pain exploded through my wounded shoulder, my vision narrowing to a dark tunnel. Rice lay motionless beneath me, blood spreading across his expensive shirt, eyes fixed and empty.
"Dion!" Emily's voice came from above, desperate and terrified. "Dion!"
I tried to answer but couldn't find the breath. The world tilted sideways as I rolled off Rice's body, the rusty metal of the awning creaking ominously beneath me.
"Hold on!" Gideon shouted. "We're coming down!"
I pressed my hand against my shoulder, feeling warm blood seep between my fingers. Not fatal, I assessed automatically. Through and through. But the pain was building, a white-hot tide threatening to pull me under.
Footsteps pounded on metal as Gideon reached me, kneeling to assess my wounds. "You lucky son of a bitch," he muttered, pressing a wadded cloth against my shoulder. "Two inches to the right and we'd be having a very different conversation."
"Emily?" I asked, trying to sit up despite Gideon's restraining hand.
"She’s fine. Worried frantic about you.”
I looked at Gideon, feeling the crushing weight of my failure. "Get me out of here," I said quietly.
"What?" Gideon frowned, still applying pressure to my wound. "Dion, you need medical attention, but Emily's—"
"I said get me out of here," I repeated, my voice harder now. "Away from her."
