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Nate was in so much pain but he pushed her away from him gently as he collapsed to the floor. His greatest fear was that the gunman would regain consciousness and kill him then kill her too.
He reached out to feel the man’s pulse and noted that it was weak but it was still throbbing. He had hit hard enough to almost break the man’s jaw but it was because he had been so worried about Rachel and himself. His life had flashed before his eyes but worse so had her life. He loathe to think of what would have happened if any of the bullets had harmed her.
“Go,” he ordered.
“No!” She knelt beside him trying to get his jacket off so she could see the damage done to his shoulder. He pushed her off even more firmly. There was so much blood soaking the material now and it was beginning to flow on the floor too.
“Go, Rachel!”
“He is going to kill you! I am not the target here. He is Jacob’s man and if he sees you’re still alive he is going to finish the job.”
“This is the wrong time to worry about me,” he groaned. “Leave now!”
Suddenly the sound of rushing feet caught both of their attention. Rachel’s heart was in her throat as she thought it was Jacob’s men who had come to finish the job. She grabbed Nate’s good shoulder and tried to pull him up. He groaned and resisted.
“Why do you have to be so stubborn now?” she cried. “Jacob is going to kill you.”
But it wasn’t Jacob who appeared on the threshold a few seconds later. It was a hostess who had heard the commotion from the wine room and had come to see what was happening. When she saw the blood and the scene before her eyes her face blanched and she threw a hand over her mouth to muffle her scream before any of them could stop her she was running for the stairs to alert everyone of what had just happened. Before they knew it more people were coming up the stairs. Nate pushed himself off the floor pushing Rachel further away from himself as he did so.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“You hate me. Remember that and leave while you can if you want to live. If Jacob wants you to be instrumental to my death and you chose to stick with me imagine what he’s going to do with you. He has ruined your reputation once what’s to stop him from doing the same again?”
Just then the hallway was filled with people curious to see what the hostess had been rambling about. Philippe was the first to enter the room and when he saw the condition Nate was in he quickly grabbed him and held him close while calling for someone to call an ambulance.
“Are you hurt, Mrs. Rivers?” he asked Rachel amid the commotion. She shook her head, eyes on Nate worried for him. But he looked away from her and let Philippe drag him through the crowd forming in the hall.
“Oh my God what happened?”
“Who shot him?”
Every question went unanswered as Philippe pulled Nate away.
“Get security upstairs, there was a breach,” Philippe ordered. Before he finished speaking a couple of security men were already running up the stairs, charging through the people in the hall. While two men ushered the shaken crowd downstairs another two went into the bathroom to pick the knocked-out gunman off the floor.
Rachel stood there lost for words and reason. Nate had told her to save herself. She knew instinctively that he wasn’t just talking about her reputation, he was talking about her life. He knew Jacob was holding her captive! He had wanted her to use this commotion to escape, to save herself.
She was suddenly aware of the eyes of some of the guests on her.
“Isn’t that Rachel Rivers?”
“Wasn’t she Nathaniel’s mistress after a few months back?”
“Did she do it?”
Numb at the sudden accusations Rachel didn’t know what to say. But she knew what she had to do.
Escape.
Suddenly she felt cold hands snake up her waist and when she looked up she saw Jacob there beside her holding her protectively.
“My wife is innocent, she would never have shot Nathaniel Madden.”
He made a great show of kissing her head and holding her close. “Are you alright?” he laid his hand on her belly and rubbed softly. “Is the baby alright?”
The accusatory looks changed to surprise and then concern.
Rachel didn’t know what to say. She was numb to everything. Something wasn’t right. It looked like Jacob’s plan had failed but she couldn’t help but think that something was perfectly right with his plan. She could only stare up at him in shock. He was smiling at her, showing all the concern of a loving, caring husband but only she could see the cold satisfaction in his eyes.
What was she missing?
The plan had failed, right? Jacob wanted Nate dead, but Nate didn’t die…that was a failed plan, right? So why was Jacob looking so satisfied and pleased with himself?
He steered her toward the door to join the people leaving. Outside the blast of sirens from both the ambulance and the police dampened the festive atmosphere.
“Don’t think too much about it,” Jacob leaned down and whispered in her ear so low that only she heard.
A chill went down her spine. The other events of the evening suddenly seemed inconsequential to the dark undertone of Jacob’s satisfaction.
“Just what did you just do?”
“I did what I always do best. I executed a very well-thought-out plan. The best ploy of the century.”
Rachel shivered. Her fear emanated both from the near-death experience she just witnessed and the mystery surrounding Jacob’s plan. “Jacob…”
He kissed her head again as they joined the group of people leaving Philippe’s mansion. “You darling are a natural. You play better than Dana, you play your role to perfection. It would be sad to let you go.”
This is it! He was going to kill her.
**
Nate sat in the back of the ambulance with Philippe beside him. The man was beside himself with worry and anger at his security team’s inability to prevent what happened tonight.
Nate watched him speak into his phone, berating the security company for their inefficiency. He promised to sue them for letting such a thing happen in his famous annual exclusive event.
But Nate wasn’t concerned about the party, as he lay there on the stretcher he wasn’t even concerned about the pain in his shoulder though it was throbbing so hard with pain. And though he was exasperated by the medical attendant fusing over him, he suspected that if he wasn’t treated soon he might lose functionality in his hand. What occupied his thoughts was the question: What just happened tonight?
As soon as Philippe dropped the phone with an exasperated sigh Nate asked, “Did you know I was going to be attacked tonight?”
Philippe glanced at him in surprise. “Of course, I did not!”
“Did you think I would invite you into my party to murder you? I may be after the riches of your mines but I would never stoop so low as to murder a man.”
Nate knew that. “But did you know someone was out to kill me?” he didn’t want to mention that that ‘someone’ was Jacob Henderson.
Philippe looked remorseful. “I didn’t. If I had known I would never have invited you. You may be a competition for me but the last thing I want is to have your blood on my hands.”
"But Rachel was the surprise you had for me."
"That was a low jab on my part and purely coincidental. Everyone knows about what happened between you both after her scandal. I thought you would like to know she was with her husband again."
Nate had to agree that Philippe wasn’t working with Jacob. It just seemed coincidental that Jacob was invited for the first time to a party Philippe threw only for known friends. But he couldn’t detect a single dishonesty in Philippe so he let it go.
“Whoever it was that tried to kill you failed miserably, you are still alive. You are Nathaniel Madden after all.”
Yes. And that was Nate’s biggest fear.
