She heard a door slamming open. No doubt Yasmin was searching for her in the bedroom.
This was her one chance. She stepped across the glass, crunching it under her shoes and stepped up on the terrace railing. Shit. It was a long way down.
"Lea! Lea!"
"Lan?"
Landon stood on the ground beneath her, a gun in his hand. He quickly shoved it into his holster and held his arms up. "Jump, Lea. Jump and I'll catch you. I swear I will. Jump, darlin'."
"Got you," Yasmin snarled as she came through the doors.
Alea jumped. No question about it. She would rather die trying to get to Lan than face down a bullet. She heard herself scream as she made the short trip from the second story.
Her breath huffed from her chest as she landed in strong, warm arms.
"I can kill you both." Yasmin stood on the balcony, her gun in her hand.
Lan moved fast, turning so his back was to the gun, and he pressed Alea to the ground.
A loud report filled the air. That hadn't been Yasmin's gun with its silencer. Then whose?
"Thank god," Lan whispered and pulled Alea upright.
Yasmin's gun fell to the ground, her body slumping over the balcony railing. She hung there for a moment, eyes wide, as Dane and Cooper charged through, both with a semiautomatic in their hands.
Alea gasped in horror as Yasmin teetered, her body unbalanced, then tipped over the railing. She fell through the air, her blonde hair flipping with her body before she hit the ground with a sickening thud. A glance told Alea that Yas's neck hung at an unnatural angle. She was dead.
Dane looked over the railing. "Is Alea okay?"
"I've got her," Lan yelled. He scooped her up, holding her to his chest.
Alea stared at Yasmin's dead body as he carried her away, brutally aware of just how close she'd come to a very similar end. She clung to Lan and cried.
Chapter Fifteen
"How is Oliver?" Piper asked as she poured out the tea and waited for the servant to step back. "Thank you so much. That will be all for now. We should be finished in an hour or so. Until then, I'd like to be alone with my cousin, please."
The servant frowned, but nodded and bowed as he left the room.
They were finally alone. It seemed like Alea was never alone these days. "He's recovering but very slowly. His brothers arrived a couple of days ago. When the doctors say he's stable, they want to move him back to England."
She'd met Callum and Rory at the airport and escorted them to their brother's side. She'd felt a horrible pressing guilt the whole time. Oliver had been a target because of her. She'd apologized, but the brothers had hugged her and assured her they placed no blame on anyone but Yasmin. Callum had mentioned that if Oliver had followed his initial instincts and pursued Alea instead, none of it would have happened.
Yasmin had already been cremated, her urn placed in the family crypt by her grieving mother. Alea had felt so badly for her aunt. Though Yasmin had been horrible, her aunt had loved her only daughter. Her grief was complicated. She'd been horrified by what Yasmin had done.
So much sadness. And there had been so much rage in Oliver's eyes. Even through the pain of his surgeries, she could see the hatred there that burned for the woman he'd once called his wife.
"I'm glad to hear he's going to make it," Piper said, putting her tea down and looking at the door as it closed. Landon was standing outside the door, his silent figure a monument to his protectiveness.
Unfortunately, she wanted his figure to be a monument to sexiness and love, but that hadn't happened. Despite the fact that she'd tried to talk to them about why she'd refused the marriage in the beginning, they didn't seem to be listening. Oh, the wedding plans were going through. They were scheduled to be married in the garden next week, but Dane and Landon seemed to be going through the motions with grim determination.
"Are you all right?" Piper asked.
She nodded. "I'm fine. No morning sickness at all. I feel great physically."
In fact, the doctor had said she was healthy and that sex wouldn't be a problem at all, even sex with all her fiancés as long as they were careful.
But Cooper and Landon were the only ones who had slept beside her in the four days that had passed since she'd leapt from the balcony and into Landon's arms. She'd tried to explain, and Dane said he understood, but he'd been remote.
They were circling each other like wary sharks, and she needed to break the stalemate. She wanted her wedding to be a joyous occasion, not something they all went through for the sake of the baby.