Chapter 426
A figure moved faster than anyone could react, rushing past William and throwing himself toward Winter.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
All Winter heard was a series of deafening explosions.
The ground shook violently beneath her. A powerful force slammed into her, throwing her aside, and then everything went black.
After the explosion, the mountain looked as if it had been ripped open. The air was thick with the sharp smell of smoke and damp earth.
A helicopter hovered overhead.
Dawn was beginning to break. The pale moonlight had grown thin and faint, and the mountain was still wrapped in poor visibility and bitter cold.
One of Gavin’s arms was bleeding. He knelt on the rocky slope, gripping a tool with both hands as he worked with the bodyguards to pry away the rocks pinning Chris and Winter down.
With a heavy rumble, the rock finally shifted.
“Mr. Xander!” Gavin shouted.
Chris lay facedown, his body still curved protectively around Winter.
But even after Gavin called his name, Chris gave no response.
Gavin’s face tightened.
“Get down there!” he ordered.
Everyone rushed into the collapsed hollow where Chris and Winter lay.
When they turned him over, everyone held their breath.
Chris’s eyes were closed. His face was drained of color, paler than the fading moonlight.
Gavin froze for half a second. His usually composed expression went rigid.
Then he quickly checked the pulse at Chris’s neck.
There was still a heartbeat.
“Get Mr. Xander to the helicopter. Now.”
Chris had curled himself around Winter to shield her from the blast. Even after they turned him over, his arms remained locked around her. He was unconscious, but he still wouldn’t let go.
Several people tried, but they couldn’t pry him away from Winter.
In the end, they had no choice but to carry them onto the helicopter together.
He still had to keep his promise to Chris and watch over Winter.
That promise was the only reason Chris had let go.
Just as Gavin took off his jacket and rolled up his sleeve, the elevator doors opened. In the morning light, a slender figure hurried toward them.
She was backlit, so he couldn’t see her face clearly at first.
Gavin was about to look away when he heard the woman’s anxious voice.
“How is Winter?”
His hand paused on his sleeve. He looked up again and found her vaguely familiar.
Then he remembered.
She was Winter’s former coworker and close friend, Wendy Stone, if he remembered correctly.
Chris had once asked him to contact her, but Gavin had passed the task to one of his men. He didn’t like dealing with women.
Especially women like her, women who seemed to have grown up untouched by darkness. He disliked getting close to them most of all.
William must have brought her here.
Gavin looked away and answered briefly, “She hit her head. Other than that, she has no other injuries.”

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