Archer Rhys was stunned. They had been fighting here for ages, and not a single person had come out. Yet after Grace Winslow shouted for a bit, seven or eight burly men actually appeared.

And these men were all attacking the opposing group like madmen.

"Are you an idiot? Don’t you know enough to run when you’re in danger? You could have at least run to the police station! You’re injured, what are you doing fighting them?" Grace Winslow seethed with anger as she looked at Archer Rhys’s deathly pale face.

"Tell them to get out of here, these guys have guns..." Archer Rhys had barely finished speaking when a gunshot shattered the silence.

A man collapsed in a pool of blood.

The others all scrambled back, terror in their eyes.

Grace Winslow’s mind went completely blank.

’A gun?’

She glanced at Archer Rhys. "Tell me the truth. Who exactly are these people? They aren’t Celestians, are they?"

"Yeah. They’re drug lords from the border. We recently destroyed their base and arrested a group of their men. That scar-faced one is Vulture. I killed his younger brother, so he’s here to get revenge on me. You need to leave here right now, don’t look back. They didn’t dare to shoot before because they were afraid of attracting the police. As long as you hide and they don’t find you, you’ll be safe. Let me go out..." Archer Rhys tugged on Grace Winslow, trying to make her leave at once.

Grace Winslow stared intently at him. "You planned all along to use yourself as bait and draw them away, didn’t you? You never expected to make it out alive, did you?"

"Archer Rhys, you’re not on your own anymore! You..."

"Grace Winslow, please, I’m begging you. I can’t stand by and watch you get hurt. I would rather die myself than see you come to any harm. Just go, quickly." Archer Rhys’s eyes, red-rimmed, were filled with pleading.

Grace Winslow couldn’t hold back her tears.

She turned and glanced at Vulture and the gun in his hand, then asked Archer Rhys, "How many bullets does his gun hold?"

Archer Rhys faltered for a second, then answered instinctively, "Eight."

"Now there are only seven." Grace Winslow looked at him. "And I can’t just watch you go to your death. If we die, we die together. If we live, we live together. I can’t live on without you. This isn’t hopeless. Trust me."

Seeing Grace Winslow’s calm and collected expression, Archer Rhys suddenly smiled.

’As expected of the woman I’ve fallen for. To be so calm, even now.’

"He’s after me, so he won’t shoot recklessly," Archer Rhys said, reaching out to smooth Grace Winslow’s hair.

Grace Winslow slapped his hand away. "Bullshit!"

"He’s already fired the first shot, risking discovery. He has no intention of letting you live. The second you appear in front of him, he’ll kill you without a moment’s hesitation!"

"But if I’m the one who goes out, he’ll torture me. He wants to make *you* suffer, so he won’t be willing to just kill me. That’s our chance."

A small smile touched Grace Winslow’s lips as she spoke. "I’m such a failure. I worked myself to death for a man in my last life, and now I’m about to go die for another one in this life. Archer Rhys, if we both make it out of this alive, you’d better remember that your life belongs to me. If you ever dare to betray me, I’ll kill you myself."

Without giving Archer Rhys a chance to react, Grace Winslow suddenly dashed out into the open.

"Vulture, you’re not here for them! Don’t hurt them, they’re just innocent civilians! I’ll go with you."

"The police station is less than five hundred meters from here. You just fired a shot, so the cops will be here any minute. You have five minutes to get away, tops." Grace Winslow walked toward Vulture, one step at a time.

Vulture narrowed his eyes, glancing behind her. "What’s this? Is Archer Rhys playing the coward this time, sending you out to die for him?"

"I never would have pegged him for such a waste of space. Letting a woman save his life."

Grace Winslow rolled her eyes. "You don’t know a damn thing. It’s called ’he who fights and runs away lives to fight another day.’ As long as he’s alive, he can wipe out every last one of you scumbags. You’re garbage, peddling drugs and ruining countless lives. You all deserve to die!"

"You all should have stayed skulking in the gutters like rats, never seeing the light of day. But no, you had to crawl out just to court death."

"Shut up!" Vulture, enraged and humiliated, aimed his gun at Grace Winslow and fired.

Grace Winslow instinctively leaped to the side, dodging the bullet.

The move was pure physical instinct, and even Grace Winslow herself was stunned after she’d done it.

Vulture was stunned, too.

He raised his gun and fired at Grace Winslow again. She dropped and rolled, dodging it once more.

The bystanders watched this scene, completely dumbfounded.

Before Grace Winslow could even get to her feet, Vulture fired three quick shots at her.

Grace Winslow covered her head and kept rolling. One bullet grazed her arm, sending a searing pain through it and leaving a startling trail of red on the snow.

Grace Winslow winced, cursing inwardly.

’Shit, that hurts like hell!’

"We can’t let that lady face him alone! Go, now! He’s out of bullets!" someone yelled, and the stunned crowd snapped back to their senses.

Suddenly, someone on a nearby roof sent an avalanche of snow cascading down, burying Vulture.

With Vulture’s vision obscured by the snow, Archer Rhys shot out at top speed, closing the distance before Vulture could react.

Vulture instinctively tried to shoot, but Archer Rhys wasn’t about to give him the chance.

The moment he saw Grace Winslow get hurt, his fury had exploded. He attacked in a blind rage, fully prepared to trade his life for his enemy’s. He slammed headfirst into Vulture, driving his elbow viciously into the man’s face. As Vulture reeled back in pain, Archer snatched the gun from his hand, slammed him onto the snow, and rained a relentless torrent of fists down on his face.

Muffled grunts of pain filled the air.

Everyone watched, stunned.

Archer Rhys had been too fast. All they saw was a black blur before Vulture was slammed to the ground.

The tension finally left Grace Winslow’s body, and the pain washed over her in a tidal wave. Her eyes rolled back in her head, and she passed out.

"Oh no, she’s passed out! Is she going to be okay?"

"She’s bleeding so much! Quick, get her to a hospital!"

"Right, right, get her to the hospital now!"

A few people noticed Grace Winslow lying on the ground. Seeing that she’d fainted, they began to panic.

Someone moved to pick her up.

Archer Rhys stopped, his fists covered in blood. He stumbled over to Grace Winslow and crouched down, his entire body trembling uncontrollably—not from the cold, but from fear.

He had faced death itself and never felt a fear like this.

He reached out a trembling hand to touch Grace Winslow’s face.

Grace Winslow struggled to open her eyes. She glanced at him and rasped, "What are you just standing there for? If you don’t get me to a hospital soon, I’m actually going to die..."

And with that, she went completely unconscious.