He made it to the barn without getting his ass shot off—just barely. His leg hurt like hell and felt like it was going to give out on him any second.
His initial plan was to haul ass through the barn, slip out the back, then loop around to hit the thugs from behind. That plan changed as soon as he slipped inside the tidy four-stall structure and saw that it didn’t have a back door or any windows.
Well, shit.
Becker could hear Kos’s men reloading just outside the door and knew they’d be coming in soon. He glanced around, looking for a place to hide, but other than the stalls currently occupied by four terrified horses, there weren’t any. Hell, there weren’t even any decent sharp-edged farming implements hanging from the walls. What kind of frigging barn was this anyway?
He turned to face the door, his leg throbbing. He was going to have a hard time facing so many bad guys with his leg this screwed up. On the bright side, he’d gotten the Albanians away from Jayna and her pack. At least they were safe. That had to count for something, right?
*
Jayna was running full speed as she cleared the Stones’ front porch. It wasn’t hard to track Liam and Megan. The scent of Megan’s blood was so strong it made Jayna want to cry.
The moon wasn’t out yet, but she had no problem spotting Liam making his way through the rows of fruit trees along the left side of the property. He was moving slower than normal. Then again, he was dragging Megan with him. Jayna briefly wondered why Liam didn’t just let Megan go and get the hell on his way. But the answer was simple: he was keeping Megan to use as a shield or a bargaining chip.
As if catching a whiff of her scent, Liam looked over his shoulder at her. Instead of continuing toward the main road like he’d been doing, he changed direction, heading toward the barn.
Jayna growled and ran faster. She could still hear Megan’s ragged breathing and faint heartbeat. But she was getting weaker by the moment.
Oh God, please don’t let Megan die, Jayna prayed. Not that—anything but that.
Thoughts like that should have made Jayna so weak in the knees that running would have been impossible. But she wasn’t feeling weak. She was feeling furious—furious that Liam had shot the most fragile and gentle member of a pack he used to call his own, furious that he was running with her now like she was nothing but a disposable means to an end. Jayna wanted to kill him for being so cruel.
Liam was just up ahead. Jayna tensed to launch herself at him when she caught sight of Kos and his soldiers running into the barn. It didn’t take a genius to figure out why. She assumed Eric had lured them out of the house on purpose. The fact that he was holed up in the barn didn’t make sense. Wouldn’t he just be trapped in there?
Gunshots sounded inside the barn. Her blood ran cold. Every instinct in her body screamed at her to run into the barn and save Eric.
But how could she do that and save Megan at the same time?
She was so caught up in the emotional tug-of-war inside her that she almost didn’t see Liam stop and turn to face her. Jayna skidded to a stop just as he dragged a semiconscious Megan around in front of him like a shield. Blood soaked half of Megan’s shirt and ran down her jeans. She looked so weak that if Liam hadn’t been holding her, she would have certainly fallen to the ground.
Liam pointed his gun at Jayna and pulled the trigger. Jayna dodged to the side to avoid the bullets, depending on reflexes and speed she never knew she possessed. But Liam had some pretty fast reflexes himself.
While she avoided the first few bullets, the next one bit deep in the muscles of her left arm. The pain stunned her so much that she forgot to keep moving. That earned her another bullet through her leg, knocking it right out from under her.
Jayna tumbled to the ground, fully expecting Liam to put the next bullet through her head. When the shot didn’t come, she looked up to find him glaring down at her over the barrel of his pistol, his eyes filled with hate.
“You brought all this on yourself, you know that, right?” he said in a tone so flat and emotionless she barely recognized the voice as his. The gentle and compassionate alpha who’d taken her off the streets and treated her like his little sister was long gone.
Between the sounds of fighting coming from the barn and watching the life drain out of Megan, it was hard to pay attention to what Liam was saying, but Jayna forced herself to try. She needed to figure out a way to get him to let Megan go before it was too late.
“I was taking care of everyone,” he continued. “But you couldn’t just be a good little beta and play your part, could you? You always thought you were better than me, questioning everything I said.”