I let out a squeak and staggered as he dragged me to the center of the room.
“I should have done you in a long time ago, Vanilla. But I couldn’t get near your piece-of-shit trailer because of some mongrel. Got him with a screwdriver after he bit my arm, but he kept hanging around and I couldn’t get a shot at him. So I came to your shop. Never thought you’d actually come up with the money.”
“Take your hands off her.”
Reno emerged from the far end of the room. He moved through the fog like a man serving a death warrant. I noticed a dark stain on his pants below the knee and the level of fear in me spiked. He aimed a gun at Sanchez, holding his wrist steady.
“Should have known you were the one with the screwdriver,” Reno said, his voice so in control it was volatile.
“Sorry about your pooch,” he said insincerely. Sanchez jerked me closer and hooked his left arm around my torso, latching his hand on my right breast. His voice held a smile. “Have you seen these pretty tits of hers?” He placed the gun against my temple and squeezed my breast painfully.
A muscle in Reno’s jaw tightened, but he held his gun steady.
“Yeah, I thought so,” Sanchez continued. “I like that little mole right in the middle—I’d call that a bull’s-eye. You got yourself a real winner here with this one. She’s very business savvy, but it didn’t take much for her to show me her titties.”
No, I wasn’t playing this game either.
I gripped his elbow, pulled it up, and sank my teeth into his forearm. Hard.
Sanchez slammed the butt of his gun against my temple. Guess he didn’t hit hard enough because my teeth went deeper into his skin. “Motherfucker!” he shouted.
“Just for that, I’m going to knock out your teeth before I kill you,” Reno said in a malevolent voice, his body rock solid.
I stopped biting and chills swept over me as I looked at Reno’s cold expression. Sanchez yanked me against him and extended his arm. Seeing the gun aimed at Reno seized my heart with fear.
This wasn’t like the movies where there was a big standoff and a lot of negotiating. Sanchez didn’t have a good hold of me, so I pried back his fingers and twisted my body around until he let go. He got a handful of my hair and I yelped, kicking him in the shin. Reno surged forward and at that very moment, Trevor appeared and rushed in front of him. Sanchez fired his gun and it made a muffled crack.
“No!” I screamed.
Tiny flashes of glittery light sparked the air and I almost fainted when Trevor fell to the ground, taking a bullet for Reno.
Before Sanchez could fire off another round, I struck his arm, hoping to throw off his aim. He yanked out some of my hair during the struggle, and before I knew it, Reno was on him. He wrested the gun out of his hand, tucked his own weapon behind his back, and slammed his granite fist into Sanchez’s mouth. A tooth fell out along with a stream of blood.
Sanchez let go of my hair.
While I heard the pounding of fist to bone, I dove to the floor and smoothed my hands over Trevor’s chest.
“Trev, can you hear me? Somebody help us!”
He smiled lazily, sexily, sadly. I brushed the hair away from his eyes as my tears splashed down.
“Don’t cry, babe. Your nose swells and you look like Rudolph.”
The sound of footsteps trampled into the room.
“You got him?” Austin shouted. He still fought to keep Lexi’s wolf under control as she lunged toward Sanchez. Her lips were peeled back, revealing her sharp canines when she snapped and snarled. “Lexi, no!”
I threw my attention back on Trevor.
Jericho stalked forward and fell to his knees. “Where’s he hit?”
Wheeler’s strong hands coaxed me up and I fought against him. “Come on, you don’t need to see this.”
“See what? Let me go! Trevor needs help!”
Trevor looked up at Jericho. “Get her out.”
“No, no, no!”
Wheeler’s arms locked around me tightly and he lifted my legs, carrying me out of the room at a quick pace. I stretched out to see around his shoulder and watched Austin kneel down beside Trevor.
“What’s he going to do?” I whimpered, not knowing enough about Shifters to abate my fear.
Wheeler lowered his eyes to mine. “Save him, if it’s not too late.”
My bad mojo was like a hurricane, injuring everyone within its path.
Wheeler yelled out as we went down the second ramp. “Ben!”
I squinted from the bright lights as the cool air hit us with a swing of the door. The sounds of bells and arcade music blasted, but it was a weeknight and not that busy. The attendant had taken off, assuming that we would be another half hour. Wheeler kept walking toward the exit and pushed it open with his shoulder.
I wiggled to get down when I saw Lynn sitting on the curb. Denver held Maizy and her arms were wrapped around his neck, her head on his shoulder.
“Is it secure?” Wheeler yelled out.