Wheeler chuckled. “Sad I missed that.”
Lexi put her hands on her hips. “Well, that’s nothing compared to when we were in the room and they gave her the shot. The nurse asked Denver to leave, and you can imagine his response to that. When he pulled out the needle, I should have known things weren’t going to end well. You know how they give the shot in the rear? Well, as soon as the male nurse began lifting her shirt, Denver threw him across the room.”
“Jesus,” Austin breathed, rubbing his face.
“After that, they did call security. I thought he was going to shift in that room, so I forced him to leave and wait outside before he got himself arrested. I hope someday I can laugh about it, but right now I just need a nap.” She waved a hand and walked up each step as if she were scaling a mountain.
Prince returned to his chair. “That’s quite a woman.”
Austin nodded proudly in agreement. “I’m a fortunate man. They don’t make ’em like her.”
I shivered when my hair tickled the back of my neck.
Wheeler scooted down and widened his legs. “Maybe we need to think of a plan B in case Delgado doesn’t come after us right away.”
Prince chuckled and rubbed his brown eye. “He’s human. He’ll do something soon. Like milk, humans have a short expiration date, so they don’t waste time plotting their revenge. They are impulsive creatures.”
Wheeler’s phone rang and he lifted his hips, pulling it out. After a quick glance, he abruptly stood up and excused himself from the room.
“Do you know where he might be holding the others?” I asked Prince.
“Not in the city,” he said. “It’s much too risky, and if they escaped, they’d have a better chance of getting away. These men prefer to keep their fighters in a rural area, miles from any large population. I presume if he owns a place in the country, it’s not listed under his name. Do we know whether he owns these Shifters, or is he simply selling them to a third party for profit?”
I shook my head. “Does it matter? Savage men like him should be punished—and quickly.”
“Agreed.”
Austin steepled his fingers in front of his face, resting his elbows on his knees. “He’s going to replace those two, you know. Maybe you should call some of your friends at work and give them a heads-up.”
I lowered my eyes. “I doubt they’ll want to speak to me after the show I put on. People don’t trust panthers.”
Wheeler rushed into the room, out of breath. “I need to head out,” he said to Austin.
“You know the rules,” Austin reminded him. “Take someone with you.”
“I’ll join you,” I offered.
“No, you stay.” His eyes flashed up to Austin. “Ben took off before you laid down the rules. He’s still got something to do, so he asked me to meet up with him and then head back home.”
Austin slid his jaw to the side, looking at him pensively. “There and back.”
I turned my head toward Wheeler standing behind me. He briefly lifted one of my curls and let it slip through his fingers. It seemed like such a peculiar gesture that I kept watching him as he walked to the door and lifted his keys from a nail positioned above the letter W.
“Be careful,” Austin said.
As Wheeler opened the door, he glanced at me over his shoulder. I’m not sure why that left my panther unsettled, but she paced feverishly.
Chapter 19
When Wheeler received a phone call from Ben, he knew he’d gone back to Club Sin to play another game with higher stakes. What Wheeler wasn’t prepared for was Delgado on the other end of the line.
“When I got wind one of my girls was a panther, I needed proof,” Delgado said. “I’m not a man who believes hearsay, so I ordered one of my men to make her shift onstage to get a better look. That would get her fired, and no one would notice if she went missing. I’ve had my sights on acquiring a panther for a long time.”
“What do you want?” Wheeler said tersely from the hall outside the kitchen.
Delgado sucked in long and satisfied breath, adding a hint of amusement to his voice. “Before Naya’s dance, I was playing a game of poker with a Shifter. Funny, I sat there staring at your brother and couldn’t believe it. The same face of a man I’d watched fight off a panther with his bare hands when I was in my twenties. You see, I’m not a stranger in your world. I’ve been in it for a long time, working my way up and learning where the fast money is. Sometimes I lied and said I was a Relic; no one could tell. After acquiring a few clubs, I got all the protection I needed. In my early days, I used to bet on the panther pits. That’s where the big money was.”