He took one last look at them. Riley shut her eyes and sagged back onto her seat in relief, and Lily was almost at the top of the stairs, her panicked gaze on McClain, her fingers clasped around the stranger’s.
Luc didn’t know what it was that set him off, but his gaze locked on the tanned hand gripping his daughter’s, and then jerked toward the stranger’s face. A dark hat shielded his face, like most of the crowd there, and his broad shoulders filled out his black shirt. A machete hung over his shoulder, and as the stranger paused at the top to glance behind him, Luc’s gut fell.
“No!” he screamed, launching himself at the silver mesh fence.
Johnny Colton tipped his hat to him with a slight smile, then disappeared with his daughter.
13
"Don't shoot!" McClain roared.
Riley looked up in shock as Wade launched himself at the wire fence and scaled it as if the mesh barely touched him.
“What the hell?” Eden murmured.
He wasn’t looking at her. He wasn’t looking at any of them. Instead, he glared with deadly intensity toward the top of the arena behind her.
Riley spun, but there was nothing there. Only hot sunlight, and the last vestiges of the crowd. Her brows lowered as she turned to face him. He was almost to the top. One of McClain’s men stepped forward with his shotgun and smashed the butt into Wade's left hand, then the right. With a snarl, Wade tumbled flat on his back into the arena, dust rising. He rolled to his feet, lip curled in a snarl and his eyes wild, but more of McClain’s men had stepped closer to this side of the fence, ready for him.
In desperation, Wade looked to her. “Colton’s here,” he said. “He’s got Lily.”
Riley sucked in a sharp breath, her fists clenching. “I’ll get her back.” Then she turned and bolted up the stairs, shoving her way through the hysterical crowd.
“No!”
Luc made a snatch for the fence, but one of McClain’s men warned him back. In frustration, he watched Riley disappear at the top of the steps, his heart sinking into his gut. What the fuck had he done? She was no match for Colton, and if Colton realized that she held some meaning to him....
The heat washed out of his face. Deep inside, something quivered – the beast, threatening to rise up and consume him. He curled over, fingernails digging into his palms as the fury roared through him. Take my woman.... Take my daughter... Kill him... The thoughts were primal and dangerously close to the surface. Heat filled his mouth, his gums, his spine bowing as the monster sought to fight its way free. He pushed back, trying to force it down.
Luc came to on his knees, screaming.
The crowd was silent, even McClain’s men backing away from the fence with paling faces. Luc forced himself to push the beast deep. He couldn’t lose control. The charm helped contain it but sometimes, in emotional moments, he came close to losing himself. Do that, and both Lily and Riley were as good as dead.
“Wade.” McClain’s scuffed boots stepped into his vision, moving slowly. McClain would recognize what was happening to him, knowing enough to be wary.
An enemy. He breathed deep through his nose, feeling the heat slowly dissipate from his gums. Or an ally?
Looking up, he met McClain’s gaze, fingers clenching in the dirt. “He’s got her.” The words came from a hoarse throat. “Colton was here. He took... took Lily. Riley went after them.”
The expression on McClain’s face tightened, and he swore under his breath. “I thought he was dead.”
Luc couldn’t speak. He shook his head wordlessly.
“Close the gates!” McClain bellowed. “Sound the siren. I want the walls manned. We’ve got a warg loose in the city. He’s taken Lily, and I want her back unharmed. Don’t confront him. Just find him and sound the alert!”
A hand came out of nowhere, tanned and marked with calluses. Luc looked up, into hard grey-green eyes.
“Take it,” McClain snapped. “I’m not your fucking enemy. He is. If we don’t work together, then we don’t get Lily back.”
The last of the fury roared through him at the thought. Luc clenched his teeth together, then reached out and gripped McClain’s hand. McClain hauled him to his feet, pressing the knife hilt into his hand. “This time, don’t hesitate.”
There was a guard outside the arena. Riley snatched his handgun from its carelessly unsnapped holster and darted past, ignoring his cry of “Hey!”
Ahead of her, a tall man in dark clothes and a black hat led Lily down the street calmly. He glanced over his shoulder at the cry, coal-black eyes meeting hers before they narrowed. As she blinked, he swept Lily up over his shoulder and bolted between houses.
“Stop!” Riley yelled, leaping after him.
She raced around the corner, directly into his outstretched arm. It hit her high in the chest and she went down hard, struggling to breathe.
“No!” Lily cried out, sinking her small white teeth into his neck.
Riley realized his attention was gone and swung out with her feet, hooking her ankle behind his. His eyes widened on her for a moment before he fell, landing with Lily half on top of him. Thrusting the girl aside, he lashed out with his foot, and Riley barely avoided the blow. She scrambled backward, her back hitting the wall. Then she shoved to her feet and aimed the pistol at him. “Don’t move.”
Grabbing Lily’s hair, Colton yanked her against him, pressing gleaming sharp claws against the little girl’s throat. “I’ll do it,” he said, in a cool, dark voice that sounded almost weary.
Riley froze. “Let her go.”
“Put the gun down.”
“No.”
“Then I’ll tear her throat out.”
Bleak, uncompromising words. Who the hell was this man? Riley swallowed hard, trying to listen for any sign of pursuit. It divided her attention for a split second, and he used it to throw Lily toward her. Riley snatched her finger off the trigger, staggering back under the girl’s weight. Her back hit the wall, and Lily cried out as she fell to the ground.
An arm came out of nowhere, smashing down across Riley’s wrist. The blow numbed her arm, and the pistol flew to the cobbles. Riley didn’t have time to look for it. She ducked as Colton’s fist smashed toward her face, taking a glancing blow across the cheekbone that stunned her. Hell, he moved like lightning. Not even Wade had moved like that. Maybe he could, but it made her realize that he’d never truly tried to hurt her.
The pain shot straight up her jaw, toward her ear. Another blow – a chop of his hand – cut toward her throat, and she caught it somehow, deflecting the main thrust of it. The blow still slammed her head back. All she could see was sky, and then she was on the ground on her back.
“Colton!”
She blinked as the howl of utter rage swept through the alley. Then there was a blur of movement and Wade was there, shoving Colton against the wall, his expression a mask of fury and long, sharp teeth bared in his opponent’s face.
Not fully human.
Lily screamed as the men grappled. Riley tried to sit up, her face aching. Colton threw Wade across the alley with remarkable ease, then swooped to pick up the pistol she’d dropped. He pointed it coolly at Wade just as McClain shoved around the corner.
The gun didn’t waver. Colton turned it on McClain and pulled the trigger.
“Shit!” Riley scrambled across the ground as McClain went down.
McClain coughed, blood spattering across his face, his eyes wide and panicked. Blood soaked his black shirt and Riley tore at it, trying to see the damage. “Eden!” she screamed as bare flesh met her gaze. And blood. Lots of it. Shoving her hand over the hole in his chest, she looked around desperately. “Somebody help me!”
Behind her, Wade rolled to his feet. Riley watched helplessly as Colton grabbed Lily and yanked her back against him. This time, he put the muzzle to her forehead. Wade froze and Riley stilled. Beneath her hand, she could feel McClain’s heart thumping in his chest, wetness leeching out over her hands, but the world seemed suddenly silent.
“Back away,” Colton said coolly. “I don’t wish to hurt her, but I will.”
“Let her go.” Wade held his hands up, still in a half-crouch.
“Cane wants her.”
“Don’t,” Wade said shortly. “Don’t do this. You know what he’ll do to her.”
Colton’s dark eyes narrowed slightly. “He wants you. You have three days to come for her. I’ll keep her safe until then, you have my word.”
“Fuck your word,” Wade snarled, taking a step forward.
The gun shifted to him. “My advice is to heal. And quickly.” Then Colton lowered the gun and shot Wade in the knee.
Riley flinched as Wade went down. He arched on the dirt, teeth ground together in pain as he curled over his knee. She looked down, but blood was pumping through her fingers, and McClain’s pupils were starting to dilate. She couldn’t leave him. Wade would live.
Colton nodded shortly at her, “Don’t do anything foolish.” Then he swung the frightened girl gently over his shoulder and disappeared.
“Oh, shit.” Eden staggered around the corner, falling to her knees beside Riley. “What happened?” She tugged Riley’s hands aside, then shoved her own over the wound. “Damn it. Damn it. Adam,” she called. “Don’t you dare!” Her eyes were wild as she turned on Riley. “I need my medical bag!” she screamed.
The world was chaos. McClain’s men pushed past, rifles raised. Riley pointed them after Colton, then met Wade’s gaze. Pain twisted his features as he dragged himself into a sitting position against the wall, panting hard.
“Get her bag,” Wade gasped.
14
The knee cap was shattered.
Riley bit her lip and leaned over his leg, dragging the light closer. Wade sucked in a sharp breath as she probed at the wound. This needed Eden’s attention, but at the moment it wasn’t going to get it. They’d dragged McClain into the surgery, and the doctor was hastily working on her brother. Colton had shot to kill, and the bullet was lodged deep in his chest, having nicked the heart. He shouldn’t have been alive. He very nearly wasn’t. But nobody had the guts to tell Eden that.
Riley’s heart clenched. She’d faced the same dilemma days ago when the man she loved lay still and bloodless on the table in front of her. “Why isn’t McClain healing?” she whispered.
Wade looked exhausted. “McClain’s men pack silver-tips,” he said quietly. “His body can’t heal while the bullet’s still inside him.”
“And?” She looked up. “There was an ‘and’ on the end of that.”
His blue eyes locked on hers. “By that stage, it will probably be too late.”
The thought made her feel ill. “If you gave him your blood—”
“It’s not the blood loss that’s killing him.” Wade flinched as her tweezers slipped. “Give them here. You need to dig in and get the bullet out instead of playing with it.”
“I’m not playing with it,” she snapped, though the idea of digging inside his knee made bile rise in her throat.
He knelt over his leg. “Hold the fabric of my jeans out of the way.” When Riley obeyed, he took a deep breath, then shoved the tweezers into the gaping hole in his knee.
“Jesus,” she muttered, licking her lips as her stomach rebelled.
Sweat stained his face as he felt around. His lips quivered, and a small gasp escaped him as he pulled the bullet slowly from the wound. It was whole, though badly crushed, and he tossed both the tweezers and the bullet aside carelessly before collapsing back on the bed.
“Fuck,” he said breathlessly, raking his hands back through his hair. The muscle in his abdomen twitched as his shirt rode up, and she could see the toll pain had taken on him.
“Its okay,” she whispered, stroking a hand through his hair. “You got it all. You got—”
“It’s not okay,” he snapped. It was the first time he’d even remotely referred to Lily since the incident in the alley. His eyes closed, and he trembled. “Give me a minute. Then get me a crutch. And a gun.”
Riley’s hand stilled. “You’re not going after him tonight. You can barely move.”
Those luminous eyes opened, and she saw the mixture of pain and fear there. “I failed her once,” he said, and light shimmered off the suspicious wetness in his eyes. “I am not going to fail her again.”
“You never failed her,” Riley protested, but he cut it off with a sharp jerk of the hand.
“I walked away,” he said. “I left her and her mother alone without protection. I won’t ever forgive myself for that, Riley.” He dragged a trembling hand over his eyes. “I feel like I’ve made a lifetime of fucking mistakes, one after the other.”
She could see this conversation wasn’t going anywhere. Lips thinning, she sat up, reaching for the bottle of iodine and a bandage. The knee would heal itself better than any doctoring she attempted on it. “Tell me about Cane,” she said. “Tell me why you’re so afraid of him getting his hands on Lily.”
He sucked in a ragged breath and visibly shuddered. “Cane’s an evil man. I’ve seen some of the things he’s done, Riley. If he sets you in his sights, he doesn’t stop until he’s torn apart your whole world. Colton tries to rein him in, but it’s like trying to control a rattlesnake.” Letting out a breath, he turned his head toward her, eyes stark. “He’ll hurt her, Riley. Just to prove that he can. Just to hurt me. I have to get her back before it’s too late. I swear, if he touches her—”
Anguish tore through her, and she slid her fingers through his. “We’ll get her back. I promise.”
Wade stilled. “We?”
“You don’t seriously think I’m going to let you go after them alone?”
He rose onto his elbows. “No way. You’re not coming. If Cane gets his hands on you—”
“He’ll do nothing that he won’t do to Lily,” she snapped. “He’s got at least two other wargs with him, and who knows how many reivers. You’re not thinking clearly. You need help. Go in alone, and you’re only going to get yourself caught, or killed.” She squeezed his hand. "Then what happens to Lily?"
“No.” Something hot and possessive burned in his gaze, and his fingers clenched hers back. He shook his head. “No, Riley. No. One man can get in and out alone. The same way Colton did.”
Riley poured a capful of iodine over a piece of linen. “How are you going to fight with Lily there? She might need to be carried.” What she didn’t add was, She might also be frightened of you.
His lips thinned. Riley didn’t let him speak, just gently swiped the iodine over his knee. With a hiss, he sucked his tongue between his teeth.
“And you’re not going anywhere until you can stand,” she warned. “Let alone fighting three wargs. You’re an idiot.”
“I don’t have a choice,” he snapped, glancing toward the open door to the surgery. “McClain can’t back me up. Even if he would.”
“You know he would,” she shot back, sliding the bandage under his knee. She’d cut his jeans open horizontally, and the pieces flapped around his muscular calf. “And you don’t need McClain. You have me. If we gather some of his men—”
“They’ll shoot me the second I give them my back,” he muttered.
Riley slowly wound the cotton bandage around his knee, then clipped it in place. He was right, of course; she’d had to stop one of the men from shooting him in the alley when he was down. “We’ll deal with that when we get there.”
“We are not going anywhere,” he said between his teeth. “Here, help me up.”
“You need to rest.”
“Either you help,” he told her, “or I’ll do it myself.”
Riley cursed and slid a shoulder under his arm. She helped him sit up, gently easing his leg over the side of the hospice bed. “Don’t push yourself. You need to let that heal, or you won’t be much use to anyone.”
“I need to shift,” he muttered.
Riley met his eyes, but he dropped his gaze. “I heal quickly in this form, but something in the shift regene
rates the body. I’ll be able to walk by morning.”
When the moon no longer rode through his blood, forcing the beast to the surface.
He finally looked up, light gleaming off the silvery shine of his eyes. “I need a warg cage, Riley. And I need you to watch my back for the night. Make sure nobody takes it into his head to get rid of me while I can’t protect myself.”
“And in the morning, you’ll let me come along with you?” She crossed her arms over her chest.
Another muttered curse. But that one sounded like defeat.
Riley smiled. “I’ll watch your back,” she promised.
The door of the warg cage clanged shut. Wade limped toward the center, a shudder running through his large body. He could feel Riley’s eyes on him, but he didn’t want to turn and look at her. It was hard enough doing this in front of her. If he didn’t think someone would put a bullet in his head while he was trapped, he’d have never allowed it.
There were no windows in the room, but he didn’t need one. The moon was rising. He could feel it in his blood, a shiver under the skin. A burning itch. Yanking the black shirt over his head, he tossed it through the bars and started working on his belt. The jeans were destroyed. No point bothering to remove them.
The itch spread, as if it knew exactly what was going through his mind. As his hand closed over the cool pewter of the charm, he flinched. A long time since he’d voluntarily removed it. Entrusting it to someone else for the night was the craziest thing he’d ever done, but he knew bone-deep that Riley would never betray him.
“Are you okay?” she asked softly.
He jerked his head in a nod, then slid the charm over his head. “If I get out, then make sure you shoot me.”
“I will.”
And he knew she would. He trusted her to do it in a way he’d trust no one else. With a sigh, he reached through the bars and held the charm out.
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