"Enough. This is a waste of time." Hannah stepped closer to Nick and grabbed hold of his elbow. She jostled him on purpose to divert his focus from Silver. Once she had Nick's attention, she said, "Take me to my grandmother."
Nick narrowed his eyes. His mouth puckered. "This way," he snarled, but at least he didn't touch her again. He headed through the stadium's entrance, past the box office, and she rushed to follow.
"Hey, what should I do with all this junk?" Ed called after Nick.
"Give it back, and bring him along for now," Nick said without turning back.
With Hannah at his side, Nick led the way across the interior courtyard beneath the grandstand. His procession of guards followed with Silver in their custody. Their course took them toward the interior of the stadium.
From the side of his mouth, he asked Hannah, "Did you bring the fucking box?"
She hesitated for just a fraction of a second to tell him but then decided to come clean. The box bought her leverage. "Yeah, I've got it."
"On you?"
"Yes, on me, but you can't have it till I have my grandmother."
Nick snarled, "You made a big mistake bringing your boyfriend along, Hannah. I'm not happy."
Cold sweat trickled down her back. She couldn't afford to show fear, though, or Nick would gain the upper hand. He never hesitated to exploit her weaknesses. "Relax," she said in an ice-cold tone. "Silver doesn't mean anything to me. I've been using him to get what I want."
"Yeah, what is it you wanted from him exactly?" Nick bristled with suspicion still, but her denouncement seemed to mollify him slightly.
"The box," Hannah said. "That's what this whole fucking thing has been about, right? Silver had the box. I did what I had to do."
"You fucked him?" Nick's green-eyed monster reared its ugly head.
"That's none of your damn business. Stop acting like you have any right to be jealous, especially while we have an audience. Do you really want word getting back to Balthazar that you were more worried about who your ex fucked than his precious artifact?"
They were almost to the wide gates that led from the interior courtyard into the stadium. She'd expected her grandmother to be somewhere within the main building beneath the stands. Her sense of paranoia was screaming bloody murder. The slight doubt she'd always harbored that Nick would take her to Bonita grew to monstrous proportions.
"Balthazar is dead. The Russians killed him. I'm the boss now. I report directly to Drakon Kholkikos." Nick stared intently at Hannah while he made the announcement. When Hannah faltered, his satisfaction showed. She hated that she failed to conceal her dismay.
"Congratulations, you've achieved your lifelong dream of being a small-time crime lord," Hannah said as coldly as she could manage once she recovered. "Pardon my French, but I don't give a fuck. My grandmother is the only thing that matters."
Nick's jaws worked. She suspected he was as sick of hearing her ask about her Nana as she was of asking. The man was as dense as depleted uranium, but maybe he'd "get it" sooner or later. She'd never stop.
"I lost her to the Russians," Nick said with a sneer as they entered the interior of the massive stadium onto the grassy field. "Can't say I was sorry to see her go—the bitch did nothing but complain. Nonstop..."
"You lying bastard, I'm going to kill you." Infuriated, Hannah swung around to face him. She drew back her fist to deliver a punch that'd break his lying face.
Wide-eyed, Nick skidded to a halt. He threw up his hands in a defensive gesture. "Relax," he drawled, obviously pleased to use her own turn of phrase against her. "There's a bit of a mess. I lost your grandma but I scored a consolation prize."
"What the fuck are you saying?" Hannah held her shaking fist high, barely resisting the overwhelming desire to throw the punch. She'd love nothing more than to see him bleed.
"I got your sister." Nick waved his hand toward the field.
Hannah spun on her heel. In the distance, two figures—a tall man and a slender woman—waited in the middle of the arena. The man was Drakon Kholkikos, a man with a reputation for being as ruthless as he was rich. The Los Angeles crime lord controlled a substantial portion of the illegal activity in Southern California. Kholkikos had long, straight black hair and an elegant Grecian profile.
The woman was Fiona. A surprised cry tore from Hannah. She stumbled but then recovered. Shouting Fiona's name, Hannah raced toward her sister, leaving Nick to eat her dust. Upon seeing Hannah, Fiona lit up with joy. She tried to run toward her sister, but Kholkikos caught her shoulder, holding her back. Fiona swung on him and said something, probably a sharp rebuke, but her words got lost in the sudden, deafening din.
Gunfire from multiple firearms filled the afternoon. The racket involved at least a dozen weapons and seemed to originate from the parking lot at the stadium's front. Everyone turned toward it.
The black-haired man finally released Fiona, who sprang toward Hannah. With a leap and a bound, the twin sisters met mid-air. They wrapped their arms about one another and, laughing and crying, tumbled to the grass.
"Fiona, I was so scared." Joyful tears in her eyes, Hannah buried her face in her sister's sweet-smelling hair. Tears streaked her cheeks and the joy of reunion with her twin overwhelmed.
"Me too," Fiona said, talking at cross-purposes with her sister. "When Marcus told me you'd been kidnapped, I panicked."
"Did he hurt you?" Hannah pulled back and framed Fiona's face in her hands. In the back of her mind, she worried about the ongoing firefight, but the commotion was too far off to present an immediate threat.
"Who? Nick?" Fiona shook her hair, sending her red hair flying everywhere. "No, he gives me the creeps but he never laid a finger on me."
Fiona was unharmed so Hannah moved on to her next priority. "Where's Nana? Does Nick have her?"
"I thought Nick had both you and Nana when I left Marcus, but now I'm not so sure." Fiona bit her lower lip. Her green eyes were wide. "Like I've pointed out before, Nick's always been a lousy liar. Not that it ever stopped him."
Hannah winced and bristled simultaneously at the old "I told you so" note of smugness in Fiona's voice. Yes, her sister had warned Hannah repeatedly about Nick, and yes, Fiona had been right. But that didn't make it any less annoying to hear it three years later.
Fiona took one look at Hannah's face and stopped. "I'm sorry. That was a bitchy thing to say."
"Forget about it." Hannah clutched her sister's arm, holding her tight. The nerve-jarring racket from the firefight continued from outside the stadium. If anything, it'd gotten louder—at least a dozen weapons going off. She instinctively ducked her head and stayed low for fear of becoming the target of a stray bullet.
For a split second, Hannah considered just making a run for it. If she and Fiona ran in the opposite direction of the combat, they might escape unnoticed. But no, she couldn't abandon Silver. Not ever. Determined to get a better feel for their surroundings, Hannah shot upright, pulling Fiona with her.
Kholkikos kept his distance, watching with his arms crossed over his chest. He embodied cool detachment, a man without a concern in the world beyond his ego. His smirk suggested he derived sadistic satisfaction from the distress of others.
"Go now!" Nick shouted. A couple yards distant, Nick and his followers formed a loose ring around Silver. Nick stood toe-to-toe with Ed while the rest of his goons looked on. The men radiated raw hostility. The coyote-shifter she knew only as Tyler held a pistol trained on Silver.
"Going out there is suicide! You don't pay me enough for this shit." Ed shook his head in a violent denial.
"I don't give a rat's ass what you think! Go find out what the fuck is going on!" Nick yelled, throwing up his arms in an implicit threat.
The four coyote-shifter members of his band responded faster than the human guards. They drew their weapons and headed toward the conflict. Only Nick, Tyler, and Silver lingered.
A terrible ruckus drowned out everything else—bears roared their challenge. The form
idable brouhaha momentarily stunned everyone who heard it. People froze and the sound of gunfire ceased.
"Marcus!" Fiona turned deathly pale. She ripped her arm free from Hannah's grasp and sprinted headlong toward the conflict.
"Fiona! No, come back," Hannah lunged, trying to recapture her sister, but Fiona fled out of reach and raced toward danger. Stunned, Hannah staggered and stared after her twin. What the fuck?! Had her sister gone insane? Too confused to process the anomaly, she turned toward the drama unfolding between Nick, his remaining minion, and Silver.
"Should we go after her?" Tyler asked.
"Nah, let her go. She's served her purpose." Nick waved a dismissive hand.
"What about him?" Tyler jabbed at Silver with the muzzle of his gun.
"Don't mind me. I don't want to be a bother," Silver said, performing a sideways shuffle so smooth it might as well have been the Electric Slide.
"No one asked you, asshole. If you were smart, you'd keep your damned trap shut 'cause no one wants to hear you." In a violent motion, Nick yanked an automatic pistol from his waistband.
Hannah cringed as Nick aimed straight at Silver. A jolt of sheer terror set her heart racing. For an awful moment, she believed that Nick intended to shoot Silver then and there, murdering him right in front of her.
"Nick! Stop!" she shouted, but neither man seemed to hear her. Frantic, she shoved her hand into her pocket and gripped the handle of her Glock.
"Hey, take it easy. No need for that." Silver brought up his arms in a defensive gesture and backed away.
"While this little drama is amusing, it's growing tiresome. The only reason we're here is to acquire the box." Kholkikos trod closer. He'd played the role of a silent watcher so long that Hannah had almost forgotten the crime lord was there. Startled, she swung toward him.
Neither Nick nor Silver seemed to notice Kholkikos.
"Easy? You're fucking telling me to take it easy? You've got some nerve, buddy. You show up here... Did you think I wouldn't know you've been fucking my mate?" Ranting, Nick advanced on Silver, shoving the pistol into Silver's face.
"She's my mate." Silver's face hardened into a determined mask, and his lyrical voice acquired a brassy chord of rage. His bold possessiveness sent a thrill of delight through Hannah, a primal response she didn't have time to think about.
"What? What the fuck did you say?" Nick roared with such fury that spittle frothed from his lips in a spray.
"Hannah is my mate. You're just a piece of trash loser she's done with—" Silver lashed out and struck Nick's gun arm, attempting to knock it aside.
Hannah tried to shout at Silver to stop. She fumbled with her Glock. Before she extracted it, Nick's pistol went off—a chilling crack. A red blossom appeared on Silver's shoulder. He staggered and toppled backward.
Infuriated, Hannah shrieked in pure rage. She stopped trying to draw her gun, settled her finger within the trigger guard, and discharged her weapon. The bullet blasted straight through the fabric of her favorite coat, but that didn't matter at all because her son-of-a-bitch ex had just put a hole in her favorite hero.
She aimed for Nick's head. The bullet clipped his ear, nicking off a piece, which produced a spray of blood. He cried out and grabbed the side of his head, tipping over. She fired again but it went wide, striking the grass.
"Crazy bitch! You shot me!" Nick swung on her and stared in wide-eyed surprise, unable to believe she'd finally turned on him. Hannah echoed his disbelief, but her skepticism stemmed from not knowing why she hadn't done it sooner.
"Fuck yeah, I did." She fired from the hip again, but the shot missed the mark. She cried out in frustration. It looked so damn easy in Westerns!
Nick's eyes glowed and his features acquired the aspect of a coyote as he undertook the change. A vicious snarl rolled from his parted jaws, and his lips pulled back to reveal his canines and blood-red gums.
Frantic, Hannah yanked the gun from her pocket. She had to get it drawn so she didn't waste any more bullets.
Nick lunged for her throat.
Chapter Seventeen
The bang from the discharge of Nick's pistol resonated in Silver's ears. The bullet struck him in the shoulder, a sensation like a powerful punch that knocked him back and over. The thick green grass cushioned his fall, but he landed on his injured side. The pain filled his mind like a black hole: so vast it defied comprehension.
Gasping, Silver remained where he'd fallen for an unknown period, maybe a second, maybe an eternity. Gradually, the terrible ringing dissipated and his hearing returned, but not to normal. He heard more gunfire that sounded distant... Marshaling his strength, Silver struggled to sit. Fresh pain set his head to swimming, and nausea worse than he'd ever experienced before. Double and sometimes triple visions of everything rippled before his eyes. Chaos all around—people shouted, firearms going off...
Hannah's brilliant cinnamon hair caught his immediate attention. A gray furry blob was near her, but Silver's befuddled consciousness refused to determine whether it was a man or beast.
Ultimately, it was Hannah's scream that penetrated his sluggishness. Her distress jerked him straight to crisis mode. His lover—his soulmate—was in danger.
White-hot rage rose in Silver, washing away the pain and the nausea. Riding a surge of adrenaline, he pushed upright and reached for the makeshift weapon he had stashed in his coat pocket. He grasped a drumstick in either hand, pulling the guitar string wound around the sticks taut. After the inept goons had searched him, Silver had crafted the garrote right under their inattentive noses.
In beast-man form, Nick had his jaws locked around Hannah's forearm. He was on top of her, attempting to subdue her. Gripping the barrel of her Glock in her free hand, Hannah clubbed Nick on the side of head with the butt. The blow knocked the coyote's head aside and Hannah ripped free, releasing a spray of blood. She cried out, clutched her injured arm to her chest, and rolled aside.
In the scuffle, she dropped the Glock.
Recovering from the attack, Nick staggered but stayed on all fours. He stood with his head bowed and tail low, and snarled steadily. Blood stained his muzzle and teeth, and thick strands of red saliva dripped from his mouth. He resembled the classic movie Wolfman, but had a smaller stature.
With murderous intent, Silver stalked Nick from behind, depending on stealth and speed because a frontal assault would be suicide. In his current state, Nick had a physical advantage. The other male's neck was stout and heavily muscled. The thick fur provided another layer of protection. Werewolves often fought in a hybrid form, but Silver had never witnessed any other coyote-shifter use it. When he undertook the change, he flowed effortlessly from human to coyote and back again. He doubted he could stop halfway even if he wanted to.
Hannah's gaze darted past Nick, skipped over Silver, and then returned to her ex. With a valiant effort, she dragged herself onto her feet. She extracted a small switchblade from her pocket and flipped it open.
Nick barked, the coyote equivalent to mocking laughter.
"So, you think that's funny?" Hannah asked with stinging sarcasm. "I'm going to gut you and then leave you to a slow death, and I'll enjoy every second of it." Her threat must've hit home because Nick's bark deepened to a churlish growl.
Brandishing the knife, Hannah retreated, using herself as bait. She kept her injured arm close to her body. Her limping gait was slow on the uneven turf, but her tactic worked. Nick focused on her and followed on four legs. The angrier he got, the more he sunk into a savage state as though his coyote had gone feral.
Thanks to Hannah's distraction, Silver was able to get up right behind the beast-man. Muscles bunched in readiness, he grasped the drumsticks so hard the metal bit into his palms. The copper-wire guitar strings stretched between them shone bright and pretty in the sunshine.
With a quick prayer for good luck, Silver sprang high, threw his arms over Nick's head, and jerked the ligature across his throat. Silver landed on his rival's back, so his weight drove Nick
to the ground. In an assassin's maneuver, Silver placed his knee against the middle of Nick's back and pinned him.
A garbled grunt tore from Nick. He bucked and twisted, clawing at his throat. He fought with all his strength but they were prisoner and executioner.
With an expert twist, Silver turned the sticks, tightening the garrote. The wire sliced into Nick's throat, opening a fount of blood that poured onto the grass and flooded the air with a tantalizing aroma. Silver derived a vicious rush of satisfaction over his opponent's pitiful gurgle.
"Silver, you're killing him," Hannah said, low and frantic. She seized hold of his arm and held on with a death grip.
Startled, Silver jerked because he hadn't been aware of her approach. He looked up and stared into her bright green eyes. The last of his anger ebbed. Then, he glanced down. Nick's struggles had weakened so much he was barely twitching. Blood coated Silver's hands—he wondered if they were stained.
"That's the point," Silver said, sorry over what would come next only because it might traumatize her. He hated causing her distress, but Nick could never again be allowed to harm or threaten Hannah. Determined to finalize it, Silver yanked on the garrote and shoved his knee against his rival's neck.
Nick's spine snapped with a deep crunch that was loud and conspicuous in the quiet afternoon. The commotion coming from outside the stadium had ceased. At the moment of Nick's death, Hannah shrieked and stumbled. Her scream pierced Silver's heart and turned his blood to sludge. Holding her head, she sank to her knees.
For a horrified eternity, Silver froze and stared at her in complete incomprehension. The dead weight of Nick's body was heavy, so he opened his hands. The garrote and the body crashed to the ground. Then he understood. It blindsided him like a sixteen-wheeler and sent him into a violent spin. Shit. Hannah had shared Nick's death thru the mate bond.
Thoughtless. Selfish. His action had hurt Hannah, the woman he was supposed to love. True, there'd been no other way to set her free, but Silver hadn't spared a single thought beforehand to how Nick's death would affect her. His tunnel vision had blinded him to the consequences.
Outfoxed: A Zodiac Shifters Paranormal Romance: Gemini Page 17