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“I have to get inside.” The paramedic grabs a bag and leaves.
“How bad is it in there?” Lavinia asks, reaching for a sheet and wrapping it around her shoulders.
“Bad,” Keenan replies. “We need to get you out of here in case there’s another bomb.”
She shakes her head, then groans, her fingers going to her temple. “I need to stay.” She slides off the stretcher. When she wobbles, I steady her.
“I don’t think you’re in any condition to go out there, mayor,” I say gently. “You’re injured and wearing a bedsheet.”
“Eventually someone will put two and two together,” Keenan adds, glancing out the front window of the ambulance. “You’ve kept your shifter heritage quiet for a reason. If that paramedic doesn’t out you, running around in this mess half naked certainly will.”
She sits heavily on the stretcher, her shoulders bowing. “Of course, you’re right. I’m not thinking.” She lets out an annoyed growl. “It was so stupid of me to shift into my lynx, but the instinct was too strong to ignore.”
“It probably saved your life.” Keenan scans the crowd gathering outside the ambulance. “You should get out of here before you’re exposed.”
“I need a phone.”
Keenan hands her his phone. “Here.”
She opens his messenger app and taps out a message. Without looking up, she says, “How do you know this was an ASHRA attack? So far, they haven’t done much more than set fire to a warehouse in New York.”
“So you know about that.” He crosses his arms over his chest. “My brother is the lead detective on the New York case. There was also a dead shifter in that warehouse and anti-shifter messages painted on the walls. ASHRA has been escalating for months. They claimed responsibility for this bombing seconds after detonation.”
Lavinia’s face pales. “They’re really declaring war on shifters?”
“It would seem so.” Their gazes meet and an understanding seems to pass between them.
A loud banging on the back of the ambulance startles us from further conversation.
“They’re here for me.” Lavinia stands, the sheet wrapped tightly around her. “Vanessa, you need to get out of here too. If there are more members of ASHRA out there, you and Keenan could be targets.”
Keenan pushes the back door of the ambulance open enough for Lavinia to slip out into the arms of her security detail. “We’re right behind you.” We watch as they whisk her into a waiting vehicle. Keenan turns to me. “You ready to get out of here?”
I’m about to give him an emphatic yes when what feels like a giant fist squeezes my chest. I can’t find the breath to answer. I cough, bringing my hand up to rub my chest, trying to ease the pain, but it gets worse.
I gasp, trying to drag air into my lungs. I look at Keenan for answers. He stares back, his face crumpling with horror.
What’s happening to me?
Spots swarm my vision and I reach for him. The last thing I feel as my legs collapse are his arms closing around me, his voice calling to me. “Vanessa!”
Chapter 35
City of Angels
KEENAN
Time slows as I realize something is wrong with my mate. She clutches her chest, her eyes frantically searching mine as her face drains of blood. Her eyelashes flutter and she collapses.
“Vanessa!” I shout her name, catching her and lifting her onto the stretcher as I try to determine what happened to her. “Vanessa, wake up, sweetheart.” I pat her cheeks, panic threatening to overwhelm me.
Pull it together, brother. You need your wits about you if you want to find out what’s wrong. Lennox’s voice sounds in my head.
I try to shake him away, but Lock jumps in, Vanessa is injured. What happened?
Goddam mate-bond. My brothers felt the moment she collapsed and are nearly as worried as I am.
“I don’t know what to do,” I mutter.
