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After a moment, she lifted her face to his. “Vaughn, you don’t need to say anything else, and I’m pretty wrecked still about what happened to the girls. So how about we shift gears a little. I mean, I don’t expect to live out this night or if I do, to make it through the next few days. Loghry has an army and we’re just two people.”
He nodded, smoothing her hair with his hand. “He’ll hunt for us and probably take us both out.”
“Then before he does, I’d be happy to locate a couple of automatic rifles and knock on his mansion door. What do you say?”
He thumbed her cheek and leaned down to kiss her. “I was thinking the same thing.”
CHAPTER THREE
The shifter’s clothes were a near fit for Vaughn. Max had been a big man as many of the werewolves were, especially the alphas.
In any other circumstance, Vaughn wouldn’t have put on another man’s clothes. But he was stuck in Emma’s house, and for her sake the last thing he wanted was to wear his blood-stained leathers and tank top.
She had a beautiful home with a dozen rooms and extensive, well-kept landscaping. He stood outside in the backyard, impressed by the grouping of shrubs and beds full of flowers. A large number of full-grown trees rounded out a solid look and would provide a lot of cooling shade during the summer months.
Halfway down the yard, he could see an owl, with a unique white face, perched in the most central tree. Vaughn was pretty sure it was called a barn owl, a creature Emma no doubt used as a familiar.
A gray-striped cat paced near the same tree. The pair of critters represented an essential element for an alter witch. Vaughn didn’t get it, but cats and owls served witches, adding to their power.
They both stared at him as though having human thoughts. Each appeared to be taking his measure.
“Hey.”
He turned at the sound of Emma’s voice and watched her cross the threshold to the backyard. She wore a light green t-shirt and her usual jeans, a great look for her. She’d arranged the front part of her long hair in a top knot again. She was a beautiful woman with creamy white skin, rich auburn hair and emerald green eyes.
She moved toward him. “Have you met Toby and Stormy?”
He couldn’t help but be a little amused. “Those names are too precious, Em.”
She chuckled. “I know, I know. But that’s what came to me when I invoked one of my first spells. You can make fun of me if you want. Sometimes, I’m plain-old embarrassed.”
“So which one is Toby?”
She inclined her head toward the tree. “My cat. I’ve had him with me almost as long as I’ve been here. He showed up on my doorstep as a lost kitten. Now he helps guard my property.” The cat, hearing his name, headed in Emma’s direction.
He could tell she was teasing about the last bit because of the quirk to her lips. Though he’d only been with her twice now, he realized she often smiled with a charming twist of her lips.
He held out his arm to her and she joined him, sliding her own arm around his waist. When he pulled her close, she leaned her head into the well of his shoulder.
So much affection flowed through his chest that he had the worst impulse to tell her he loved her.
After he’d been with her in the dressing room, he’d become overwhelmed with a profound sense of loss. He had nothing to give Emma, and they had a death sentence.
For reasons he couldn’t explain, thoughts of how he’d lost his sister had gained a foothold. He’d basically run from those feelings only to find Emma pressed up against him in the shower. He’d shed some tears, which still pissed him off. He didn’t want to get caught up in something like this, and it sucked that for the first time in his entire eleven years in Five Bridges, he was close to falling in love.
There. He’d admitted the whole damn thing to himself. Hell, he’d probably tumbled hard the moment he found her pulling boxes of flowers out of Loghry’s van that night.
Easton had sent him to Sentinel Bridge, which separated Elegance Territory from the human part of Phoenix. His boss had wanted Vaughn to bring a delivery van safely through as a personal favor to him.
When he asked Emma what she was doing, she’d told him straight out that she was saving some girls. He’d cursed Easton under his breath, then pitched in and helped.
He could still remember her flushed cheeks and the glitter in her green eyes. Together, they’d unloaded the rest of the flowers then lifted the lid of the hidden container. The sight of the triplets, drugged, unconscious, and jammed into such a small space, still burned in his mind.
After he and Emma had driven them home personally, crossing the U.S. government controlled border to get them back to their families in Phoenix, he’d been pumped. She had as well. That’s when they’d celebrated first with a few beers, then sex on his sofa.
Now they were here, knowing full well Loghry wouldn’t rest until they were both dead.
He squeezed her shoulders gently. “So, I’ve been thinking. I can’t risk going home, not now. But I have several fellow officers I trust, and I can get some weapons sent to a Crescent Territory drop point, maybe a couple of AR-15s and some ammo.”
