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Barely two steps later, I body-checked into a hella solid invisible forcefield. Bouncing back, I stopped in my tracks. The hair on the back of my neck lifted as an odd sense of foreboding filled me. Immediately, I searched the surrounding area for Lars, finding him a few feet down the sidewalk where he was rigid and unmoving.
I barely knew him, right? But Iknew.
Something was wrong. My heart pounded as adrenaline coursed through my veins. The instinct to shield him was overwhelming, so much so it overran any questioning of such feelings my brain might logically have.
Grip tightening on the handle, I stalked through the distance separating us, eyes moving around the surrounding area, trying to see whatever it was that made the very air around my grumpy angel so… timid.
My grumpy angel?a voice in the back of my head whispered. I ignored it in favor of more pressing matters. Like the fact that he, in fact, seemed suddenly timid. A word I would have thought was not in his vocabulary.
He’d been feisty as fuck since I laid eyes on him. So this was new.
Again, you’ve known him for like an hour.
I don’t know who the hell is in there whispering all this shit, but, bro, it ain’t helpful.
“Lars,” I said, stopping beside him.
He said nothing, as his Adam’s apple bobbed, and his gaze remained fixed across the street. Following his stare, I watched someone step out of a car parked at the curb. The bang of his car door made Lars flinch, and I frowned.
“Hey,” I said, voice soft.
His eyes whipped to me and widened as if he’d forgotten I was even there. Rude.
“Let’s go inside,” he said, pivoting from the man jogging across the street.
“Lars.”
Everything about him changed again, the energy around him tightening so much I practically heard it shatter like glass. His pale skin leeched the color it did have, leaving him paper white, almost like a ghost.
My eyes snapped to the man as he stepped up onto the sidewalk.
“You know him?” I asked out of the side of my mouth.
“No.” A simple word. But, damn, had that reply been loaded.
The adrenaline already soaking my veins started to buzz as if it were alerting me to this newcomer’s presence, as if it were telling me to beware.
“Let’s just go,” Lars said, his voice almost pleading.
“Yeah, okay,” I said, stepping back so he could go forward and I could follow. The need to put my body in between his and this new guy’s was almost like an extra heartbeat in me.
Protect. Protect. Protect.
Lars took one step, and the man lunged, his hand clamping around the back of Lars’s arm, pulling him back. “I know you heard me call for you.”
Lars sucked in a breath and tried to pull away, but the man dug his fingers in deeper.
My hand shot out, fingers locking around this asshole’s wrist like a vise. I squeezed until his fingers went slack, and then I yanked him away, swiftly sliding myself between him and Lars. Tossing his arm back at him, I drew myself up to my full six-foot height (actually, it was closer to six-one, but details) and narrowed my gaze.
“You understand English?” I intoned, the charm that naturally dripped from my vocal cords bowing down to the hard edge I housed but barely ever needed.
The man stared incredulously, a little anger simmering in his eyes. Eyes that were nowhere near as impressive as the ones behind me.
I shrugged. “Guess it doesn’t matter if you speak it or not,” I said, closing the distance between us so my toes bumped his. “My body language will make it clear you aren’t wanted here.”
The man’s lip curled up into a snarl, and I smiled serenely. Did he think that was scary?
“Snarl all you want, dude. I bite.”
