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Pete hesitated.
Lady Daphne moved the muzzle of the gun until it pointed at the unconscious sergeant. “Now,” she ordered.
A muscle in Pete’s jaw tightened. He pointed his gun at the ceiling and raised his other hand. “Just don’t hurt Zoe.” He laid the gun on the desk.
Without taking her eyes off Pete, Lady Daphne opened a drawer and slid his gun into it. She pushed a button on an intercom. “Leslie, darling, I could use a couple of extra hands with an unruly customer in my office. Family only.”
“Yes, ma’am,” a feminine voice answered.
“Put the sergeant’s handcuffs on yourself, if you please, Mr. Teague,” Lady Daphne ordered.
“Zoe didn’t bring cuffs with her.” Pete gave a shrug.
Stella shook her head. “She’s in uniform. I served a couple of tours myself, sir. I know there’s not an MP around who doesn’t carry cuffs with them when they’re in uniform.”
Pete tensed as if about to fight, but Stella moved her hand right over the pulse point on Sergeant Giovanni’s throat and shook her head. “I wouldn’t if I were you, sir.”
Pete pulled Sergeant Giovanni’s cuffs out of the nylon case on her belt by her right hip. He locked them loosely around his own wrists in front of his body.
Stella kept one hand over Sergeant Giovanni’s throat and squeezed the cuffs with the other, ratcheting them down tight around Pete’s wrists until he winced.
Two more athletic women came in through the office door, letting in the noise from the nightclub. Through the door, Liliana glimpsed a corridor of one-way glass with people dancing on the other side, oblivious to what was happening a few feet away. “Stella, take the sergeant somewhere more comfortable,” Lady Daphne ordered. She came around the desk, gun pointed at the red wolf. With the other hand, she picked up the black pen with the red hourglass design Pete had played with earlier.
“No!” Pete growled. “She stays with me.” He turned his back on Lady Daphne to reach cuffed hands out to grab Stella’s arm.
Lady Daphne placed her gun against the back of his head. “Your opinion was not requested.”
“You’re not going to shoot me,” Pete said, ignoring the barrel pressed to the back of his neck. “You need me alive.”
Lady Daphne chuckled. “You’re quite right, of course.” Behind his back, she bit and twisted the cap off the stylus, exposing a needle. She inserted the needle into his neck and pushed the back down before he could realize his danger. “You are needed alive, but I believe unconscious would be better for all parties involved.”
Pete tried to hit Lady Daphne with an elbow, but she neatly stepped back out of reach. As the wolf-kin dropped to one knee and fought to stay awake, Stella patted him on the shoulder. “It’s better this way, sir.”
The sound of three sets of heavy feet coming down the stairs over her interrupted Liliana’s visions. It was Lady Daphne, Stella, and another woman, Leslie most likely. They carried Pete between them.
Liliana tensed in a quivering crouch, wanting so badly to attack them. They had Pete. They were going to kill him. He would die screaming if she did not stop them. Her fourth eyes popped open against her will and assaulted her with visions of her own blood splattered all over the stairwell. Attacking right now would be a supremely bad idea. She couldn’t save anyone if she was dead.
The spider-kin huddled into her dark corner under the stairs until they passed through the door into the basement. Liliana was a fierce warrior, the daughter of three warriors, trained from childhood to fight, but she was not certain she could defeat a single widow spider in fair face-to-face combat, much less an entire nest of them. Liliana had no idea how many of the women who worked for Lady Daphne were spider-kin, but based on widow spider tendencies to live in nests of their own kind, probably most of them were.
Sergeant Giovanni and Pete’s lives depended on her, but Liliana was outnumbered and outmatched. If she did nothing, they would die. If she did the wrong thing, they would still die, and she would die with them.
She had one advantage over other spider-kin: her eyes. There had to be a moment coming up soon when she had a chance to save Pete. Sergeant Giovanni would live for a few hours yet, but Pete’s helpless body was being carried straight to Kristen, the pregnant widow spider. Liliana dove back into the vision of her fourth eyes and searched forward in time frantically.
How can I save Pete? When is a moment when I might have a chance?
The vision of Pete’s dead face overwhelmed her again, but she tried to fight past it with slow, deep breaths. She needed to see what happened in the time just before he died. She had to see when she could save him.
She still couldn’t see anything but his death.
Stella. I need to see what Stella will do in the near future.
That did it. She was able to watch what would lead up to Pete’s death.
And Kristen, what will she do soon?
With a thrill of trepidation, she found the moment she so desperately needed. It would not be easy for her. It would be terrifying and painful for Pete. But if she acted at the wrong moment, he would die and so would she.
The odds were not good that she would succeed any way she looked at it.
