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“Let’s get pizza for dinner,” I said. “We can get a couple big ones and eat them together at home.”
“How does someone as little as you eat so badly?” Char asked.
“Good genes,” I answered with a shrug. “Is that a no?”
“Anyone who says no to pizza shouldn’t be trusted,” Hayden said in a serious tone.
The easy atmosphere reminded me that the men were a group. Perhaps they hadn’t always been one, hadn’t started as one, weren’t close in the way the Quad were, but they still had created a group among themselves. They trusted each other, relied on each other, had each other’s backs.
And now I’d found a place with them as well.
The trees opened up as I hopped over a raised rock in the path. My ankle gave out when I landed, and I didn’t have more than the chance to sigh as I prepared myself to hit the ground.
Except, a strong arm saved me, pulling me against a solid chest. “You are such a disaster,” came Char’s annoyed tone.
Annoyed or not, however, he’d still saved me. I glanced up and into his face, into those familiar dark eyes, his red hair even brighter as the sun had started to set. It lit it up, and before I knew what I was doing, I’d reached up to touch the strands, a few having fallen over his face.
He froze, as though I had a knife to his throat rather than just touching his bangs. Even still, he didn’t stop me, so I brushed his hair from his face.
He really is handsome, isn’t he?It hit me then, something I hadn’t thought much about. Sure, he was attractive when he played his game, when he acted like the perfect gentleman, but now?
As surly and unreasonable as he was, I still wanted him.
I leaned closer, drawn by the sheen on his pink lips, wanting to taste them, to feel if they were just as soft as they seemed.
Before we made contact, however, something hit me. It pushed me just as pain seared through my arm and a loud bang echoed through the trees. My breath left in a rush as I hit the ground, Char along with me.
I turned my head to find Hayden above me, a gun in his hand, his gaze stoney and tracing the distance, searching. That told me how serious the situation was.
From around the car, I spotted a number of people stepping out—six, it looked like—all of them armed.
I peered down at the pain in my arm to find a red gash there, near the shoulder, clearly from a bullet graze.
Which meant my feeling that things were okay, that they were comfortable, that sense of safety had disappeared with just one bullet.
It only took one bullet to ruin everything.
Vance
The sight of six men headed our way was a very bad thing. I held a hand out, getting Kenz to her feet at the same time Char rose as well. I grasped Kenz’s hand and tucked her tightly behind me.
Tor and Hayden stepped forward, toward the men. It reminded me that those two hadnoissues with violence. Even Char lifted his chin, an edge of danger on him that I rarely saw from him.
It made me feel slightly useless. I knew basic self-defense, and I was far from a weakling, but my life had been spent gathering information and living in the spotlight rather than fighting.
“What do you want?” Hayden asked.
“The girl,” one of the men answered.
Like hell.My brain supplied the response before I had to think about it.
“Lorien wants her alive,” Hayden snapped. “If you hurt her, let alone kill her, what exactly do you think he’ll do to you?”
“Lorien’s on his own,” the man at the front said, a vicious glint in his eyes. “He hired me to send a few of my boys over for her. He said it’d be an easy job, that I didn’t need to send many. Well, seems he didn’t tell me the truth, and I lost a few of my best men on that one. Then the asshole said it wasourfault and refused to pay.” The man had a bat in his hand and twirled it like some athlete showing off before his turn at the plate. “Seems fair turnabout to make sure he doesn’t get the girl at all.”
Hayden narrowed his eyes, his hand not shaking in the least as he faced off against the man who had spoken the most. That astounded me, the way neither he nor Tor appeared thrown in the least.
They stood tall as if they weren’t facing potential death, as if that didn’t matter.
