question. Tait eyed them with a
feral grin. “Let’s have some fun, boys. I love playing with puppies.”
“Holy fuck.”
Kellan’s mutter was lined with anger.
“Oh, my God!”
Lani’s gasp was filled with fear.
His reaction to
both was a smile he felt from ear to ear—just before he was tackled, rolled
over, and pinned to the steps with his arms spread wide. Casey’s victory scream
filled his ears, piercing his I-don’t-give-a-shit bliss, before he looked up—into
the kid’s fist.
Make it good,
Fido.
He vaguely
remembered the words actually tumbling past his lips before the blow descended.
Pain exploded through his head. Then at last, a bottomless blackness sucked him
into its thick perfection.
Chapter Four
“ Hupos o na
hupos .” Lani spat it for the hundredth time in the last half hour. For the
sake of emphasizing how high her fury soared, she repeated it for Sergeant Rush
in words he could understand. “Morons. All of you damn men. You’re half-brained
morons.”
She pushed
harder on the ice pack against Bommer’s face. The man groaned from where he lay
on the chaise upon which Rush had dumped him. A second later, he flung out a
drunken arm. “Garrhh! Unnnggh! Stop!” His arm went lax as his fingers found her
thigh. “Mmmm. Ahhh. Don’t stop.”
“Shit.” She shoved
his hand away. Well, tried to. “Yep. Morons.”
From his
position under the door frame, Rush rolled his shoulders a little. In a less
formidable man, the motion probably resembled a squirm. “I think you’ve got the
win on this one, sweetheart.”
The man needed
another glare hurled his direction for the slip on the endearment, but damn it,
the words soothed her nerves in at least ten ways. Still she seethed, “What the
hell possessed him to goad Gunter’s pack like that? What would he have done if
you weren’t there to peel them away, and convince pansy-man to call them back?
Does your friend have a damn death wish?”
“It’s beginning
to look that way.”
The dismal
certainty of his statement caused her to stare back to Bommer. She tried to
ease up on the pack, but the unconscious man reached up, clutching her wrist
like his torch in an abyss. “Don’t go. Please don’t let go of me, Luna.”
Her breath
clutched. The plea wasn’t like his other ramblings. Every syllable of it was
clear, pronounced—and desperate. She stretched a finger out from the edge of
the ice pack, trailed it across his forehead. With every inch she covered, his
tension ebbed a little more. Was he relieved? Grateful? Lost to a dream? If so,
of who? Or what? She suddenly burned for the answers as if she’d been awaiting
them for months instead of minutes—and from the looks of things, she’d be
waiting longer. Bommer began pulling in longer breaths, forcing her to call on
an old friend called patience.
“I think he’s
sleeping.”
Her gentle tone
caused visible surprise in Sergeant Rush. She shared his curiosity. How had her
anger turned to tenderness so fast?
Don’t go there,
Hokulani. Don’t even start .
But she’d
already done so, hadn’t she? It didn’t take thousands in psychotherapy bills to
figure out why. She’d felt out of control for so long. She’d been out of
control. She was not and never would be a victim, but Gunter’s scheming with
Hales Anelas was becoming harder to fight. Now, blood had been spilled because
of her resistance to the man. Gods be thanked that nobody’s injuries were
lethal, but in those moments after Gunter’s men had swarmed over Bommer like a
pack of pissed-off apes, she hadn’t been so certain. Her screams had been
shrill with real terror.
But this moment
gave her some empowerment again. This stranger, so impossibly foolish and lost,
gave her a moment of importance. Even if he was obliterated and had her confused
for someone named Luna, she’d finally done something productive in this world
again.
“I think you’re
right.” The soft concurrence came from the