Chapter One Hundred Eighty–Three
QUINN
Flick
Damn it Charlie…
I feel Delilah tense behind me the moment the bell over the restaurant door sings with Charlie’s arrival.
“Charlie! We’ve been looking everywhere for you, ma boy, the old man says, his voice dripping with phony cheer.
Charlie’s face is a mask of fear. I can see him trying to control his reaction to the two men now carefully converging on him, but despite his valiant efforts to appear unfazed, he looks frightened as hell.
The dumbfuck, Elder Matthew’s son, smiles wide and fake, his teeth damn near twinkling in the sunlight, “The council has had a change of heart, Charlie.”
Fidgeting with his freshly bandaged forearms and holding a roll of gauze in his hands, he starts to back away until he stumbles, barely catching himself along the wall of the restaurant.
“Quinn,” Delilah whispers behind me.
Do they know how well you know Charlie?” I ask her as quietly as I can, my eyes trained on the father and son duo as they approach trembling Charlie.
“T–I don’t know,” she says. “Maybe not.”
“Stay in the car and unlock the backdoor for Charlie. Il take care of this,” I whisper.
“W–what do you m–mean?” Charlie stammers, the sweat on his brow easily visible with my enhanced eyesight.
“No!” Delilah growls. “They’re probably armed! Those weirdos always have some kind of weapon on them.”
I spin around to face her, still keeping my cars tuned into Charlie, as amile slightly at the worry in her gaze. “Try and trust me, Lilac,” I say, grabbing the back of her head and pulling her face in for a quick kiss, before I save her little admirer’s life.
Oh shut. That’s delicious.
Her breath hitches when our lips meet, and although it’s the quickest kiss shell ever get from me, that doesn’t make it any less powerful. The warm energy that sparks against my lips when they touch hers sends a pulsing awareness through me and I groan. Backing away from her, I gasp in amazement. So that’s what it feels Me… That’s how you know… Is it even possible to love someone you’ve just met? I’w think!–
yes, yes it is.
Delilah’s eyes appear glossy and dazed… even a little confused as she watches me. She touches her hand to her mouth in wonder and I
know she felt it too.
That is my mate. I know it… and soon… she’ll know it too.
“Unlock the backdoor,” I mouth and she nods.
Turning back around, I study the hunters and their movements, grimacing when I see that Delilah is correct. Young dumbfuck has a firearm in his waist band. I can see its outline and the way his hand hovers over the area doesn’t bode well for Charlie. I approach them as silently as I can from behind, praying that Charlie doesn’t give me away as I do.
1/3
Chapter One Hundred Eighty–Three
“The commell has seclided to extend an invitation of membership to you after all,” young dumbfuck says smoothly, it’s such an obvious lie that even Chatlle sisakes his head in disbellel,
“N–not I don’t think so, Chulle says, and for a moment I’m proud of the little jerk. “You guys are crazy! You turned my best friend against ime! I don’t want to be part of that, Yorie all nuts!”
“Well… It really is a shame you feel that way, Charlie, Matthew says, closing his hand over Charlie’s shoulder. “We’re still gonna need you to come with us though. We have a few things we need to discuss with you.”
I stop two feet behind them and meet Chulle’s terrified eyes. “Get in the car, Charlie. I’ll take care of this.”
Dumbfuck whirls on i
on me, his face twisted in anger until he realizes just how big I am. I guess the fact that I was a little hunched over when sitting in the car never factored in for him until, just now. It’s almost as if he does a double take before he opens his dumb fat mouth. “Stay out of this, Maximous. This is between Charlie and my family.”
“Charlie, get in the car,” I repeat, my gaze steady on the little man in front of me. The one who thinks he can threaten to breed my mate and keep all his teeth. The moment he said those words to me, I knew I was going to shake a few rocks from his mouth. Delilah distracted me from it for a moment, but I still intended to touch him up before we drove away.
“Let me go!” Charlie shouts, shoving Elder Matthew hard enough to steal his son’s attention for a moment.
ng him as he races for my car.
“Hey!” Dumbfuck shouts, reaching for Charlie and missing
I reach out too, but I catch my fish, snagging him by the back of his shirt and spinning him around like a ballerina before I send the full throttle of my fist into his grill. Now… the fact that I didn’t let go of the idiot’s shirt when I sent my knuckles into his mouth, probably made it quite a bit more painful, both for him and me, but I didn’t mind. The satisfying crack that I heard as two of his front teeth broke free of his gums was worth some ragged skin over my knuckles. Dumbfuck dropped like five hundred pound gorilla, his face splattered with blood and his head bouncing off the concrete.
Matthew screamed his son hit the pavement and I glared. “Calm down.” I snapped. “He’ll live. He’s still got his molars,” I say, as 1 kneel clown in front of the prick. The little bastard was dazed, but he was still conscious… pity, So I lean in close and say, “That’s for thinking you will ever touch my girl. And, just so you’re aware… If I ever see you anywhere near her, ever again you’ll lose more than a few teeth.” Then I rullie his hair and stand to leave.
“You son–of–a–bitch!” Matthew hollers and I hear a gun cock behind me, but I keep walking. “Til kill you!”
To my surprise, my car is already running and I send my Lilac a grateful smile even as 1 can see she’s trembling with fear. As I reach for the door handle, three gunshots sound behind me, but I pay them no mind. Keeping a straight face, I leap inside my vehicle and yell, “Get down!” Which, thankfully, both Lilac and Charlie do. As I peel out of the parking lot a cacophony of a few more bullets follow me, ricocheting off my back bumper and the rims of my tires.
“Oh my God!” Charlie screeches from the back floorboard. “Those people are crazy!”
“Stay down,” I say to both of them. “I’ll tell you when you can get up.” Then, I dial Rain and let rings once and he answers.
et the call
play over the loudspeaker as it
Talk to me,” Rainier says.
I grunt, unable to speak for a moment. The pain of my body as it attempts to push out the three bullets I was hit with, stuttering speech for a moment.
Rainier says, suddenly alert. “What’s wrong?
He can probably hear my ragged breathing, even though I know the two humans in my car can’t.
*I was just shot at, in some backwater town on the Washington Oregon border,” I say as calmly as possible. “I need you to run interference with law enforcement just in case the assholes got my plates.”
2/3
08:55 Fri, Nov 15
Chapter One Hundred Eighty–Three
you hit? Rainier’s foice is suddenly tense with worry-
“Okay. Were y
“I’ll be fine.” I answer him, and despite my warning her not to get up, Delilah leaps onto the seat next to me.
They hit you?!” she cries out, shoving my hack away from the seat and then whimpering. “Oh my God!”
“Who is that?” Rainier questions, his voice suddenly taunting. “Is that the little redhead we’ve already heard so much about?
My face flames with embarrassment and I growl. Dick Fl get him back for it. Somehow… “Yeah,” I say, glancing at my beautiful Lilac for moment. “That’s her.”
Tears are rolling down her cheeks and she’s breathing unsteadily as she watches me. Completely oblivious to my humiliation, her eyes trained on the back of my seat. Shit. It’s probably covered in blood.
“Nice,” Rainier goes on. “Can’t wait to meet her.”
“We should be there in three hours. Two if you
keeps
u put out an APB to let me slide on through,” I hiss, the pain getting a little less bearabl
“T1I have Garret put one out. Be safe and try not to scare the little human with your crazy driving,” Rainier says and that gets Delilah s attention.
“Little human?” she repeats quizzically, before turning her attention back to me.
I snicker as I disconnect the call. “He was talking about you, I clarify, choking off the last of my words as I feel one bullet drop out of hack. Fucking crazy how little it hurts when they go in compared to when they go out. It’s unreal.
We’re already back on the highway and racing back toward Port Orchard, but my vision is wavering. Although there are at least fifty miles between us and the burger joist by now, try as I might, I can’t ignore the pain any longer. My car begins to swerve. Tuck,” I shout, pulim off the highway. Then I say, “Baby, tell me you know how to drive.” Then I throw the car in park, gaze at my Lilac… and pass out.
Chapter Comments
