Ramon sat up straighter in his seat. “What’s wrong?”
“Mason is here with two of his friends,” she said quickly. “They’re drunk.”
Ramon let out a stream of curse words in Spanish. “Are you still at work?”
“Yeah, my manager, Lorraine, told them they had to leave the salon and now they’re out on the street shouting for me to come out.” She dropped her voice and spoke rapidly. “I’m surprised they listened to Lorraine because she’s human. Mason hasn’t got much respect for humans.”
Mason didn’t have a lot of respect for anyone, Ramon thought, but he kept it to himself. That wouldn’t help her right now, and heneededto help her. He cursed under his breath.
“We’ve got an active shooter situation and he’s in a school so it’s pretty urgent.”
“Oh, my God.”
“Yeah. I can’t leave right now.” He raked a hand through his hair. “You know I’m the sharpshooter on the team, so they might need me.”
“No, of course,” she said. “I wouldn’t expect you to leave something like that. I just, I didn’t know what to do, that’s why I called.”
Fuck.
Ramon hated that he couldn’t be there for his mate when she needed him. Mates came before all else, but they were talking about the protection of children. He couldn’t walk away from something like that, no matter how much the shifter in him wanted to go charging to help his mate.
“Has he threatened you?” Ramon asked.
“No, not really. He’s just been abusive.”
Damn it. Happy as he was that Mason hadn’t escalated as far as threatening, if he had threatened her then she could have called the police, but otherwise, there wasn’t a lot they could do.
“If he does, I want you to call 911, okay? Whatever you do, don’t go out there to talk to him. If he’s drunk and with his friends, you don’t know what he’s capable of. Remember, he hates me, so right now that might mean he probably hates you by association. As soon as I’m done at the school, I’ll come straight over.”
“Okay, I’ll let you get off. Talk to you soon.”
“Bye, babe, and remember, if at any point you are afraid for your safety or the safety of anyone else in the salon, you phone the police, okay?”
“I don’t think it will come to that. I’ll speak to you soon. Love you.”
She disconnected.
“Goddamn fucking shit!” Ramon exploded. “You guys hear all that?”
“Yeah,” they all murmured in unison.
“That brother sounds like a piece of work,” Flint said. “Look, I’m sorry. If we could spare you…”
“You don’t even need to say it. I know how important this is. It just sucks that I can’t be there for her. I’ve only been mated for a couple of days, and already I’m dropping the ball.”
“You can’t look at it that way,” Gray said. “I’m sure your mate understands how important your job is.”
“Yeah, doesn’t helpherthough, does it?”
It wasn’t even as if there was anyone that Ramon could call to go to her aid. He hadn’t told his parents about the mating yet, but his father hated the Brown family so much, he suspected they would react in a similar way to how hers had. Not for the first time, he wished they could just put the past where it belonged and get along.
“We’re here,” Flint said. “In the zone, people. We do this one by the book, just like we planned. Room by room, floor by floor, slowly and methodically. Sorry Hawk.”
Ramon waved away the apology. He switched his cellphone to silent, then a moment later they were all peeling out of the back of the vehicle with their weapons and jogging towards the barricade that had been set up by the local police. Local cops had been first on scene and immediately called for the FBI’s assistance. Flint headed over to speak to the officer in charge while the rest of the team awaited instructions.
“She’ll be all right, Hawk,” Kit said as they waited for Flint.
When the team had to split up into pairs, Kit was Ramon’s partner, so he’d spent more time with her than with any of the guys and as a result, was probably closer to her than anyone else on the team. He heaved a sigh.
