“I passed a car driving like a bat out of hell on the way here. It must have been them. Big black SUV,” Sebastian said.
“Probably,” Nicol said. “I don’t know where they were hiding. Once I saw the red laser dot on Maddy’s temple, I yanked her ass to the ground.”
What? My hand went to my mouth as I realized why he’d almost pulled my arm out of its socket. A laser sight? On my head? I remembered the bursting window and realized I’d been less than a second from dying. Again. I imagined my brains splattered all over the diner, and I started to shiver uncontrollably.
Nico led me to the Jeep and got me into the passenger seat. He cupped my cheeks in his palms and forced me to look into his eyes. “Hey, it’s okay. You’re safe now. I promised I’d keep you safe, and I will. I need to go hunt these assholes down, or try to. Sebastian will take you home and stay with you.”
I nodded in response, unable to talk. My body was quivering so much that I couldn’t even control it. If this kept up, I wascertain I would shake apart. Nico pressed his forehead to mine, and almost instantly, I could feel a calming energy seep out of his skin and into mine. My heart rate slowed, and I was finally able to control my body better.
“How are your wounds?” Nico asked.
My sides were sore, but not painful. “Fine. I didn’t rip out the stitches or anything.”
“Good,” he whispered and kissed my forehead. “I’ll be home as soon as I can.”
As he finished saying that, a truck came flying into the parking lot. I glanced up and saw Felipe behind the steering wheel. He leaned out the window. “What’s the word?”
“We need to track down the guys who tried to kill us,” Nico called over his shoulder.
Felipe’s face went dark. “Son of a bitch,” he hissed and pounded a fist into his truck’s door.
Nico turned to join him, and I stretched out a hand. “Nico?” I called.
He slid to a stop and turned back to me. “Yeah?”
“Be careful.”
He grinned. “Always.”
Without another word, he jumped into Felipe’s truck and they took off into the night. They headed down the highway, going the direction Sebastian had come from.
I leaned back in the Jeep’s seat, my skin feeling hot and clammy. Sebastian came around to my side. “Maddy? Are you good? You don’t?—”
He jumped out of the way as I leaned out of the Jeep and retched. The fear and panic of the last few minutes had caught up to me. I gagged and vomited all over the pavement. Finally, when what little was in my stomach had been expelled, I relaxed back into my seat. The night felt ominous and full of horror.
Relief washed over me as Sebastian drove away from the diner. I fell into an exhausted sleep before we made it home.
12
NICO
Rage unlike anything I’d ever experienced surged through me. I sat in the passenger seat of Felipe’s car, my fists clenched and shaking on my thighs. My wolf was snapping its jaws and howling, ready to break through. It was all I could do to keep the beast in check. I did not need it to come tearing out and forcing me to shift right here in the car.
I hissed out a frustrated breath through gritted teeth. They tried to kill her again. Not only that, but this time it was in public. Witnesses saw it happen, heard it. Someone probably saw the car as it ran. “Javi’s getting sloppy,” I muttered.
Felipe nodded and turned up the car stereo. He had his cell connected and had a police scanner app running on it. We could both hear the chatter of the cops, EMTs, and fire department. Apparently, the shooting had turned into an all-hands-on-deck situation.
“I don’t know if it’s sloppy,” Felipe said. “Or desperate.”
“No reason it can’t be both.”
We cruised through town, looking for the car Sebastian had seen fleeing the shooting. Felipe took every back road and alley through town, then got back on the highway. They’d probablyhit the interstate and were long gone, but we had to be sure. He’d said it was a black SUV, which was pretty generic, but all I wanted was to get my hands on them. Choke them until they gave me Javi’s location. Anything to get rid of some of this anger. So we had to try.
Felipe pointed through the windshield. “What is that?”
I leaned forward and stared off into the darkness. In the distance, and getting closer, was a boxy SUV on the side of the highway, the passenger and driver doors hanging wide open. As we got closer, the headlights illuminated more of it. The car was black, like Sebastian had said.
“That’s got to be it. What are the odds? Almost four in the morning? Who stops to take a piss and leaves their doors open at this hour?” I said, glancing around as Felipe pulled up behind the car.
