“K-Kit,” I stammered, frantically trying to remember the name on the fake ID I’d been carrying. “I mean... Katherine, uh, Katherine Christenson.”
“Bullshit.” Heath thumbed the safety off. The barrel of the gun moved smoothly downward, pointing at my right knee.
My vision swam. I’d seen the aftermath of a kid getting kneecapped, a couple of years ago when I’d stumbled onto the scene of a gang retribution.
“Try again,” Heath said, his tone dangerously flat. “What’s yourrealname?”
“It really is Katherine Christenson!” I squeaked, fighting my freeze response. The need to sink through the mattress and the floor below was like a living thing, squirming in my stomach.
“Sure,” Heath gritted out. “And I’m the fuckin’ Keebler Elf. Who sent you after Knox?”
The final words cracked across me like a whip—an alpha bark. The urge to spit out Adrian’s name was almost overwhelming. I clamped my teeth around it, only my freeze response keeping the word from slipping free. Trembling, I stared up at the alpha looming over me with what I hoped was defiance, but was probably just abject fear.
Heath snarled and pulled the trigger. I screamed and braced for agony as the explosion of noise deafened me.
None came.
A little puff of smoke rose from a blackened hole in the mattress, a few inches away from my leg. The smell of gunpowder joined the confusing cocktail of pheromones in the room.
“What thefuck, Heath?” Gage said, striding forward and grabbing the gun from his packmate’s hand.
My ears were still ringing, but the noise of the shot had slammed me back into possession of my body. Knowing it was stupid, I lunged up from the bed, shiv in hand, and darted around Heath. Grabbing one meaty shoulder with my left hand, I jammed the point of splintered wood against the side of his neck with my right.
“Put down the gun and let me out of this house, or I’ll stab this straight through his jugular and laugh while he bleeds out!” I yelled, my voice high and wavering.
Heath made an angry noise and reached up, wrapping strong fingers around my wrist and yanking the shiv away from his throat. He whirled and shoved me back onto the bed, where I went sprawling. Somehow, the shiv was now in his hand, rather than mine.
I bared my teeth at him and scrambled upright—ready to go for the plate, even though I knew it wouldn’t do any good. If it gave one of them a black eye, maybe it would still be worth it.
“I told you,” Gage was saying. “I think she’s just mentally ill. Doesn’t seem like you’re gonna get anything out of her this way.”
Heath was breathing hard. His forest-green gaze pinned me like a bug. “Right. Because mental cases spend their spare time making knives out of the room furnishings.”
Gage shrugged. “I dunno. Maybe they do, if they’re scared enough?”
Heath turned on him. “And what doyousuggest we do with her?”
Gage hesitated. “I mean... we can’t let her go. She saw the omegas downstairs. And she might know how to find this place, I guess.”
Spoiler alert—I didn’t.
Heath made a noise of pure frustration. “Wonderful.”
“I say we keep her here until Knox gets better,” Gage went on. “He’ll know what to do.”
So, Knox wasn’t dead, then. Pity.
But Gage was still talking. “Guess we’ll need to get some stuff for her, in the meantime. Clothes and things.”
“‘Clothes and things’?” Heath echoed in disbelief. “Did this scent match eat your fuckingbrain?”
But Gage plowed on. “Look, I know one of us has to go back to the hospital while the other stays here to watch her—but you could call that beta kid you like so much, and have him pick up stuff for her. What’s his name? Tony?”
An unexpected pang shot straight through my black and shriveled heart.
Tony, the same first name as my one-time friend. The sweet guy whose life I’d probably ruined by trying to save him from his attacker. Idly, I wondered whatmyTony would think if he could see me now.
The sad reality was that he probably wouldn’t be surprised in the least that I’d ended up like this. And somehow,thatwas the thing that broke me. With a stifled whimper, I slithered off the edge of the bed and onto the floor, burying my face in my hands.
