“We face our threats, not turn our back on them,” Duron said.
“Hmm, but not in the restaurant’s vicinity.”
The restaurant was in a relatively built-up part of town, but one advantage Beaumont could see was the huge number of trees blocking vision from businesses that were closed or homes, where most decent people would be sleeping. With that in mind, Beaumont headed for what looked like an empty lot, although it was likely part of a garden area for the restaurant itself. But there was a decent enough sized piece of land that was shaded from direct view from houses and the road, by other trees. It was possible that people in neighboring houses might report any sounds of violence to law enforcement, but if the Devil was active in the area, it was unlikely.
Slipping his hand around Duron’s elbow, Beaumont sauntered along as though the two men, and their friend, were on a casual night out. The air was warm enough, and the night was quiet as they stepped off the pavement and into the grassed area. The trees muffled even the noise of the restaurant. There was a part of Beaumont that wished he and Duron were on a date—it wasn’t something he’d done in as long as he could remember, and he doubted Duron was the dating type, but as they waited to be accosted, Beaumont thought it could be a fun thing they could do together.
“Hey up! You there.” The pidgin words were guttural, but spoken with the authority of a man who was used to being listened to.
Keeping hold of Duron’s arm, Beaumont swung around. “You talking to us?” He asked in Spanish. “We’re just walking here.”
“Give us your wallets, keys, and cell phones, and no one gets hurt.”
“We’re being mugged?” Had they gotten the wrong idea about the two men in the bar?
“I knew I shouldn’t have worn this shirt,” Wyatt grumbled in English. “What if we don’t want to, ha?” He addressed the men in their own language. “We’re not doing anything, just wandering around looking for our friend, the Devil. You know him? You know the Devil?”
Beaumont really wasn’t sure what Wyatt was doing, but the name had a definite effect on the two would-be muggers. There was some muttered conversation between the two men—too fast and too low for him to catch, but Duron growled.
They’re not sure if we know the Devil or not. One man’s worried that the Devil is nearby, in which case he wants to go back to the bar. The other man, in the blue top, is insistent the orders were to take us out because we’re a threat. They don’t say what to.
The mind link had its uses. Duron clearly had better hearing than Beaumont. “I’m not hanging around here.” Beaumont stuck with the Spanish because it was one of the languages he was fluent in. “You’re not having my wallet, keys, or anything else, and if you come near me, I’ll knock your fucking head from your shoulders. Piss off back to the rock you crawled out from under.”
The insult was clear and had the desired effect. The two men charged, yelling curses of their own. Beaumont went to run forward, but Duron pushed him back.
“What are we meant to be doing with these two?” Wyatt yelled as he evaded the punch of one man, and then grabbed his arm and twisted it around the man’s back.
“We should just kill them now.” Duron had the blue shirted man in a similar hold. It was over so fast. Beaumont hated the idea his mate was a trained killing machine, but he had to admit the training had been effective.
“We can’t kill them. We need another lead.” Beaumont tilted his head as he heard the wail of a siren. Someone from the restaurant, or one of the houses nearby, clearly didn’t have a problem with alerting the authorities.
“Give me your one, quick,” Wyatt said in flawless Russian, shuffling to one side, his captive in a headlock as he reached for the man Duron was holding onto.
“What are you doing?” Duron handed his captive over without argument, switching to Russian, too.
“Hopefully, getting arrested.” Wyatt wiggled his eyebrows. “What better way to infiltrate the Devil’s organization? Tell Kylo and his brothers to leave me in the cells at least overnight. Now scat. Get out of here. I’ll be in touch, Duron. Plan B, yeah. You know how. Get out.”
“Wait, what?” Beaumont barely got his words out, and Duron had picked him up and was running with him back to where they’d parked the jeep. Seconds later the jeep was hurtling down the road, in the opposite direction from where the sirens were coming from, leaving Beaumont still stunned at the residual feeling of Duron’s hand in his pant pocket when his mate had picked out the keys.
“What the hell just happened back there? What on earth is Plan B?”
“Common tactic.” Duron shrugged. “You must have them in the council guard training. We change languages into something the attackers are not likely to understand to better facilitate the change of plans we were making on the fly. I doubt those two knew Russian.”
That was true. Beaumont nodded.
“Plan B is Wyatt’s way of letting me know he’ll try to infiltrate the next level of the Devil’s organization. He’ll leave a series of coded messages on my cell phone every two hours from tomorrow morning, if he doesn’t come back to Putney’s house before then. If I don’t hear from him at the designated times, then I go tracking him because it means he’s in trouble. Simple.”
“Simple. Shit.” Beaumont snorted. “Right, and what’s with you pushing me back when those two men rushed us? I’m quite capable of protecting myself, you know. You saw my animal form.”
“That’s simple, too.” Duron took his eyes off the road long enough to flash a grin in Beaumont’s direction. It was uncanny how much that simple change in facial expression totally changed Duron’s look. “Wyatt and I would be quicker dealing with any threat. That’s how we’ve been trained.”
“And,” Beaumont prodded. Somehow, he didn’t think that was the only reason.
“You were the one who told me to go with my instincts with you. My instincts told me to protect you so I could get you home.”
“Okay,” Beaumont said slowly. “Any particular reason?” Although he had a pretty good idea. The scent of Duron’s arousal filled the jeep and making Beaumont light-headed.
“It’s sex time now. We have till morning.”
