Unable to contain his inner wolf any longer, Remy snarled low in his throat, an animalistic warning that would be unmistakable to even the dimmest bulb in the box. The idiot coming at him must have been at least a little brighter than that because he stopped in his tracks, his hand still behind his back.
“You might want to reconsider your plan,” Remy warned. “Because if that hand comes out with anything in it, you’re going to learn just how far out of your weight class you really are.”
The guy stared at him for a moment, then glanced at his two buddies where they were lying on the floor rolling around in pain before finally eyeing the lawyer, who was paler than his white linen suit and obviously not going to be of any help.
Shoulders slumping, the man’s hand slowly came out from behind his back, empty.
“You want to call the police?” Remy asked Gemma as he continued to keep his eyes on the third man.
“No,” she said.
Remy frowned. “You sure? These guys threatened you.”
The lawyer opened his mouth to say something, likely full of bullshit concerning the legal threshold for establishing the conveyance of a threat or some other crap that Remy really didn’t care to hear. Remy glared at the man, letting his eyes flash gold for a split second. The old man swallowed his words and looked like he might do the same to his tongue.
“I hate lawyers, so don’t talk,” Remy said. When it was obvious the man was smart enough to keep his mouth shut, Remy turned to Gemma. “You sure about not calling the police? What if these guys come back?”
Gemma’s mouth curved. “I think they’ve gotten the message. This shop and the things in it are not for sale. Is that understood, Mr. Murphy?”
When the lawyer nodded, Remy motioned with his head toward the door. He didn’t like the idea of not calling the police, but he understood Gemma’s reasoning. She wanted these people gone and probably thought he’d scared them enough to keep them away for good. He hoped she was right.
But as the lawyer and the uninjured thug helped the other two jerks off the floor and out the door, he couldn’t miss the angry looks on their faces. They’d been embarrassed, and they were pissed. Remy had a bad feeling this might not be the last time he saw them.
Then he caught sight of Triana standing by the door, watching the men hobble out. She hadn’t said a word or even moved the entire time the confrontation had taken place, but now her heart was thudding like a drum and she was breathing fast. She was scared to death, and if the way she was looking at Remy was any indication, what she’d just seen him do likely had as much to do with her fear as the fact that a bunch of lowlifes had threatened her mother.
* * *
Triana decided she must be in shock. She wasn’t even sure how she’d gotten upstairs, other than a vague recollection of Remy steering her that way.
She hadn’t even realized Murphy was at the shop until Remy had tightened his hold on her hand and practically dragged her there almost faster than her feet could move. Triana’s stomach had clenched the moment she’d seen that creepy old lawyer and his scary friends. The fact that they were there trying to intimidate her mom was obvious, not to mention terrifying. Those three men were big, and they looked like they were eager to hurt someone.
“Do you want me to make you something to drink?” Remy asked softly as they sat down at the kitchen table. “Tea, maybe? Or something stronger?”
Triana shook her head. “No, I’m okay. I just need time to process everything. It all happened so fast.”
Fast was an understatement. One moment, her mother had been talking about the lawyer making an offer for the shop and everything in it, and the next, Remy was beating up Murphy’s goons. The entire thing couldn’t have lasted more than a minute, but while Triana had been freaking out, her heart thundering in her chest as she tried to understand why they hadn’t called the police, her mother had acted like a brawl in the middle of her shop wasn’t a big deal.
After Murphy and his crew left, her mom had gone about her business while Triana stood there gaping like a fish out of water, saying she was heading out to attend an emergency meeting of the local shop owners about coordinating preparations for the storm in the event it turned in New Orleans’s direction. Then her mother gave her and Remy hugs and told him to bring his friends over for dinner tomorrow night, before flipping over the closed sign and walking out.
Triana tucked her hair behind her ear with a trembling hand. “Are you sure it was safe to let Mom go out there on her own? What if those men are waiting somewhere out there?”
Remy reached across the table and took her hands in his. She couldn’t help noticing how small hers looked compared to his and that they’d stopped shaking the moment he touched her—as if he was some kind of security blanket she liked to hold on to.
Triana cringed a little at that admission. She might work for a crime lab that supported the Houston Police Department, but clearly she wasn’t built for tense situations. She’d been worthless down in the shop.
“Those men are currently on their way to the nearest emergency room,” Remy assured her. “They have no interest in anything beyond pain relief at the moment.”
Triana supposed she could believe that. She was pretty sure she’d heard bones break when those two thugs had tried to get in Remy’s way. She had no idea how he’d done it, but maybe it had something to do with his SWAT training. Hopefully those goons had been scared off for good. The idea that they might come after her mother at some point when Remy wasn’t there scared the crap out of her.
Regardless of what Remy said, something told her there was a good chance those men, or others like them, would come back. And she and Remy would both be going back to Texas soon.
“All that stuff about buying the shop is BS,” she said quietly. “While I’m sure Murphy and whoever he’s working for would be thrilled to get his hands on this place—it’s worth a thousand times what Mom’s family paid for it back in the day—the offer to buy it is about the necklace my father wore. I guess they thought she’d take one look at the amount on the check and forget about taking the necklace with her when she moved.”
Remy gently caressed her hand with his fingers. “But you knew your mom wouldn’t sell, right?”
Triana nodded. “Deep down, yeah. This place has been in her family for a long time. It’s where all her memories are, especially those she made with my dad.”
She smiled as she thought about the conversation she and her mother had earlier, when she’d told Triana she’d fallen for her father the moment they’d met.
