The look Kos gave Jayna made her skin crawl, and she had to fight the urge to squirm in her chair.
“I can certainly understand why a man might throw everything away for a chance to be with a woman like our she-wolf,” he said.
Liam snorted. “That doesn’t explain why Eric let those drug dealers you told him to kill walk away.”
Kostandin’s head jerked up. “What did you say?”
“He didn’t kill those drug dealers like you ordered.” Liam turned to her. “Maybe Jayna can tell us why.”
Jayna felt the full force of Liam’s gaze.Crap. What the hell was she going to say to explain why Eric had done that?
She threw a quick look in Frasheri’s direction to see where he came out on this. But instead of regarding her, he was locked in a staring contest with his nephew. That’s when she remembered how much the two Albanians distrusted each other.
Did she dare exploit that?
“Well, Jayna?” Liam prompted.
“Eric said he let them go because Mr. Frasheri told him to,” she said as innocently as she could manage. “Something about them working for us.”
Frasheri jerked his head back to look at her so fast she thought he might hurt himself. He stared at her in confusion, his bushy brows coming together to meet in the middle.
Kos pulled out a big handgun and pointed it at his uncle. “You piece of shit. I knew you were trying to fuck me over.”
Frasheri opened his mouth to say something, but Kos pulled the trigger before he got the chance. Jayna wasn’t sure if the bullet found its target because the whole room erupted in gunfire. Frasheri’s and Kostandin’s men began shooting at each other while the omegas shot at anyone and everyone, including each other.
Jayna leaped out of the chair, scrambling on her hands and knees over to where Joseph, Moe, and Chris had taken cover behind the couch. She didn’t make it more than a few feet before the sound of the shattering glass made her whole body lock up.
She threw herself flat, covering her head with her arms as something exploded. The blast was so loud, she couldn’t even think, much less figure out which way the couch was. She carefully lifted her head to get her bearings, but thick smoke swirled in the air, making it hard to see who was moving around her, who was shooting whom, and most importantly, who was winning.
Then someone grabbed her by the hair, yanking her to her feet and dragging her from the room. Her heart thumped as she caught Brandon’s scent. She growled and lashed out with her claws. They dug into something, but it didn’t seem to bother the big omega. A moment later, she figured out why. Instead of flesh, she’d shredded his heavy leather jacket.
Dammit!
Within seconds, Brandon had her out the door and was dragging her down the hall.
That’s when she caught a whiff of another scent, this one sweet and delicious.
Eric.
She fought the grip Brandon now had on her neck, trying anything to get away and ignoring the pain as he tightened his hold in her hair. But she couldn’t break loose, not without breaking her neck.
Time for a new plan—one that involved screaming her head off.
“Eric!”
Chapter 13
Becker’s heart beat a million times a minute as he and Cooper slowly rappelled down the exterior of the loft and moved into position on either side of the big row of windows that stretched almost all the way across Frasheri’s office. The glass was double paned, making it hard to hear exactly what Jayna was saying inside. But he didn’t care. She was alive, and that was all that mattered.
He lifted the slack portion of the descent rope and brought it up to wrap around the snap link on his harness, locking himself in place, then checked the tie-off point twice before glancing at Cooper to make sure his friend was doing the same. The last thing he wanted was to be so worried about saving Jayna that he screwed up a basic rappelling maneuver and ended up sliding down the rope in an uncontrolled fall at the wrong time.
He edged a little closer to the window, staying out of sight of whoever was inside but near enough that he could pick up Jayna’s words. She was saying something about him digging a bullet out of Chris. It was obvious she was stalling for time. Pride surged up inside him.
That’s right, babe, keep them talking just a little longer. Give us time to get everyone in place.
It had taken him and the rest of the SWAT team barely ten minutes to get to the loft on Canton Street. He’d been tense as hell the whole way. Every time he thought about Jayna, he had a horrible vision of her lying there hurt—or worse. He kept telling himself she was fine, that he’d know if something had happened to her, that he’d feel it in his soul. But that hadn’t stopped him from looking at his watch every two seconds and growling at Alex to drive faster.
As soon as they’d pinpointed Jayna’s location on the second floor, Gage had sent him and Cooper up to the roof. Now, they were just waiting for Gage and the rest of the team to get into place to take down the other Albanians and omegas scattered throughout the building.
