Jayden nodded, then led her toward the middle of the loud, music-filled building and the stairwell they found there. On the way up, they passed by dozens of people, an alarming number of them carrying those familiar colorful energy drink cans, glazed looks in their eyes.
“I’m the one who should apologize. Not you,” Jayden said, glancing at her over his shoulder. “I thought I’d be able to finish off the first guy, then get to the other one before he could get his weapon pointed in my direction.”
“I almost killed him,” Selena said when they reached the top of the first set of stairs and headed down the long hallway in the direction she hoped they’d find Marguerite. She’d been worried about hurting someone, and she’d almost done worse than that.
“No, you didn’t,” Jayden said, stopping to look at her. “You broke his hand and kept him from shooting me. Those bullets wouldn’t have hurt me much, unless he got a lucky shot off to my head or heart, but you didn’t know that. You could have ripped out his throat easily, but you never even squeezed. You only hurt him as much as you had to, and you kept yourself in control. The wolf inside you can make you violent, but it can’t change who you are. You shouldn’t be upset at yourself. You should be proud.”
Some of the tension in Selena eased as she realized that maybe she wasn’t the monster she’d feared. She was still considering that when she heard a familiar voice calling her name. She looked up and saw Marguerite squeezing through the crowded hallway, tears in her dark eyes.
“Thank God you’re here, Ms. Rosa. I’ve been looking for Ruben everywhere and was starting to think maybe he’d left, but a friend told me they saw him heading up to the roof with a bunch of Locos and Riders. My friend said Ruben looked really out of it. Like he was high.”
“Was he drinking that energy drink in the colorful can?” Jayden asked.
Marguerite looked up at him in suspicion, but then her eyes widened in surprise. “You’re that cop that saved Ms. Rosa.”
They really didn’t have time for this.
“Yes,” Selena said. “He’s here to help. But before he can do that, we need to know if Ruben was drinking the stuff in the cans.”
Marguerite nodded. “Yeah, I saw him drinking a couple of them. He’s probably had a lot more since then. I can’t imagine how many. There are coolers full of them all over the building.”
Jayden turned and headed for stairs, Selena right behind him. She thought about yelling back to Marguerite to call the police and let them know there was a kid about to overdose. Probably more than one. But before she could even consider getting the words out, she heard shouting coming from somewhere overhead.
Crap. The roof.
By the time they reached the last flight of stairs heading to the roof, they had to fight through a stream of humanity coming down, most of them looking freaked out and a few commenting about the whacked-out guy on the roof trying to kill himself. Selena didn’t know what they were talking about, but her insides were screaming it had to involve Ruben.
She and Jayden came out onto the roof to find more than a dozen guys standing around, laughing and pointing as Ruben walked precariously along the parapet of the roof. The men shouted at him to jump, accusing him of being a coward for being too scared to do it. Even from halfway across the roof, Selena could see Ruben was completely out of it as he moved along a concrete coping that couldn’t be much more than six inches wide. Her heart nearly jumped out of her chest as she saw him stumble over his own feet, almost going over.
Between seeing Ruben on the edge of the roof and the jackasses shouting at him to jump, Selena was already on the verge, her claws threatening to extend at any second. She fought for control, but then she saw a group of men converging on Jayden as he tried to reach Ruben, telling him to stay out of it. That’s when she stopped worrying about controlling herself and decided those assholes deserved anything she did to them.
When one of the men pulled a knife, Selena growled and tore across the roof after him. There was a thud as she slammed into the man’s chest. She felt a dull pop in her shoulder, but it didn’t hurt, so she didn’t care. She snarled at the man as he tumbled away, his knife skipping across the rooftop. Dismissing him, she then turned toward the next man. That one must have seen something he didn’t like, because his eyes widened to the size of golf balls as she leaped on him and drove him to the edge of the roof. She slashed his face once with her claws, wanting to do it again but knowing she didn’t have the time. Jayden was fighting at least ten drunk gangbangers by himself, and Ruben was barely staying atop the parapet.
Selena jumped up just in time for the first man she’d knocked down to come running at her, the knife once more in his hand. She felt the tip of the blade slice through her right forearm, instinctively knowing the stinging wound was deep. But she ignored the pain, reaching out with a claw-tipped hand so fast, it was nothing but a blur, and grabbed a wrist that snapped easily under her grip. Then she was slinging the man aside. She saw Marguerite’s wide-eyed expression as the man crashed into the doorframe the girl had just run through. Marguerite looked terrified, but Selena didn’t have time to worry about that, either.
“Get Ruben!” Jayden called out to her.
He wasn’t fighting as many men now, but the ones still standing looked furious. Something in Selena urged her to go after them first, to protect her mate at all costs. But she fought those instincts, turning toward the edge of the roof where she’d last seen Ruben.
He’d stopped dancing around on the parapet now, standing in one place, swaying back and forth like there was a breeze moving him. His eyes were so glazed over, Selena doubted he even noticed her approach. His skin was ghostly pale, and his heart was thumping like a tiny bird. Selena knew he was about to die.
His knees collapsed, and Selena threw herself forward to grab him as he tumbled over the side. She was stronger than she’d ever been in her life, but Ruben was a big kid. On top of that, he was unconscious and falling fast. She got an arm around his chest, growling in frustration and anger as his weight pulled her over with him.
She grabbed the coping of the roof with her free hand, getting her elbow locked over the edge as his weight snatched at her, trying to rip her off, too. She looked down at the pavement three stories below, wondering if she could live through the fall, knowing Ruben couldn’t.
She fought for a better grip, sure they were both going to fall, when a big arm looped around her, dragging her and Ruben back to the safety of the rooftop. She knew without looking it was Jayden. Even if his scent hadn’t filled her nose, no one else would have been strong enough to lift two people up like this.
They all thumped to the graveled roof hard. Then Jayden was doing CPR on Ruben, yelling for Marguerite to call 911, to tell them they had a fentanyl overdose.
Marguerite did as he ordered, her terrified eyes locked on Selena the whole time. Selena knew her fangs were out, but there was nothing she could do about it. She only hoped the paramedics would get here in time for Ruben, to somehow make everything that was about to happen worth it.
* * *
Ruben looked confused as hell when he finally came around, his glazed eyes darting around the hospital triage room like a man desperate to understand what was happening to him. When he saw Brooks standing beside the bed, he looked relieved.
“You’re that cop who saved Ms. Rosa the other day in school, right?” the kid croaked out, his voice dry and rough. Then he frowned, as if remembering something else. “You were on the roof, too. Fighting with the Locos and Riders.”
Brooks nodded. Luckily, Ruben had come out of the overdose with his memory intact. That wasn’t always the case. He was about to ask the kid what else he remembered about tonight, but before he could, Ruben lifted his hand to his chest and groaned in pain.
