His fists clenched at his sides at the very idea. As crucial as this mission was, he’d cut a bloody swath through the whole damn place if it meant keeping her safe. Whether or not she needed—or wanted—his help.
He made his way toward a corner booth, determined to garner as little notice as possible. A waitress swooped in on him almost immediately. He placed an order just as an attempt to blend in, but all of his attention was focused on the other side of the crowded room.
Sia was impossible to miss, seated at a high table near the bar.
He hadn’t seen her arrive, so the sight of her dressed in a skintight black mini-dress that plunged low in front and down to the base of her spine hit him like a shotgun blast. High-heeled ebony boots completed the look, rising up over her knees.
Holy. Fuck.
To say she was hot was the understatement of the century.
Her hair was pulled back into a high ponytail that should have looked severe but only managed to make her face look that much more striking. Tonight those wide-set, sky-blue eyes were highlighted with shadow and kohl liner, the effect making them take up the majority of her preternaturally perfect face. Her lush lips were slicked with deep plum gloss and her already iridescent skin was dusted with something that made it glimmer like diamonds under the colored strobes as she threw her head back and laughed at something Marco Crespo whispered in her ear.
The bastard would’ve had to be blind, deaf,anddumb not to notice her.
Hell, she was having an obvious effect on every man in the club.
And Trygg was no exception.
As his drink arrived, part of him wanted to laugh at how easily she had reeled Crespo in. But the rest of him wanted to flip the fucking table over, march toward her, and drag her out of this place before Crespo or any other male decided to put their hands on her.
Too late for that.
His vision took on an amber haze as he idly held his beer bottle and watched Crespo’s arm go around her bare back. Trygg caught her subtle flinch, but only because he knew her lovely body so well. Crespo was too dense to notice her revulsion, and she was careful to cover it up with a saucy smile and a playful bat of her long lashes.
Trygg’s blood boiled.
How long would he have to endure this irritating act?
He had hardly completed the thought when Crespo stood suddenly, tugged a few bills from his pocket, and tossed them onto the bar. He gestured to the pack of four thugs who’d evidently accompanied him to stay behind, then he held out his hand and Sia took it, allowing him to draw her to her feet. The motion put them face to face, her mouth only inches from Crespo’s. A hot rage like Trygg had never felt rolled through his chest as his fangs punched through his gums.
No fucking way was he letting her walk out of here with that piece of shit. Letting Santino’s cousin take her out of the club was not part of the fucking deal.
But Sia was the one leading the way, shooting a coy glance over her shoulder at Crespo as she led him toward the back exit.
They disappeared and the sound of glass cracking jarred Trygg out of his rage. He glanced down to find his fist wrapped around a shattered brown bottle, blood and beer leaking all over the lacquered tabletop.
“Fuck this.” He swung out of the booth on a snarl.
Rather than stalk past Crespo’s companions, he slipped out the front of the club and rounded the building in a flash of motion. It took him a moment to find Sia. She was hidden in the shadows at the back of the parking lot, Marco Crespo’s hands roaming all over her like an octopus.
Every muscle in Trygg’s body vibrated with unleashed fury.
Sia must have caught the glow of his eyes in the dark. She shook her head at him as if she had it under control, but Trygg was already in motion.
“Get your fucking hands off her.” His deep snarl rent the night air.
He knew he was interfering with the operation, but damn it, he couldn’t help it. He didn’t care how capable Sia was of handling herself. He didn’t care how crucial this mission was, either. If the Order needed a female to act as bait for Santino or any of the scum who served him, they’d have to volunteer one of their own women.
Not his.
“I said hands off, asshole. Right. Fucking. Now.”
“Huh?” Crespo staggered around to look at him, his face twisted with confusion and anger at the intrusion. He took one look at Trygg, then glanced at Sia, his expression murderous. “You set me up, bitch?”
She stared at him coldly and took a step away.
But just as his reputation might have predicted, Santino’s dim cousin did the stupidest thing he possibly could. Pulling a gun from inside his jacket, he raised it in front of Sia’s forehead.
