A distinct crack—followed directly by Dennis screaming. “My fingers! You broke my goddamn fingers!”
“You’re lucky I didn’t break your neck for pointing a fucking gun at me.”
More boot stomping. Then?—
The bedroom door opened.
And there he was.
A hulk of a man with icy-blue eyes, messy silver hair, and a bushy white beard.
He stared at me. His nose flaring like a bull.
Something dark and dangerous flickered across his face when he saw the handcuffs. The tape. All the bruises.
I stared back at him through my one open eye, my heart thundering.
“Who the hell are you?!” Dennis’s voice came from somewhere behind him, shrill and pained. “If the Del Gottis sent you?—”
That was as far as he got. The man disappeared from the doorway. The next thing I heard was Dennis’s voice, quaking with fear.
“What’re you doing? Wait, how did…?”
There came a strange growl—so deep it vibrated through the floor.
Then Dennis screamed, this time in what sounded like pure terror—only to abruptly cut off.
Grunting noises followed, strange and wet. Then... sudden quiet.
A few moments later, there came the sound of the silenced gun being discharged.Swoomp! Swoomp!Swoomp! Over and over again, until only clicks remained in the gun..
My racing heart jerked to a stop.Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no!
Guilty tears sprang to my eyes. Had Dennis shot the man who’d come looking for me? Was he dead now? Because of me?
In the next moment, I found out that most definitely was not the case.
The stranger returned to the doorway. This time completely naked. And splattered with blood—so much blood it dripped from his hands, streaked across his chest, and stained his beard.
His ice-blue eyes were even more intense. And completely focused on me.
But then he tipped his head down and rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. “Hey, Bell. Your daughters’ mates sent me to see if maybe you wanted to go to their wedding. Joining Ceremony. Whatever they’re calling it.”
7/
walker boone
BOONE
She did not answer my question about the double Joining Ceremony invite. I could not blame her.
It was a stupid way to introduce myself. But I could barely keep my thoughts straight in her presence.
Bell Winters—the human woman I’d come to check on—smelled like sugar. And baking. Like sugar cookies.
At the first sight of her, my bear had gone still. Attentive. Something clicking into place that I’d never felt before.
The only reason—and I do mean the sole reason in the goddamn universe—that I took my eyes off her was because I had to go kill that scumbag ex-husband of hers.
