“You shouldn’t poke your nose where it doesn’t belong.” He plowed a fist plowed into Liam’s stomach.
Nik flashed, grabbing theskatá,and flung him away from the groaning, doubled-over lad. Shaven-head hit the asphalt with a hard thud, and he lay there unmoving. Nik pivoted and punched the bulky one rushing him straight in the face, then put himself in front of Liam.
“Why are you hasslin’ the boy?” he added a compulsion to his cold tone.
“A fucking homeless thinks to take us on,” Bulky snarled, swiping the blood from his nose. He whipped out his Glock, eyes flat. “I’m gonna kill you, and no one will care.”
Faster than the humans could track, Nik moved, twisting the goon’s arm behind him, popping his shoulder. His pained shout ricocheted in the air.
“Talk, or I break it.”
“Fuck you—”
Nik rammed him face-first into the wall, another howl tore free.
“What the hell is taking you two so long?” a familiar, suited figure snapped, storming closer.
Nik tossed the moaning goon aside.
“I don’t believe it. You two let a filthy homeless man overpower you?”
Well, well. The mafia thug himself. Yeah, Nik had done some deep-down digging about this shithole. He hadn’t said anything to Shadow, didn’t want to worry her. But thisskatáwas steeped deep in the darker side of life with his money laundering and drugs biz.
Enzo’s angry dark eyes locked on Liam, who stood near Nik. “You’ll regret this, boy.”
“I did nothing—”
“Breaking into my office. Prying?” he snapped.
Nik stilled.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Liam muttered.
Enzo’s dark gaze became brown ice. “I’m gonna hurt you so badly, you’ll never lift a finger again for a long while. Let’s go.”
“You can’t threaten me.”
“I can do whatever I want. No one cares about you.” The human pulled out a gun with a silencer. “Move your fucking ass.”
He didn’t seem to care Nik was there. Clueless dick.
Liam suddenly slammed into Enzo and spun around.
Dammit! Nik shoved Liam aside, and a thwack sounded.
The boy stumbled back, a pained grunt escaping him. Shit.
Unable to use his powers, Nik leaped across and grabbed Enzo, slamming him head-first to the wall. The gun fell in a thud, and the human groaned. Nik twisted his hands to the back, summoned some twine, and secured Enzo to the drainpipe. The need to deal out retribution garroted Nik by the throat, and he hated that his fucking hands were tied by his Guardian’s oath.
He pivoted to the boy.
“Liam!” Shadow cried out, racing toward them as Nik knelt and scanned him. “Oh, god, oh, god!” She fell to her knees and lifted his blue t-shirt, revealing the seeping lesion on his side. “He’s been shot.”
“Let me go, you fucking piece of garbage!” Enzo snarled, a string of deadly promises flying free.
Nik ignored him and crouched near the lad, scanning his injury. “It’s a flesh wound,” he said, feeling his mate’s pain. “The bullet grazed him.”
His body blocking Enzo’s sight, Nik laid his palm over the seeping injury and let his power coalesce into the wound. The bleeding stopped, and the skin knitted together.
