“Son of a bitch.” Vic glanced from me to Kaci, then back, still holding his wrist above the level of his heart, to slow the swelling. I could read pain in the tension in his jaw, but none of that bled through into his voice. “Justus, think this through. We didn’t know you could fight. That was our mistake, but we know now. There are three of us. We can take you down if we have to, but not without hurting you. And no one wants that.” He glanced at Kaci, and I followed her gaze to see pure terror in hereyes.
She was afraid they would hurtme.
“Especially your new bride,” Vic added. “So why don’t you make this easy on everyone and just get in thecar.”
“Fine,” I growled. “But she and I go in the same car, or I break every bone I can before you take medown.”
“No,” Jaredbarked.
Vic rolled his eyes at the Southwest enforcer. “Yes. Be smart, man. They’re already married, and he’s clearly not going to hurther.”
“Thank you,” I said, and I wasn’t sure he knew how sincerely I meant that until he gave me a solemnnod.
“Not gonna lie, kid,” Vic said. “You two messed things up prettybad.”
Kaci huffed. “There’s no rule against us gettingmarried.”
“But thereisa rule against either of you coming into the Southwest Territory without permission from both your Alpha and mine,” Jared insisted. “If Blackwell presses charges, that’s one count for you, and one more in a long list for your newhusband.”
“Let her go,” I growled again, but Jared only stared right at me without releasing Kaci’sarm.
“Let her go, man,” Vic snapped. “We’ve got them. There’s no need to make this any worse than itis.”
“Fine.” Jared glared down at her. “You better notrun.”
“She’s not going anywhere without him,” Chris said with a nod at me. And the fact that even he could see that made me feel oddly optimistic about my new marriage, in spite of the fact that my bride was desperate for an annulment, and we were being taken into custody and charged with trespassing—a very serious offense in shifter circles, where territorial boundaries meant much more than the lines on a map wouldsuggest.
“Sorry about your wrist, man,” I said as Vic and Chris escorted me toward the car behind Jared and Kaci, who now walked on herown.
Vic shrugged. “Occupational hazard. Gotta say, I’m impressed. I had you pegged for a rich college boy who never got his handsdirty.”
“You had me pegged right,” I admitted. “If you add ten years of private MMA trainingto that. Which, incidentally, shifter strength has greatlyenhanced.”
Jared stopped next to a clean, ten-year-old Honda Civic, in a horrible, outdated shade of blue, and opened the back door. “Get in,” he growled atme.
“Her first.” I was half convinced that if I got in, he’d slam the door on me, then put her in anothercar.
Instead, he opened the front passenger door forher.
Kaci sat up front, and I slid into the seat behind her. “I don’t think he likes me,” I leaned forward to whisper into herhair.
She snorted. “Picked up on that, didyou?”
Jared slammed my door, then Kaci’s, and as he walked around the vehicle, he pulled his phone from his pocket. “I’m calling this in,” he told Vic over the roof of the car. Then he opened the driver’s side door, because it was one hundred and ten degrees in Vegas in the summer. Even in the parking garage, shielded from directsunlight.
Vic was already on his phone, and with the door open, I could hear both conversations, but I tuned out Jared’s to focus on what Vic was saying to Marc. “Yeah, we got ‘em, but things are…complicated.”
I couldn’t make out Marc’sreply.
“Her left hand’s sporting a piece of ice big enough to sink the Titanic, and he’s exhibiting telltale but disproportionately violent behavior in her defense.” He paused. “Bastard broke mywrist.”
The only part of that I disagreed with was “disproportionately.”
I was concentrating so hard that it took me a second to notice that Kaci was subtly, slowly inching her way toward the driver’s side of the car. Over the centralconsole.
“What are you doing?” Iwhispered.
She glanced at me in the rearview mirror and pressed one finger to her lips. Then she lifted her other leg over the console and sank into the driver’sseat.
