“You don't want to make me your enemy, Gypsy.”
“We have nothing else to say to each other, Fang. Other than that, you will be hearing from my lawyer.”
A pop shattered the window on the other side of the room, and I moved without thinking, just as gunfire sounded from the courtyard outside. I slammed Gypsy down on the floor, using my much bigger body to shield hers as shouts started outside.
There was another gunshot, even louder than the first.
Someone had attacked us.
“Stay here and stay down!” I hissed into Gypsy’s ear, pressing a kiss to her cheek before I could think better of it. “Stay down.”
Climbing to my feet, I turned towards the door.
Someone had just declared war.
* * *
There weretwo bodies lying on the tarmac of the compound. One I didn't know: a rough looking man with an unkempt beard and half his head missing, thanks to a shot that had penetrated his left eye and exploded out the back of his head.
Monster's work. I would put money on it.
But the second man I knew.
The Judge lay bleeding on the ground, his eyes wide, but he wasn't dead. His chest rose and fell as he sucked in great heaving breaths.
“You hurt?” I stood over him. I could already see that he was hurt, but I felt the need to ask anyway. The guy was winded, but I couldn't tell whether the blood that soaked the front of his white shirt was his or someone else’s. You never knew with him.
“Been shot,” he growled at me as he sat up, his hand clutching his shoulder where fresh blood squirted through his fingers. “Hurts like a son of a bitch.”
I chuckled. “Stop whining, it doesn't look that bad.” The words died on my lips as someone brushed past me.
“Here let me look.” Frowning, I watched as Gypsy knelt by his side.
The woman was incapable of doing what she was told. I was pretty damn sure I had told her to stay where she was and keep her head down, and yet there she was running straight towards a bleeding man she didn't know.
“I thought I told you…”
She threw a look of disgust over her shoulder, silencing me.
“It's a through and through, but you are going to need to go to the hospital, get some shots and get stitched up.” Her full attention was on the man at her side. Her hands worked over his shoulder furiously. There was something about her manner that made me pause. It was almost like she had done it all before.
A bar manager who knew how to patch up a gunshot? Gypsy was an enigma. And the more I was around her, the more I realised I knew absolutely nothing about her at all.
“No hospital,” The Judge hissed, his eyes flashing in her direction. “And don’t do that again, it fucking hurt.”
Gypsy patted his shoulder, ignoring his warning totally. It would have made me smile if it had been anyone else. But I didn't like the way he was looking at her. The warning in his eye was clear.
I cleared my throat and his eyes lifted to me. “Ah, this is the one huh?”
I didn't need him to elaborate. I just nodded.
“You’ll live big fella, but let's get you inside so I can pack this properly.” Her eyes scanned the ground and then found my face. “He's a friend of yours, yes?”
I nodded.
“And the other one?”
“Not a friend.”
