Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 116662 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116662 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
“I don’t suppose Vercetti told you anything helpful,” she said, lifting a brow.
“No. We didn’t bother questioning him. He wouldn’t have given up the location of his brothers.” Isaiah paused. “He did have the option of making the pain stop by telling us something, but he didn’t.”
Further proving that, no, he wouldn’t have blabbed under pressure.
Isaiah touched his forehead to hers. “He should never have gotten to you. Let alone here, in your own home. I promised you you’d be safe here.”
Oh, dominant shifters and their propensity to shoulder unnecessary guilt. “First of all, to state the obvious, this was not your fault. Second, I’m as safe here as it’s possible for me to be. Nobody is completely safe in any one place. You never heard of home accidents?”
“This wasn’t an accident.”
“No, but I’m making the point that being inside these four walls doesn’t give me some kind of magical immunity against all forms of danger.”
His gaze sank into hers, searching behind it. “Your cat’s all worked up, I see.”
Quinley nodded. “She’s tired of me and her getting shot at. And she was fretting like crazy that you’d be hurt, too. It only made her more cranky that your mom was mad at me.”
His brows flicked together. “My mom was here?”
“News of the shooting reached your parents pretty fast. They only left here about twenty minutes before you walked through the door. They’re elated that we’re imprinting, but it didn’t make Andaya any less mad.”
“Why was she angry at you?” he demanded, clearly outraged on Quinley’s behalf.
“For opening the front door when Havana knocked.” Quinley shrugged at his baffled expression. “She was a little shaken, I think. Fact is I should be able to answer my own front door. I didn’t do anything wrong tonight. The shooter did. I didn’t put myself in danger. He was the threat. Which was what I told her.”
“And her response?”
“Tears. Lots of them.” It had been one heck of a show. “I ended up apologizing for opening my door just so that she’d stop crying.”
His lips twitched. “She’s good at making you feel bad even when you’ve done nothing wrong.”
“Speaking up in my defense, Bailey pointed out that if I hadn’t opened it, you would have. The idea that you might have then been shot made Andaya cry even harder. Which, honestly, didn’t seem to bother the mamba at all. I think she enjoyed it.”
“So, the unholy trinity took care of you, huh?”
“They did their utmost best to distract me. Out of appreciation, I pretended I didn’t know it was their game. And really, they are distracting. Have you seen the mamba and bearcat go at it before?”
He nodded. “I have.”
“I panicked at first because I know mambas are highly venomous. But Havana said bearcat shifters have peptides that make them immune to snake venom, ‘so it’s okay.’ Her words. I didn’t really agree that it was okay, considering those bites had to still hurt. But the bearcat’s just as vicious.”
“She’s just as merciless, too. Last week, they had a brawl in the Alpha’s house. At one point, she sat on the mamba’s head and then unleashed her anal glands.”
Quinley gaped. “Oh my God, that’s awful. Beyond mean.”
“Thankfully Havana has some kind of spray that neutralizes the smell.”
Quinley puffed out a breath. “I tell you, this has been the weirdest Christmas Eve I’ve ever had. Call me strange, but I’ve enjoyed it. Not the bullet-graze part, but the rest.”
“I haven’t enjoyed it.” He cupped her head, sobering. “I came far too close to having to know what it’d be like to live without you.”
“Let’s not stew on what could have happened. Let’s focus on the actual situation. I’m okay. You’re okay. Our pride’s okay. Tommaso Vercetti? Dead and gone. That’s two brothers down, two to go. Their messed-up pack is on its way out. Karma is catching up to them fast, and it’s using our pride to do it. Don’t you think that’s ace?”
“Well—”
“Me, too. I also really don’t want to talk about that pack anymore—they’ve commandeered enough of our time and attention tonight. Can we put them out of our heads for a while?”
He sighed. “Yeah. Yeah, we can do that.”
“Good. Because I’m hungry again, and Havana ate most of my snacks so I need to dig out more.”
“I’m surprised you let her have any.”
Quinley had actually refused at first, which had only made the Alpha laugh. “We made a deal.”
“Which was?”
“I’d let her have some, and she’d replace it all—with interest.”
“‘Interest’ being an additional bunch of snacks?”
Quinley beamed. “Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner. Congrats.”
He shook his head, mirth creeping into his eyes. “You’re a nut.”
She could live with that. “A nut who’s hungry, so let’s get that fixed.”
Slipping on her gloves the following afternoon, Quinley walked to the bottom of the stairs and called out, “Are you having a number two up there or something?”