Six Months (29 page)

Goatee looked pissed, as if I’d done it on purpose. He grabbed my arms with bruising force, and I curled them against my body, trying to stay down.

“Get your hands off her,” a belligerent voice said. “Is this asshole bothering you?”

Three college-aged guys, who had surpassed their limit at the bar, crowded around us. I’d seen these types before, always starting shit with pool sticks and getting kicked out.

“Mind your goddamn business,” Goatee spat out.

Wrong thing to say to three drunk guys itching for a good old-fashioned fistfight. They grabbed the scruff of his collar and began to pound the crap out of his face. When his shirt rose, one found the gun and exclaimed, “Holy shit!” and took it out. A few people scrambled, searching for help.

I left the crutches behind and hurried toward the laser-tag room, putting light pressure on my foot.

I swung the door open and entered a dark hallway with doors on opposite sides. I limped to the door on the right and slowly opened it. Everything was illuminated by black lights, and a fog machine made the air dense. I heard the occasional clattering of a fake gun in the distance and feet stomping across the floor from the upper level.

Three levels, Denver had said. I quickly glanced down, glad I’d worn a color that didn’t show up in the black light, although I had no idea what my hair might have looked like.

I cautiously moved through the room and hid behind a corner wall with holes that allowed me to look around.

Someone snatched my arm and I spun around to slap him when Denver caught my wrist.

“What are you doing in here?”

“Someone has Maizy. I don’t think she’s inside. He’s probably armed.”

Denver dropped his toy gun and his upper lip twitched. It was a scary look I’d never seen before. “Who?”

“Sanchez. He’s in here looking for Reno.”

Denver wiped his hand over his mouth. “Nobody ever beats Reno at this game. Look, I’m going after Maizy. You shouldn’t be in here, but if you’re one of those chicks who doesn’t listen, then make sure you warn everyone you pass and tell them what’s up.” He unstrapped his vest and it dropped to the ground. “They’ll spread the word and get everyone out without tipping him off. If you see Sanchez, scream like hell. Reno will find you real quick. You got it?”

I nodded, shocked he hadn’t just told me to get out. Denver was looking out for his pack, but his priority was Maizy. Lexi had told me that he had taken over as a watchdog—a term they used for a Shifter who acts as a protector for a child or young woman. It’s instinctual, and I could see it by the fire in his eyes.

Denver walked off and I made my way up the ramp.

Reno watched Ivy dash by and he lowered his plastic gun
. Game or not, he couldn’t shoot at a woman. The lights on the vest had become a nuisance, but that’s how the game kept score. He had this one in the bag. Denver always stayed on the lower levels to ambush those who went back to the base to recharge, so Reno stayed up top to score more points.

The layout wasn’t much different from other laser-tag places they’d been to. Reno preferred outdoor games like paintball, but the girls weren’t up for that. They didn’t like standing in the rain, and laser tag had air-conditioning and nachos. Each level had barriers and obstacles to maneuver around. The fog machine was a pain in the ass, as were all the neon-colored patterns splashed on the walls and carpet.

Reno regretted like hell April wasn’t able to join them. After everything she’d been through, that woman was a trouper, and that was a fucking understatement. She helped around the house as much as she could and spent every morning looking for rentals in the newspaper. Not once had she complained about having lost everything, not to mention the pain of her recovery. He’d had a few sleepless nights thinking about how it could have been a hell of a lot worse. There had been several nights in the beginning when she’d moan in her sleep from the pain. Reno would bring her pain medicine, but she refused to take anything stronger than ibuprofen. Seeing that was all the fuel he needed to start tracking down Sanchez—the elusive sonofabitch.

Lexi quietly sprinted to the lower level and Reno fired a warning shot, smiling as she let out a squeal. Lexi wasn’t half-bad at this game and had taken off her shoes, which made it more difficult to hear her stealthily moving around.

“Goddammit, you can’t do that!” he heard Denver complaining downstairs.

Reno took another calming breath. Something didn’t feel right in his gut, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. Maybe a man who had seen war shouldn’t be playing a game like this, or maybe it was something else.

“Shhh,” a voice said from the right.

That snagged his attention. Someone had broken the rules and teamed up. Footsteps moved to his right. Reno backed up against a pillar and spied through an opening. A red laser light beamed in and he squatted down, recognizing a tactical distraction when he saw one. That meant the other party was engaging in a flanking maneuver.

He wasn’t a fan of playing a sitting duck. Reno waited until he heard the shuffle of someone growing closer, then he knifed around the corner and fired.

“Fuck!” his opponent shouted. Jericho opened fire on Reno, but nothing happened. Then he pulled his black mask away and his hair spilled over his shoulders. He glanced down at his blinking vest, muttered a curse, and stalked off.

Trevor suddenly appeared and Reno raised his gun. Trevor shoved it to the side and closed the distance between them. “Maybe I’m nuts or having post-traumatic stress,” he whispered, “but I swear I just saw Sanchez.”

Every muscle tensed. “
What?
”

Trevor held his finger up to his lips in a “hush” signal. Reno peered through a hole in a curved pillar, scoping out the room. He couldn’t make out any movement and the noise downstairs was creating a distraction.

Reno mouthed “Where?” at Trevor, who pointed toward the other ramp that led to the lower levels.

Reno unbuckled his vest and let it drop to the floor. He stripped out of his button-up shirt and released his gun from the holster strapped over his tank top. Sanchez had made one hell of a mistake picking this location for an attack—he didn’t know who the fuck he was dealing with.

Shadows moved about the room and Reno had to be careful not to target the wrong person. This could end badly if he had to fire off his gun in a human establishment. Reno had taken out one of Sanchez’s partners during a confrontation two weeks ago when the man pulled a gun and began shooting. After that, Sanchez had taken his focus off April and targeted Reno, which was exactly what Reno wanted. It’s why he’d been avoiding the pack—he wanted to hunt him down.

Reno crept up a ramp and charged forward to cover Ivy’s mouth.

“Get out,” he whispered in her ear. “Trouble. If you see the others, tell them
level red
. Don’t stop to look back. Just get the hell out of here as quick as you can and be on standby to call a Packmaster for backup if we need it.”

Reno unstrapped her vest and Ivy took off, crouching low as she made her way down the ramp.

Reno went in the opposite direction, toward the left side of the room, gun in hand, making his way down. Only in wolf form could he easily sniff out Sanchez, but Reno didn’t have control over his wolf and might get shot, or get someone else shot. Not to mention that after shifting back, he’d be walking around as naked as a jaybird. They had to exercise extreme caution around humans since there were strict Breed laws. Everyone knew the risks of what could happen if the rest of the world found out they existed. War.

Halfway down the ramp, he did a quick scan of the room and leapt over the railing, crawling toward the back of the room. He could hear Denver hollering somewhere and the sound of laser guns firing.

He made eye contact with Austin, who quickly understood they were in danger.

Maybe it was the look in Reno’s eyes, the fact that he was on all fours, or maybe the Beretta in his hand. Austin unstrapped his vest. He was ten yards in front of Reno and all Reno could do was mouth Sanchez’s name. Austin must have been a hell of a lip-reader because his eyes sharpened and he started scoping the outer perimeter of the room.

Lexi’s wolf scurried in and skidded to a halt next to Austin. Something must have spooked her to shift in public, but she was also new and not always in control of her animal. Reno recognized her silver fur and white face with black-tipped ears. Austin mouthed a profane word and rolled his eyes as he curved his arm around her neck to keep her still.

It grew eerily quiet. Footsteps tramped overhead and Reno’s eyes tracked the movement.

Reno crouched low and ran across the room to the ramp that led upstairs. Austin remained in human form so he could control Lexi’s wolf. A good man fought to the death for his woman. Her wolf was too green and leaving her behind to hunt for Sanchez could endanger her life.

Wheeler crawled into sight and sat with his back against the wall. He pointed at a divider to the left and Reno turned his attention that way.

Reno cupped his wrist that held the gun, scanning the room. That’s when he heard the distinct click of a trigger release. Metal snapped on the plastic wall beside his head.

He hauled ass in the opposite direction and dove behind a pillar. As Reno made his way up the ramp, he heard another muffled clack.

When he reached the upper level, he flattened his back against a wall, looking at every shadow in the foggy haze. He couldn’t risk firing his gun haphazardly or the humans would hear and come running into danger. If he was going to use his gun, then the bullet couldn’t miss.

Pain sliced through his calf and he winced. “Fffuck,” he hissed.
Sanchez had a silencer
.

Amid chaos, he peered through a small opening and saw her.

April.

She limped up the ramp, her determined eyes wide and alert. When she reached the center of the room, every muscle in Reno’s body tensed like a cord being pulled taut. Dammit. She was going to offer herself to Sanchez to save his pack. Reno knew it would draw Sanchez out of the shadows and could work in their favor, but one wrong move could mean life or death.

“Sanchez, if you want me, here I am,” she yelled in a confident voice.

***

Walking up the ramp in my boot was an arduous challenge, but I finally made it to the second level. Ivy had rushed by, imploring me to get out. The blanket of fog made it difficult to see in the semi-dark room, but I kept my eyes alert. My stomach twisted into a nervous knot while I tried to decide if I was looking for Reno or Sanchez. But in my heart, I knew what had to be done to end this. Sanchez wasn’t after Reno, so I needed to lure him out to give the others a chance to get out safely.

I peered over the railing and my breath caught. Austin had his strong arms wrapped around a silver wolf and his eyes sliced over to mine. He pointed for me to get out and I shook my head. The wolf was struggling to get free and he tightened his grip, whispering into her ear. That wasn’t just an ordinary wolf—that was Lexi, my good friend.

When I caught Austin’s eyes floating up to the ceiling, I knew Sanchez was on the upper floor. Instead of crossing the room, I moved toward the walkway in the back that led to the next ramp up. When Wheeler saw me moving about, his eyes blazed, but I ignored him and kept moving.

A strange sound popped and it made my heart squeeze in my chest. When I reached the top, I decided to end the game.

“Sanchez, if you want me, here I am,” I shouted, uncertain which level he was on. I floated behind a wall and peered through one of the gaps. “Looks like you underestimated me. If this is all about pride, you’ll never get it back. You can kill me, but you’ve still lost.”

I moved around the wall and winced when my foot began throbbing. “Did Delgado find out what you’ve been up to?”

“As a matter of fact, he did.” Sanchez appeared out of nowhere and snatched at my right arm, throwing me off balance.

I let out a squeak and staggered as he dragged me to the center of the room.

“I should have done you in a long time ago, Vanilla. But I couldn’t get near your piece-of-shit trailer because of some mongrel. Got him with a screwdriver after he bit my arm, but he kept hanging around and I couldn’t get a shot at him. So I came to your shop. Never thought you’d actually come up with the money.”

“Take your hands off her.”

Reno emerged from the far end of the room. He moved through the fog like a man serving a death warrant. I noticed a dark stain on his pants below the knee and the level of fear in me spiked. He aimed a gun at Sanchez, holding his wrist steady.

“Should have known you were the one with the screwdriver,” Reno said, his voice so in control it was volatile.

“Sorry about your pooch,” he said insincerely. Sanchez jerked me closer and hooked his left arm around my torso, latching his hand on my right breast. His voice held a smile. “Have you seen these pretty tits of hers?” He placed the gun against my temple and squeezed my breast painfully.

A muscle in Reno’s jaw tightened, but he held his gun steady.

“Yeah, I thought so,” Sanchez continued. “I like that little mole right in the middle—I’d call that a bull’s-eye. You got yourself a real winner here with this one. She’s very business savvy, but it didn’t take much for her to show me her titties.”

No, I wasn’t playing
this
game either.

I gripped his elbow, pulled it up, and sank my teeth into his forearm. Hard.

Sanchez slammed the butt of his gun against my temple. Guess he didn’t hit hard enough because my teeth went deeper into his skin. “Motherfucker!” he shouted.

“Just for that, I’m going to knock out your teeth before I kill you,” Reno said in a malevolent voice, his body rock solid.

I stopped biting and chills swept over me as I looked at Reno’s cold expression. Sanchez yanked me against him and extended his arm. Seeing the gun aimed at Reno seized my heart with fear.

This wasn’t like the movies where there was a big standoff and a lot of negotiating. Sanchez didn’t have a good hold of me, so I pried back his fingers and twisted my body around until he let go. He got a handful of my hair and I yelped, kicking him in the shin. Reno surged forward and at that very moment, Trevor appeared and rushed in front of him. Sanchez fired his gun and it made a muffled crack.

“No!” I screamed.

Tiny flashes of glittery light sparked the air and I almost fainted when Trevor fell to the ground, taking a bullet for Reno.

Before Sanchez could fire off another round, I struck his arm, hoping to throw off his aim. He yanked out some of my hair during the struggle, and before I knew it, Reno was on him. He wrested the gun out of his hand, tucked his own weapon behind his back, and slammed his granite fist into Sanchez’s mouth. A tooth fell out along with a stream of blood.

Sanchez let go of my hair.

While I heard the pounding of fist to bone, I dove to the floor and smoothed my hands over Trevor’s chest.

“Trev, can you hear me? Somebody help us!”

He smiled lazily, sexily, sadly. I brushed the hair away from his eyes as my tears splashed down.