Dread seemed to sink into every bone in Tate’s body, but this wasn’t the time for him to rush in. If Gideon realized that she had backup so close, he could shoot her out of spite. Tate couldn’t risk that. But, fuck, it was hard to just stand there and do nothing.
“How did you find me?” Gideon asked her.
“We had a long talk with Enrique and Gavin,” she replied. “Two very brainwashed people, I must say.”
She looked as cool and composed as she sounded. Tate knew it wasn’t forced. He felt no panic from her. Only impatience and a sense of battle-readiness. He wondered if, sensing Tate’s rage and dread through their bond, she’d guessed that he was nearby.
“Are all your ‘kin’ that way?” she asked Gideon.
“I didn’t brainwash them. Didn’t need to. Their hate for shifters was already there. I just … nurtured it a little. Now come on, you and I are going on a little walk. You’re my ticket to getting away from here safely.”
“I’m not going—”
Gideon shot her in the shoulder, and red-hot pain blasted down the mating bond. If Luke hadn’t right then grabbed onto him, Tate would have charged at that motherfucker—common sense be damned. His cat raged and snarled and just about lost his mind.
“You won’t help your mate if you rush over there,” Luke quietly hissed into his ear. “Right now, Gideon needs her as a hostage. He won’t kill her. But he might if he realizes he’s cornered.”
Tate gritted his teeth, reminding himself that his brother was right; that he himself had had the same thought only moments ago. But it was hard to be rational when Havana was injured and in pain. This was his mate. His other half. His better half. And hadn’t she taken enough fucking bullets lately?
Tate held up a hand. “I’m fine,” he ground out, his voice low. “You can let go.”
Once his brother released him, Tate poked his head around the corner. Fury blasted through him at the sight of the blood staining the sleeve of her long-sleeved tee.
“There’s no way you’ll get out of here safely, Gideon,” she said, a note of pain in her voice—a pain that pulsed down their bond. “You know that, right?”
“What I know is that you seem to matter very much to the Olympus Alpha male,” said Gideon. “I’m guessing that your claiming bite is from him, because I can smell him on you. That must make you his Alpha female. Which means not one of those damn pallas cats will do anything to risk your life.”
The male at Gideon’s side cleared his throat. “Sir? There’s a bearcat by the stairs chewing on a shoe.”
Looking further along the corridor, Tate saw Aspen’s bearcat sitting there, looking adorable and harmless and utterly indifferent to all that was happening around her.
“Can’t say I give a shit, Earl,” said Gideon, keeping his gaze on Havana. “Before we leave, I don’t suppose there’s a chance you didn’t free my assets, is there, Miss Ramos?”
Furious, Havana felt her lips thin. “The word you’re looking for is ‘people,’ not assets,” she said, putting pressure on her aching wound, not a real fan of blood loss. Her devil was pacing, worried and enraged. Only the knowledge that their mate had to be close and quite simply needed an opening kept them from panicking. “As for whether I freed them, why don’t you go check?”
“Um, sir, the bearcat’s now hitting a mean looking snake with that shoe,” said Earl.
Gideon’s brows snapped together. “What?” He tracked his friend’s gaze.
Havana acted fast, whipping up her arm and knocking the gun out of his hand. Several things then happened at once.
The bearcat crashed into Gideon, knocking him down.
The mamba rocketed at Earl and sank her fangs into his throat with a vicious hiss.
Tate and Luke raced around the corner and along the corridor … just as Gideon grabbed the gun that had fallen to the floor. He fired at Havana, the fucker. But the bearcat chose that moment to throw herself at Havana and knock her down, taking the bullet with a pained growl.
The son of a bitch might have shot at Havana again if Tate hadn’t then kicked the gun out of his hand and sent it skidding along the floor to Luke, who promptly picked it up.
Relief flooded Havana at the sight of her mate, alive and uninjured. She pressed hard against the bearcat’s wound, unbelievably grateful that it wasn’t fatal. “Bailey, take out my cell phone and call Sam.”
Having shifted back to her human form, Bailey crouched beside her and did just that.
Gideon looked up at Tate, a cruel smirk shaping his mouth. “So glad you could join us.”
“I highly doubt that,” said Tate, menace etched into every line of his face. “Baby,” he called out without moving his eyes from the wolf, “how are you and Aspen doing?”
“Our injuries aren’t fatal, but they hurt like a mother,” replied Havana.
“I just called Sam,” Bailey informed him. “He’s on his way.”
“Gideon,” began Earl, his voice shaky, “I think … something’s …”
“You’re dying, dude,” said Bailey. “And I’m delighted to tell you that it’s gonna hurt a lot.”
Gideon’s eyes dropped to the gun Luke held. He lifted a taunting brow at the Beta. “Well? Aren’t you going to shoot me?”
Luke frowned. “Why would I do that?”
Tate cocked his head, staring at the wolf. “You’d thought we’d kill you straight off? Why? I warned you when you called me that you’d die hard. It wasn’t an empty promise. You should have heeded it. You didn’t. You should have believed me when I swore that I’d find you. You didn’t.” Tate took a single step toward him. “And you really, really shouldn’t have shot my mate. She’s taken enough bullets because of you. So I think it only fair that she gets to be the first to hurt you. You good with that, baby?”
“Oh yeah,” said Havana, taking the gun from Luke. She glared down at Gideon, who finally looked nervous. Yes, it was occurring to him that he didn’t have a way out of this.
Gideon’s eyes slid to the barrel of the gun as she aimed it at him. He swallowed. “Wouldn’t you like to know where the other loners are who were auctioned off?”
“You know where they all are?” asked Tate.
“I chipped them before I sent them off with their new owners,” replied Gideon. “Can’t risk them fleeing and hiding. I can tell you where they all are.”
Just then, Sam boarded the yacht. He quickly healed both Havana and the bearcat before taking a position by the wall.
“Sam here is our healer, as you might have guessed,” Tate told Gideon. “I brought him with us for three reasons. One, there was a possibility that the captives might need him. Two, I wanted a healer on hand in case one of our pride was hurt. Three … I needed him to be here while we tortured you, because we don’t want you to die too quickly, Gideon. There’d be no fun or real justice in that.”
Gideon’s breathing began to quicken. “We can talk first, surely. I can tell you where the other assets are.”
“You can tell us while we hurt you,” said Havana, who’d fully enjoy every moment of it. “I’d say you’ll tell us absolutely anything we want to know in the hope of making the pain stop. But it won’t stop. Not until we’re done, anyway.”