The scene snapped into view just in time for him to watch Cassie effortlessly throw three silver stars in fast, accurate concession, without even removing her purse, which was still on her shoulder, and her aim was lethal. The blade hit the seven-foot plus hairy monster of a fanged wolf, one after the other—head, chest, head again.
The wolf roared in pain and tumbled to his back like the Jolly Green Giant, taken out by a petite little princess warrior in a black, figure-hugging skirt that squeezed her lush little ass like a glove, as if the wolf were nothing but a fly.
Cassie whirled around to face him, another blade in her hand, her expression that of ‘warrior’, her focus complete. She didn’t even register knowing him, but then he’d changed in every way possible.
A snarl sounded behind Troy and Cassie flung the star towards him and he ducked, then twisted around to finish her work. In a fluid movement, he was on his feet and shoving his blade into the second wolf’s chest. The wolf tumbled over and Troy yanked his knife out of the beast, whirling around to scan for another attacker, finding that Cassie had just taken out the third, and final one, with another round of well-placed stars.
They both went still, facing each other now in confrontation, and Troy was all too aware that he had lost his element of surprise with Cassie. He knew her, and he knew her well. And while she might talk to him, she’d fight him the instant she knew why he was really here. The minute he accused her brother of being a traitor, when he asked the question he prayed she answered correctly. Just how deep did blood run between her and Nico? Enough for her to have tried to rip his throat out?
“Troy?” she questioned softly.
He flashed into vampire rocket speed and pressed her against the concrete wall as he slapped a silver cuff over her tiny wrist.
“What is this?” she asked, and touched his face. “It really is you. I can’t believe it. You look — “
“Different,” he said, grabbing her hand so she’d stop torturing him with her touch. “Yeah. I am. And you don’t want to know how different either, sweetheart, I promise you. Let’s go.” He started walking, pulling her with him. Any second now they would have company. Any fucking second too soon.
She jerked against him, as if the handcuff had just registered. “What are you doing?”
He turned on her, barely containing a snarl. “Exactly what it looks like. Kidnapping you.”
“You’re kid…” her brows dipped. “What? Why would you… we’re friends.”
“You are a lot of things to me, Cassie, but mark my words, friend is not one of them. No wolf will ever be my friend again. Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice—well—you don’t want to go there.”
She paled. “It wasn’t me.”
“Then who?”
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “I’ve tried to find out. I’ve tried. You have no idea how hard I’ve tried.”
God, she was so damn believable. “It would be easy to trust you, Cassie, and nothing good has ever come easy for me.” He glanced towards the elevator, knowing the doors would open any second now as a team of security people came to clean up the mess. “Come with me now willingly, or I swear to you, Cassie, I’ll throw you over my shoulder and carry you.”
“And if I don’t let you throw me over your shoulder?”
“You won’t have an option.”
“I’ll shift.”
“And lose your hand.”
“I’m trained to do whatever necessary to avoid capture and you know I will.”
“Shift and watch me shift with you.”
“You don’t shift.”
“Try me, Cassie,” he declared. “There’s a lot more than my looks that have changed and you won’t like the monster I’ve become, I can promise you that.”
“What?” she asked. “What does that mean, Troy?”
The elevator dinged. He bent down and flung her over his shoulder, then took off running at supernatural vampire speed. He was out of the garage, and standing on a side street blocks away, in sixty seconds. He settled Cassie on the ground and opened the driver’s side of his Explorer, ordering her, “Inside.”
“Are you crazy, Troy? There’s too much tension between our races after what happened to you. Too much talk of war. Nico will come for you. The Society will come for you. They’ll kill you and then more blood will follow.”
“I’ll take my chances.”
“Then you have officially gone crazy.”
“I’m not only crazy, I’m a mother fucking cowboy, and I’m taking you on a long, wild ride one way or the other. If Nico wants to join us, he’ll be sorry. Now, get in the truck.”
She studied him a moment. “I didn’t do it.”
He stared into her honey-colored eyes, the same eyes he’d stared into after his throat had been ripped out and he’d been sure he’d been dead. She’d been all that was good in that moment, maybe in his life, outside of his brothers. It tore him up to believe it was all a lie.
“Troy -”
His gaze lifted to her. “Get in the truck, Cassie.”
“I’m getting in because we are going to talk,” she said. “Because I’ve wanted to talk for a long time and no matter who I left a message for you with, you ignored me. So, yeah. I’m getting in.” She turned away from him and started to climb in before saying, “And you owe me an iPad. It was in the purse I dropped somewhere between the garage and here.” She climbed into the truck.
Troy told himself he didn’t admire her feisty spirit, and not to watch her skirt climb up her long, sexy legs. But she had him on both points ten times over. He ground his teeth, remembering the red dress in Reno, the wolf’s hand on her leg. His anger, his conflict over knowing he didn’t want another man touching her, but being afraid to trust her.
“Is this some form of torture?” she asked, shaking her hand and his at the same time. “Because if it is, it’s working. My dangling arm is falling asleep.”
And why was it dangling? Because he’d attached himself to the very woman he’d known to avoid, that he knew was his weakness.
“Damn it to hell,” he mumbled under his breath and scooted into the truck beside Cassie, where he was forced to keep her close thanks to the short, reinforced chain between their cuffs. She was by his side, her thigh pressed to his, the touch like fire stoking already hot coals, scorching him inside out. His skin tingled and he grasped the steering wheel, surprised by the intensity of the animal inside him, the wolf he didn’t want to be.
“Troy,” he heard her say, realizing he’d shut his eyes, that sweat was gathering on his brow, that her hand was on his arm, that concern was in her voice.
He yanked the door shut with his left hand and then used his right hand, the one attached to hers, to pull the automatic lever on the steering wheel down to drive, his foot still on the brake.
“Are you okay?” she asked, and her soft fingers stroked his hair.