"What," Steele growled out, "the fuck?"
The man put his hands in the air in front of him, a gesture to show he was unarmed, but his dark hood shadowed his identity.
"I'm sorry," he said in a rough voice. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to startle you. Your gate guard wouldn't let me pass, and I just... I just need to know where he is. Okay? I just wanna know where Scott is."
I frowned, taking a small step closer. "Officer Shane?"
The man jerked a nod of confirmation and tipped his hood back slightly. I gasped when I saw his face. Or rather, when I saw the bruised mess that had been his face. Fucking hell, someone had seriously laid into him.
"Holy shit," I murmured, "what the hell happened to you?"
Scott's older brother gave me a startled look, his gaze flicking to Steele, to the gun, then back to me. "I tripped," he lied through gritted teeth. "Look, I know I'm breaking the rules, but I just want to know where my brother is and I know you know. Please just tell me."
"Rules?" I repeated, dumbfounded. "What rules?"
Shane's nervous eyes flicked to Steele again, and understanding washed over me. Oh, I see.
"Look, Shane," I said with a sigh, "I can't help you."
His brow creased, and he shook his head. "No, you can. You just won't."
I said nothing because he was right. I wouldn't help because what the fuck was I supposed to say? Yes, I know where Scott is because I'm the one who killed him? I was reckless and a bit naive at times, but I wasn't that stupid.
"If that's all, Officer Shane?" Steele prompted, still aiming his gun at Shane and not even trying to disguise it. Apparently he had no worries about being reported to the SGPD.
The older version of Scott just glared venom, then stormed off with a slight limp to his gait.
Wordlessly, Steele and I paid for our ice cream, then hurried back to the car. Once inside, he handed the gun back to me. I tucked it into the glove compartment next to the one already in there, then reached over and grabbed him by the back of his neck.
I kissed him hard, loving the hardness of his tongue stud as I claimed his mouth. When I released him some minutes later, we were both breathing heavily.
"You beat up Officer Shane?" I asked in a low voice, licking my wet lips and already desperate to kiss him again.
Steele cocked a brow. "He called you a slut, Hellcat. No one does that and walks away unscathed."
I groaned, squirming in my seat. "Fucking hell," I muttered, "that shouldn't turn me on so damn hard."
Steele just gave me a cocky grin and turned the car on, letting the purring rumble of the engine vibrate my seat. "But it does, and I love that about you."
I laughed, then shook my head. "Hurry up and get us home, or I'll be forced to fuck you here in Archer's car."
He groaned in pain. "Hellcat, don't tease me like that; you know how much I like to flirt with danger." Because Archer would probably kill him for fucking me in his Porsche. Still, Steele put his foot down and tore out of the parking lot at about twice the speed limit.
We were just two streets from home when he jerked the wheel to change our direction.
I startled, then took in his tense frame, the way his knuckles grasped the steering wheel, and the rapid way he checked his mirror every few seconds.
"We're being followed," I murmured in understanding.
"Yep," he replied in a grim voice. "Let's see how good they are."
His foot pressed down on the gas, and I nervously grabbed my seatbelt as we rocketed around the corner and down the long stretch of residential street ahead. It was evening, so there weren't too many cars out, but even so, we had a couple of hair-raising misses as Steele hurtled across intersections.
Then our pursuer started shooting. The first shot hit the back window with a loud crack, but the glass remained intact. The same couldn't be said for my tenuous hold over my panic, and a small sound of fright escaped my throat before I could swallow it down.
Three more shots were fired, but this time I was prepared and didn't flinch as much.
"Are you okay?" Steele asked, cool as a damn cucumber while rocketing through the streets of Shadow Grove with some asshole shooting at us.
I jerked a nod. "I'm fine," I lied. "Do we think it's Shane?"
Steele shook his head. "Nah, no way. He wouldn't have the range of motion right now to either drive like that or shoot from a moving vehicle. My bet is that these guys took the opportunity while it was just the two of us out of the house. Well, joke’s on them; we don't need Kody and Archer to cream their asses." He flashed me a confident smile. "You're cool with that, right? Otherwise we can just head back to the house and let security handle them."
I frowned at him, then popped the glove compartment open to grab his gun. "Fuck that; we can handle this."
Steele's grin spread wide. "That's my girl."
Pride rippled through me as I nervously grinned back. "What do you want me to do?"
Steele checked his mirror again as more bullets peppered the back of the car. Thank fuck we’d taken Archer's.
"Okay, it's a guy hanging out the passenger side that is shooting. We've got two options here." He paused, clearly running those two options through his head and testing them for risk. "One option," he amended after a moment. "Because I'm not risking you getting hit by a lucky shot. I'm going to get us out to the warehouse district, then you're going to take the wheel. When I say, you'll jerk the wheel all the way toward you. Clear?"
I nodded. "Clear."
"Good," he murmured. "This should be easy. They didn't plan this out; it's just an opportunistic attack." He gunned the engine faster, speeding in the direction of the warehouse district. As we approached, he held out his hand, and I passed over the gun.
"You've got this, Hellcat. Let's clear a few more players from the board." He flashed me a wide smile, then nodded to the steering wheel.
I reached out, wrapping my hands around it as he wound down his window. His eyes were glued to the mirror and his foot still firmly on the gas, then he calmly said, "Ready? And... now."
At his command, I wrenched the steering wheel, sending our sports car into a sickening spin. The wheels slipped in the loose gravel of the warehouse area which allowed us to slide as we spun, rather than catching and flipping. Steele aimed his gun from his open window, then popped off a series of bullets as the car spun him in the direction of our pursuer.
As quick as he’d fired, he handed the gun back to me and grabbed the steering wheel once more. A moment later, he controlled our spin and slowed the car to a jerking stop outside a series of shipping containers.
"You okay, Hellcat?" he asked sharply, reaching out a hand to sweep my hair from my face.
I nodded to reassure him. "Yeah, yes, yeah, I'm totally fine. Holy shit. That was insane."
His gorgeous face lit up with a smile, and he pressed a quick kiss to my lips. "You're fucking amazing," he told me with a groan. "Let's finish these fuckers off." He popped the glove compartment open again, took out the second gun, then unbuckled himself and got out.