Chapter 26 #2
We both pop up and open fire, bailing over the side of my truck to use it as cover as we do.
I count four bastards before I’m crouching next to the wheel, scanning my omega to make sure she’s unharmed.
“I’m fine,” she whispers, her chest pumping as she does the same to me. “You good?”
I nod. “I counted four.”
“Six.” Liv checks her clip. “There are two more coming from that way that haven’t fired yet.”
I lift my head and peer over the side of the truck, barely missing several bullets when I do, counting the four then look toward the tree line she referenced.
Shit.
She’s not wrong, there are two coming from that way but they’re using hand signals and pointing behind us.
Fuck.
We’re surrounded.
Surrounded and fucking trapped.
This is the last thing I expected to happen today, and if something happens to Liv because my dumbass led these bastards right to her, not only won’t I be able to forgive myself, I’ll lose the rest of my pack, too.
I have to get her out of here.
“What the hell are you doing?” I whisper as I watch Liv roll under my truck and lay on her stomach. “Liv.”
She scowls at me, silently telling me to shut the fuck up and get down then nods toward the boots walking toward where we were hiding. I can clearly see three sets from this angle, and it temporarily gives us the upper hand.
Without warning, she shoots out the ankles of two of the men, dropping them like bricks as I blow out the knees of another as he rounds the tailgate.
We quickly crawl between vehicles and under her truck as what has to be another four men come running, and despite our improv, this isn’t going to save us.
We’re sitting fucking ducks out here.
“Do you have your keys?”
Liv shakes her head as we watch these bastards get closer. “It might be unlocked. I can hotwire it if I have to.”
Well, I can add that to my list of turn-ons.
Unfortunately, I don’t get the chance to really process it because suddenly, Liv is dragged out from under the truck by her ankles and I move on instinct.
I go after her, rolling quickly then jumping to my feet as I fire to my right and left, and take a shot to the back of my right shoulder. I push through the pain as I spin around, emptying both clips from one side of the lot to the other before quickly reloading.
At least ten motherfuckers sent to kill me.
I bet Boris has a huge fucking number on my head. He might not have even put a cap on it. Depends on whether or not he wants me alive.
“Dimitri! Behind you!”
My head snaps to my left as Liv screams my name, my girl scratching at the forearm around her throat as a big bastard holds a gun to her head and backs her away.
“Nine o’clock!”
I whip around and squeeze off several more rounds, dropping a couple of the hitmen as three more come running from the woods.
How many of these assholes are there?
I turn back toward Liv, ready to do whatever I have to so I can get her out of here in one piece, just in time to see something that makes me so fucking relieved I could shit.
Liv falls to the ground as the guy holding her is lifted off of it, his hands flying to his throat as blood spurts then pours from a long, thin horizontal wound.
Our omega scrambles forward and grabs her guns, firing one to my right before she turns and puts a bullet between the eyes of the bastard who had her, at the same time his head almost comes clean off his body.
“Found a music store,” Leon says as he pulls what must be piano wire through the wound and drops it at his side, the dead man landing on the ground at his feet with a wet thud. “Behind you, sweet cheeks.”
I blink a few times as I turn, taking out a couple more of the idiots stupid enough to attack us, swinging back around in time to see Liv blow a hole through another, and Leon shove what I think is an ice pick into the stomach of the final hitman, lifting him off the ground as Leon smiles in his face and guts him like a flying fish.
Shaking my head, I tuck my berettas in the waistband of my jeans and jog toward Liv, giving her my hand to help her up, scanning her face, patting her down and looking for injuries.
“It’s not my blood, honey,” she says with a soft smile as she takes hold of my wrists. “I’m fine. I promise.”
“You’re not just fine, you’re a goddamn vision.” Leon grins as he walks over then presses a kiss to her temple. “Who would have thought violence was such a turn- on.”
I chuckle as I instinctively reach for him, gripping the side of his neck to make sure he’s good, my heart thundering behind my ribs as the realization that I could have lost everyone hits me like a freight train.
I can’t lose everything, everyone, and I really need to figure out how to prevent that from happening. As long as Boris is hunting me, no one will be safe, and loss is still a very real possibility.
I can’t focus on that right now, though.
“I was thinking the same thing not long ago,” I say with a sigh as he grabs my hand, kissing my palm before he nips at it then lets go. I look around the parking lot with a huff. “What the fuck are we supposed to do with all these bodies?”
“I know a place.” Leon wraps his arms around Liv’s waist, pulling her back against his chest.
“Of course you do,” I say as I watch while he rubs his cheek against hers.
Scenting her.
I don’t think they’ve had very many conversations, he basically admitted to mostly stalking her while she works, but they’re interacting like they’ve known each other for years.
I know they’re scent matches, it’s confirmed in various ways, but I can actually see it, I can feel it, and it’s strange how natural all of this feels.
Liv reaches out and grabs my hand, pulling me from my thoughts as she tugs me toward them. “We can get back to the bickering, and fighting over Niko later. Right now, I need to be held by my alphas, and you need a fucking hug.”
Which is exactly what she does.
Liv wraps her arms around my neck and hugs me tightly as Leon grins directly in my face.
“Niko, huh? I like that much better than Mikhail. It suits him.” He grabs the top of my jeans and yanks me forward so I’m flat against Liv.
“I could kiss you right now and there isn’t a damn thing you could do about it. ”
I snort as I hesitantly hug our girl back. “Not with all that blood on your face. That was a dirty motherfucker and somehow I think your filth is more than enough for me.”
Liv giggles as we both let go of her, doing a final once over of her body as she plants her hands on her hips and grunts, “I hate cleaning.”
“I promise I will make this as enjoyable as I possibly can.” Leon winks at me as we start toward the trucks.
He drops both tailgates, takes out his phone, then leans against mine, texting who I’m guessing is Styx before he shoves it back in his pocket.
“Red is on the authorities, the big guy is on him. I’m going to start cleaning up while you two go get Niko. ”
Normally, I’d argue with him, give him shit for telling me what to do but it covers our entire pack, keeps them safe and accounted for after this bullshit, and honestly, that’s a solid short-term plan.
One we need to execute quickly because there are about twenty dead bodies and a fuckton of blood out here, and someone is bound to notice.
NIKO
“I really like this,” I say as I start to roll up the paper that was spread out on the bar. “It’s definitely moving things in the right direction.”
Tobias sighs as I hand over the blueprints. “Right direction? What the hell else can we do to that room? It’s basically a basement within a basement.”
I check my phone for the hundredth time then glance toward the stock room.
It’s close to time for us to leave and I haven’t seen anyone from my pack since I came upstairs. Rune wasn’t even on the door between the club and auction house like he usually is.
My stomach pitches as panic slices through me again. That’s been happening off and on for the last hour but I’ve been chalking it up to one of two things.
I’m anxious about the possibility of seeing Dimitri, and how much I do and don’t want that to happen, or I’m on the verge of falling apart because I bit Liv last night, but she didn’t bite me.
Dimitri has steered clear of me since he cornered me in the bathroom.
I have a funny feeling one of my mates is responsible for that, but I can’t say for sure.
I just know I haven’t seen that sexy dickhead in a few days and now I’m waiting for him to pop out of every darkened hallway, and it’s making me anxious as fuck.
I’m trying really hard not to let the biting thing bother me.
I know how Liv feels about me, and I also know how she feels about this.
Not being able to bond with her first pack, bite marks that didn’t take, it has her scared and guarded.
She's worried something like that will happen with us despite soul bonds and scent matches. I get all of that, I really do. I even understand that she might still feel like she can’t do something like that, like she shouldn’t bite or officially bond with any of us until she figures out what happened with her first pack.
There’s an obligation there, one she won’t be able to overcome until she feels like they’ve gotten justice. Then she might be able to move on.
The logical part of my brain says those are all normal feelings to have after going through what Liv did.
The loss and grief, the confusion over their pack and bonds.
All of it makes perfect sense as to why she’d be hesitant about biting us, even with the undeniable bonds we share.
I’m sure everyone would agree that her behavior is totally normal, and I’m sure there are a lot of worse ways Liv could be dealing with it.
The other part of my brain? The super omega part of my brain? That fucker is screaming Liv doesn’t love me and will never want to bond with me. Ever. Then she’ll leave me, possibly try to shoot me, then disappear forever.