Chapter 4
I didn’t wait to see what they would do, I just took off, wobbling slightly on my heels and praying they were somehow tired out from their exertions with Dominick. Turning and running, it turned out, gave me the element of surprise, but in retrospect, that probably bought me all of two seconds. I careened out onto Eighth and hung a left, hanging onto my purse as if my life depended on it, because apparently my brain only understood mugging as a potential danger. People obligingly got out of my way, which is what passes for polite in New York City, I guess.
I don’t know if anyone tried to stop the guys chasing me. I’m guessing so, because I heard a crash and a yell from behind me, but I kept weaving between people and I never looked back. Some old guy yelled that I looked “…real nice in that skirt,” and I flipped him off.
New York. I was getting more used to this than I thought.
I should probably mention that I was going on dead instinct at this point. When you’ve gotten caught up in some Mob hit thing? Your brain doesn’t really get it the first time around. I mean, I knew that I was in danger, and that was about all I had. I just kept running and running and hoping they wouldn’t catch up. Which was stupid, because they were clearly in fantastic shape, I hate running and I was wearing heels, but I can’t account for my mind. I can say that I went farther than I had any business going before I ran out of steam, though.
Panic’ll do that to you.
I leaned over in the shadow of a doorway, gasping and clutching my side, which sure felt like something was going to burst. I hadn’t heard any crashes behind me in ages, which I figured meant they weren’t following me anymore. And I was kind of right about that—they were in front of me, advancing down the sidewalk like they were going to push me back into the lights and the crowds. I’d stopped, stupidly, in an area of the street where there was almost nothing.
I gave a look over my shoulder at all those people, and knew I was never going to get that far. Goddammit.
“What the hell do you want?” I asked them. My voice was shaking. “Look, I told him your message. That’s it. I don’t even know the guy.”
“Then what was all that sweet kissy business?” one of them asked me. They were still walking, and I couldn’t seem to move. Part of me was telling me that if I started running, they’d start running, but really I was just terrified.
“So I tried to get some.” I tried to shrug. “It’s been a while. What, do you know everyone you sleep with really well?”
“Yes,” he said immediately, and he sounded like he meant it. Something about him whispered that this was a man who took a mate and kept her for life. Which, I realized now, was sort of what had attracted me to Dominick. I felt a heat between my legs, and from the smirk on James’s face, he knew all about it.
“Humans,” he said contemptuously, and the other two laughed.
That should have been my first clue. But really, come on—if it were you, would it even have occurred to you that this guy wasn’t human? Would you have gone straight to werewolves?
I didn’t think so.
“Get. Away. From me.” I fumbled in my purse. “I have mace.”
“That’s nice, sweetheart.”
“What the hell do you even want?” I demanded again. I was really scared now.
“Well, it’s like this.” He advanced another step, leaving the other two behind him.
I backed up as well. I just had to get to the next doorway…
“You see, Dominick keeps getting away from us. But he got you to safety when he left, didn’t he?”
I snorted. Warning me to get inside and then ghosting out on me hardly counted as chivalry in my book.
“So, I’m thinking…” James smiled. “I’m thinking Dominick doesn’t really want you to get hurt, does he?”
Oh, no.
“Don’t you bring me into this anymore.” My voice was shaking, and I kept backing up, one slow step after another. Just a couple more feet…
“Oh, don’t worry. I’m reasonably certain he won’t actually let us kill you.”
I didn’t wait to hear anymore. I’d reached the doorway I wanted and I just snatched up their doorstop from the ground on the steps and winged it at his head.
He wasn’t expecting that. Like I said, werewolves are fast, so if he wanted to get out of the way, he could have. But it caught him right in the face, and I seized the opportunity to turn and run.
But there was a fourth one.
I skidded to a halt and did a double take. Not Dominick. Shit.
Which left me with the only option of cutting right down an alleyway. Even as I did it, I knew it was a horrible plan, but there really wasn’t much for it, was there? I clenched my hands into fists and doubled down, trying to push myself to the limit and beyond it. I just needed to keep moving, that was all. Just needed to keep moving. Run, Alicia, run.
One of them was already waiting for me at the other end, and that should have been my second clue. Sure, I wasn’t all that fast, but there was no way he should have gotten all the way around the block by that point to cut me off. I ducked left under his arm and ran, and he didn’t catch me. Stroke of luck, I thought.
Ha. Luck. Man, I can be dumb sometimes.
Which is why when James tackled me, it was such a surprise. I mean, it shouldn’t have been, right? I’d seen how fast they could go. I should have known he’d be waiting for me. I got lifted right up off my feet and went down on the pavement, and the breath got knocked right out of me.
I don’t know who else was there, I could only see James and I was damned if I was going to let some guy like that use me as bait. I swung my purse, but he’d apparently caught on to my trick of throwing things at his face because he jerked out of the way. His hands came down around my throat and I screamed with some of the last breath I had, kicking up at him, driving my fist up to hit his throat, his nose, his chest, anything I could think of.
He gave a muffled “oaf” and I felt a rush of satisfaction. He’d picked on the wrong girl. Just because I was from some small town in the middle of nowhere in Oregon didn’t mean he was going to get me without a fight. I had absolutely no faith that he was going to take me along quietly without hurting me, and that meant…well, it meant I was going to get some hits in of my own. I didn’t really think he was going to be meaner for all that. I jerked my leg up to hit him between the legs and he rolled away just in time.
But there was a straight shot down the alley to freedom. I paused just long enough to level a kick at his ribs and then I ran like the damned wind, down into the lights and the crowds on Eighth. To my right, nothing. To my left…oh, god. I knew those black eyes, and they weren’t Dominick’s. I turned right and ran like my life depended on it, which it probably did.
And I actually thought I was doing well for a while. I mean, I thought maybe they didn’t want to attack me in the crowd, and if I could just keep going long enough, they’d decide I wasn’t an easy enough mark and let me go. It was only two streets later, dodging each of them as I caught sight of them in the crowd, that I stumbled into the dark old parking lot and realized what had actually been happening.
They’d been herding me.
I hadn’t gotten away from James at all—he’d just made enough marks that anyone who saw me knew he could hurt me. Anyone like, say, Dominick, who was staring at me in horror. And as he looked at me, the cloud cover broke. Just for a moment, just enough.
Moonlight flooded the parking lot and caught Dominick’s eyes. Slit pupils flashed in the darkness and I think I screamed. My conscious mind finally understood what my animal brain had been trying to help it figure out all this time: this wasn’t the Mob. This was something far, far more dangerous. As Dominick stretched up towards the sky, his head thrown back, his lips clamped closed to keep his mouth shut on a howl.
Werewolves. Fucking werewolves. My brain didn’t even try to deny what it was seeing this time. And from the growl behind me. I knew the rest of them had arrived for the fight.
Shit.