Page 14 of Fastlander Fallen

“Fair enough,” she said with a nod. “I’m going to throw this ice pack in Ace Longshlong’s general direction—”

“It’s Ace Longdong,” he corrected from the back.

“Whatever. I have to warn you all, I played softball up through freshman year in college, but that was a long damn time ago, so needless to say, my throw may be a little rough. Please make sure this gets to him. Ready?”

“Good God, woman, stop talking, just hand me the damn ice pack!” Marshall had reappeared at the front of the crowd, his hand outstretched.

“Rude. But thank you.” She handed him the ice pack, and he turned and chucked it into the woods in the complete opposite direction of where Ace was standing.

She watched it sail into the woods, and then nodded. Sarcasm would be best. “Great aim.”

“I’m going next, and anyone who has a problem can fight me,” Marshall announced.

As Corey slowly pulled her phone up to take video, he jammed his finger at her and mouthed, No.

Fine, she mouthed back. You’re boring.

Marshall disappeared into a cloud of black smoke and reappeared right in front of her, his hand resting gently on her throat. His blazing-green eyes were full of fury.

“Who’s boring now?” he whispered.

He released her throat and disappeared. He reappeared at the bottom of the stairs, and time slowed. Ace was there, right where he reappeared, his eyes blazing blue and looking at something she couldn’t see. Marshall appeared right beside him and Ace was already mid-swing. He clocked Marshall the second he appeared and went down with him, his hand on Marshall’s throat, driving him into the dirt. “You gonna touch the throat of a human woman?” he asked. “Touch my throat. I fuckin’ dare you.”

Marshall lifted his hands slowly. “I’ll go.”

“You’ll go,” Ace agreed in a terrifying voice.

He stood up in the cloud of smoke and took the stairs two at a time. “Mark his name off the list,” he snarled as he walked past her.

Corey was rubbing her throat where the skin still tingled from Marshall’s touch. Her adrenaline was pumping, and her hands were shaking slightly. Truth be told, she hadn’t realized how dangerous the shifters here were, nor how volatile.

It made her tuck the confident parts of herself away and get quieter. Ace stood beside her at the railing. “If anyone else pops at her, you’ll bleed.”

Chills rippled up her arms, because there was something so harsh in his voice. Like he was telling his truth. He would bleed anyone who came for her.

Heart pounding, she glanced back to see the last interviewee leave. She cleared her throat and called, “Kyle. You’re up.”

She dared a look at Ace, who sank down into a lawn chair that sat on the porch, hard eyes trained on the crowd.

“Do you…” she murmured.

“Speak up,” he ground out.

She swallowed hard. “Do you want to do this job? I can leave.”

“You’re doing fine at it. That wasn’t your fault. I’m hanging out like Gunner said.”

Okay. Okay! He wasn’t trying to take over. He was good with her continuing to call the interviews, but he was not going to let the shifters here mess with her. All right.

“That was messed up, and he shouldn’t have done that,” Kyle said as he passed her by.

“Thank you,” she murmured.

“I’m not talking about Marshall. I’m talking about that one,” Kyle said, pointing his finger at Ace. “Marshall was putting you in your place and teaching you a lesson on how to act around us. He shouldn’t have stopped that.”

“You want to die?” Ace asked coldly.

“You can go too,” Gunner rumbled from inside the house.

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