Page 9 of Wed Or Dead

Her lips parted in surprise. Wait, what? Did he mean?—

But then Gage’s head jerked up. His nostrils flared, and she knew the wolf was pulling in scents.“Company.”A snarl. His eyes had never looked so cold before. A chill skated over her. “Guess that’s your backup, huh?”

No. She wasn’t supposed to have any backup. Not yet. And she couldn’t hear anything.

But Gage had a shifter’s sense of smell and hearing. Far, far more advanced than a human’s. That was why it was so hard to take out shifters. They always saw their enemies coming or smelled them. You couldn’t sneak up on prey that could hear you from a mile away.

“I won’t go down easy,” he promised, and she believed him. It would be a bloodbath for whoever came in that door.

Kayla shook her head and dropped the knife. It fell to the carpet without making a sound. “You won’t go down at all.” She’d be punished for this. No question about that

But I won’t kill him.

Sometimes even a hunter had to break the rules. Especially when she’d started to go soft for her prey.

Kayla turned away from him. If more of her team members really were heading down that hallway just beyond their hotel room door—and why hadn’t Lyle told her that he was sendingin a team so soon?—then Gage would have to act fast. “We’re three floors up, but that shouldn’t be an issue for you.” Shifters could easily survive a fall from that height. He could jump out of the window and vanish. Simple. With dawn just breaking, there wouldn’t be too many folks out to see him, and if any did, they’d just think they were having some kind of hung-over delusion in Vegas. “Go now, before they arrive.”

She dropped her robe. Jerked on her own clothes. She wouldn’t be naked when her team swarmed. Swarmed—and took her into custody because she’d sided with the enemy.

An enemy who attacked your own family.

Kayla yanked on her boots. She could hear the careful tread of footsteps in the hallway now, and her gut clenched.

What would happen to her? Those who disobeyed Lyle didn’t exactly get the chance to hang around the unit for long and make amends. There weren’t any second chances for hunters. Lyle sure didn’t believe in them.

If Lyle cast her out of the unit, what would happen to her brother?

Kayla glanced around the room with its trampled rose petals. She needed to get the silver knife and strap it back to her ankle. She had to have her weapon close by in case?—

“Looking for this?” Gage drawled and the faint hint of Texas she’d heard a few times before slipped into his voice again.

Gage had dressed, but he sure hadn’t fled yet. The window waited behind him, just begging for the man to leap through it and get the hell out of there. But, no, he was just standing near the wrecked bed and waving her knife between his claws.

“Go,” she gritted out. In about thirty seconds, maybe less, the team would be breaking down the door. She knew their MO. They would have already cleared the third floor. Gotten all the nearby guests relocated during the night.

While I was making love to Gage.

Oh, hell, had the team heard them making love?

She hoped the walls were thicker than they looked. She hadn’t exactly been playing it quiet last night. Gage had made her scream.

She’d made him growl. Maybe roar.

The silver knife was blistering his fingers. She could see the smoke from across the room. The more powerful a wolf shifter was, the more the silver was supposed to burn. If that old legend was true, Gage had to be very, very powerful, indeed.

“You think I’m gonna leave you?” Gage asked, and he threw the knife. It flashed, tumbling end over end, before embedding hilt-deep in the bed’s headboard. Her gaze darted to the shaking knife handle, then back to him. Gage lifted one brow at her. “Think again.”

“It will be your funeral,” she whispered. Why couldn’t he leave? She was trying tohelphim. Didn’t he get that? She didn’t want him hurt. Kayla wanted him to have a chance.

A chance the guy wasn’t taking. Dammit. Fine. Whatever. Maybe she could buy him some more time so that he could get his sanity back and flee like a smart shifter.

She turned and headed for the hotel room door. Took two fast steps.

And she was jerked back against her husband’s hard, muscled body. “You’re not leaving me,” he told her, his words whispered right into her ear. “You promised forever, remember?”

He’d obviously gone insane. Kayla jerked against him, but there was no give to the shifter at all. She’d always known he was much stronger than he looked, but Gage’s arms wouldn’t budge no matter how much she twisted and shoved against him.

Then the hotel room door flew inward, driven by a powerful kick, and three men dressed in black, from toe to ski mask-covered heads, burst into the room. They were all armed, and their weapons were pointed right at?—

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