Page 22 of Crimson Bond

Damn it.Yanking the nozzle from my gas tank, I slammed it back onto the pump and raced after them, not bothering to even close the gas tank cover or lock my car.

When I got inside the store, the guys were already surrounding Abbi like a swarm of drones around a queen bee during mating season.

“Hey sexy,” one of them said. “You don’t go to U.B., do you? I’d remember seeingyou.”

Again, it wasn’t entirely their fault. Abbi was beautiful, and shedidpossess the irresistible pheromones of a queen.

The problem was, she wasn’ttheirqueen. She wouldn’t be their victim either, not while I was anywhere close.

Abbi, who looked extremely nervous, was actually trying to answer the guy’s inane question. “No, I’m not... I don’t...”

“She’s too sexy for college. Aren’t you, honey?” his friend said.

This one made the mistake of touching her. Sliding his hand around her bare waist, he pulled her back against him and buried his about-to-be-flattened face in her hair.

Abbi was already doing a fine job of extricating herself, but even if they’d all said a polite, “I’m sorry,” and walked away, it was too late. My temper was a blazing firestorm looking for something to consume.

“Get your hands off her,” I ordered in my best Bloodbound commander voice.

Naturally, I wasn’t wearing the uniform since we were trying to fly under the radar, but my height alone intimidated most men, and it held true in this situation.

The hair-sniffer must have been drunker than the rest because he didn’t step away like the others.

“Shit, that’s a huge vamp,” one of his friends whispered. “Jared—dude—get away from her.”

Sadly for Jared, he wasn’t listening. Apparently beer-goggles didn’t just make people more attractive, they must also have made them look smaller.

Instead of letting Abbi go, he gave me a smug look and reached for her again, draping an arm over her shoulders and dragging her toward his sweat-stained armpit. “She likes me, man, and I saw her first. You don’t own her.”

She squirmed and darted a nervous glance toward the clerk and then the store’s security cameras, obviously reluctant to break the guy’s arm in their view.

I didn’t feel any such inhibitions.

Using my full vampire speed, I plucked his arm from her neck and jerked it up behind his back. If Abbi hadn’t been watching, it might have ended upinhis backside, but I trusted the loud crack of splintering bone made the point just as well.

“Maybe not,” I whispered in his ear. “But she’s stillmine.”

It was unlikely he or anyone else actually heard the words. His yowling drowned them out.

Good “friends” that they were, his companions left him behind and scrambled for the parking lot. I escorted Jared out to them, leaving the shell-shocked group with a parting shot of The Pull.

“Have a good evening,gentlemen, and forget everything that happened here. Your buddy Jared picked a bar fight tonight with the wrong gang member. You should probably let the soberest among you drive him to the hospital so they can reset that arm.”

Then I went back into the store and used The Pull on the cashier. “You won’t remember us being here, and you’ll erase the last hour of surveillance tape after we leave.”

The middle-aged woman stared at me dully and said, “Yes.”

Putting a supportive arm around Abbi’s trembling form, I walked her to my car. I opened the passenger side door, waited for her to tuck her legs in, then closed it. Only then did I let out a shuddering breath and take a deep, calming one.

Again, I breathed in and out, willing my adrenaline level to recede and giving my own limbs the chance to stop shaking.

When I felt almost normal, I got in behind the wheel. “You okay?”

Abbi nodded rapidly several times. Her feet were pulled up onto the seat, her arms wrapped around her knees.

“I’m going to find a hotel at a different exit,” I told her. “Just in case. You hang tight—you’ll be in a hot shower and a soft bed before you know it.”

After a few minutes of driving, her soft voice broke the silence. “You haven’t changed that much, you know. You’re still looking out for me.”

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