Page 63 of Elven Prince

“Oh fuck…” Tig groaned, shuffling from foot to foot as he peered past Maxwell, trying to get a better view. “No, no… Shit. Is he…”

Maxwell removed his fingers from the side of Lerrick’s neck and pulled away from the open door before straightening. “He has a pulse. And he’s breathing. Barely.”

The relief of having found him alive battled with the new urgency of the situation, but Rebecca still had to make the call. “Let’s get him home. He needs a healer.”

“Holy fucking shit,” Tig muttered. “How the hell did this happen?”

“That’s something we’ll figure out, later,” Rebecca said. “Whoever did this wanted us to get the message, and we got it. So now it’s time to get the hell out of here.”

“And what’s the message this time?” the troll asked hesitantly.

She glanced at Lerrick one more time, bloody and beaten unconscious and left in the back seat for them to find, and forced herself to look away.

Her gaze was instantly drawn to Maxwell’s face, and it seemed the shifter knew what she was going to say before it ever came out.

“Get out as fast as you can,” she muttered, “or I’m coming for you.That’sthe message.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Tig groaned again.

“Message received,” Maxwell grumbled. “Loud and clear.”

“Are you serious?” Tig looked back and forth between his superiors, then gestured toward the inside of the vehicle. “How the fuck are we supposed to take that kind of threatening message seriously?”

“Oh, we can take it seriously,” Rebecca said. “We’d be stupid, not to. But that doesn’t mean we have to do what it says.”

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“This isn’t a request!” Rebecca barked, fighting back the urge to haul the gnome out herself, regardless of the fact that it would technically count as a civilian abduction. “You’re coming with us, and we’re leavingnow.”

“What the hell for?” Bruce shrieked, throwing his hands up in exasperation.

By the Blood, how many times did she have to go over this with him before it finally sank in?

“To keep you safe,” she said. “Again, if we hadn’t gotten here in time, you’d be as dead right now as the other bodies littered all over your property. We can’t effectively protect you from another assault if you stay here, but wecankeep you safe and alive under protective custody at Shade Headquarters.”

“No! Absolutely not. That’s ludicrous. This whole thing is completely insane!”

“I won’t argue with you there,” she said. “But that doesn’t change what needs to happen next. We need to go.”

“And just leave my home and everything I’ve built here? All my things? My business?”

“Doesn’t look like there’s much of a home left…”

“I won’t do it!” The gnome defiantly stomped his foot and folded his arms, making it even more frustrating when he lifted his chin as if that settled it. “You can’t make me do anything against my will. I don’t even know you people.”

“Our working relationship was reliable enough for you to sell us your tech.”

“Lady, none of this has anything to do with tech! Look what you did to myhome!”

Rebecca really didn’t want this to get ugly, but the gnome wasn’t giving her much of a choice.

Before she let her frustration overpower her and did something stupid she’d regret, she turned around with an exasperated sigh, meaning to ask the rest of her team for advice.

Maxwell was already storming toward her, a vicious snarl curling his lips.

Then he blew right past her and charged toward Bruce, stopping last-minute to loom over the gnome like a shadow of death.

The shifter swiped at Bruce’s shirt collar with one hand and lifted the guy off the ground by the handful of gnome’s shirt clenched in his fist.

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