Page 55 of Terror at the Gates

“Keep walking, pretty girl. This ain’t about you,” said one.

“Is this some dick-measuring contest? You get off on hurting those less fortunate than you? Does it make you feel big?”

They scowled. “We got orders, lady. Now fuck off.”

“Orders from who? I know they didn’t come from Zahariev.”

And if he knew this was happening right outside his club, he’d have all four killed and sent through the wood chipper.

One man stepped toward me, and I drew my gun. He held up his hands.

“Now, now,” he said. “Don’t get trigger-happy. We’re just doing the Lord’s work.”

Gabriel used that term when he was carrying out Zahariev’s will.

“Are you telling me you’re here on another family’s orders?” I asked.

The man laughed, but there was an incredulous note to it, like he couldn’t believe he was dealing with me.

“What are you? Some kind of morality police?” asked one.

“You’re hurting my friend,” I said. “And you don’t belong here. Get thefuckout of my district.”

“Put the gun down, sweetheart.”

The voice came from behind me. I turned toward the sound and came face-to-face with the barrel of a gun.Reluctantly, I dropped my own.

Fuck.

Where had he come from?

“Kick it to my buddies over there, will ya?” he asked.

My eyes shifted from the man to my gun. Technically, it wasn’t my only weapon. I had magic, but none of these men were feeling frisky, so I had no way to control them.

Reluctantly, I did as he asked, watching as my only weapon skidded across the pavement. One of the four men picked it up.

“Good girl,” the man behind me said, and then his clammy hand came down on the back of my neck. He pressed hard, and I scrunched my shoulders to ease the pain. It might not have been so bad had I not hit my head last night. “Is it done?” he asked the other four.

To my horror, the man who had picked up my gun aimed it at Tori and pulled the trigger. The impact of the bullet jarred his body. I screamed, but then the man’s hand clamped down hard over my mouth. I hated the feel of his coarse palm against my lips. I would have bitten him if it weren’t for the gun pressed into my back.

“Move,” he ordered, and I obeyed.

His rough hand slipped from my mouth and returned to my neck, but the gun never moved as he hurried me to a waiting SUV. The man shoved me inside and got in beside me. The other four men piled into the vehicle, and before the doors could close, the driver gunned it, speeding down Procession Street and out of Nineveh.

“Where are you taking me?” I asked.

“You asked who sent us,” one of the men said. “We’ll introduce you.”

“Bag her,” said the man beside me.

A second later, my world went dark as one man slipped something over my head. My hands weren’t bound, but the gun was still shoved into my side, so I didn’t move. I wasn’t exactly afraid but angry and eager to get wherever these fuckers were taking me. If they were working for one of the families, they’d get a huge surprise when they unmasked me, and I wanted to watch the fallout.

Someone turned on the radio to fill the silence. A few minutes into the song, one started singing. Then another joined and another until they were all bellowing around me.

“For fuck’s sake,” I muttered.

This felt like a prank, except there was nothing funny about how Tori had died.

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