Page 4 of Callen's Captive
Kate squeezed her shifter’s hand because it was the only thing she could do short of crying. This wasn’t her world. She was at home anywhere she could plug her laptop in. Libraries, coffee shops, even the dressing rooms of certain clothing stores. As long as they had free WIFI, she was game.
This here, though, waswaybeyond her comfort level. She had only entered the seedy bar in the first place because she’d had a maniac with a gun on her tail. Okay, in all fairness, she now hadseveralmaniacs with guns on her tail. With the way Swastika-face and Spike with the stud collar around his neck were slapping the flat side of their knives against their thighs, that door might as well be miles away.
The alley was looking better and better. If it wasn’t for how calm her shifter was, and that he had an iron grip on her hand, Kate would happily crawl back under one of the tables with a bird’s-eye view to another biker getting off with the woman of the hour.
“What a dumb shit you are coming back here,” said the biker with tatts of barbed wire and guns snaking up his arm and around his neck. He sported a black eye and a bloody nose.
Given how many knives and guns were now on display, Kate fully expected her shifter would release her hand at any moment. How he thought this was better than facing the WSSO in the alley was beyond her.
Without any warning, her shifter swung her around to his front.
WTF? Was he going to use her as a shield? Whenshe started to resist, he kissed the side of her neck, sending a delicious, if ill-timed, shiver through her.
“I just came for my girl. Didn’t mean to cause any trouble.”
“You want me to believesheis yours?”
Oh, she did not like the way he’d said that. Granted, she didn’t belong to this shifter—she didn’t belong to anyone—but Barbed Wire had outright implied the shifter had no right being with her. This was not the time to worry about insults, however, let alone try to fight on that guy’s level. She had to worry about her situation. If she separated from Mr. Tall, Dark, and Very Handsome, she might get out alive.
Again, Kate tried to pull away. The second she moved, her shifter wrapped one huge arm around her waist. Nothing like trapping her and showing the skinheads that she was important to him. Talk about being a target. . .
Her body tensed, and breathing was getting hard. The room was starting to spin. Her shifter discreetly brushed the pad of his thumb over her ribs in small circles.
The situation no longer felt hopeless. If anyone could get her out of this hellhole alive, it was this shifter. Even so, she had to think about her own survival, which meant making a decision. Once the first punch was thrown, she’d have her opportunity to escape, but there’d be no time for indecisiveness.Stay or leave?
As she did with most decisions in life, Kate went with her gut. She wrapped her arms around her shifter’s torso, making sure she leaned into him in a way that showed she was indeed his.
“Yes, I’m his. Got a problem with that?” she asked Barbed Wire who was three times her size.
Yeah, she was crazy, or stupid, and very surprised she could muster the voice to say anything given that she and her shifter were surrounded by bikers who no doubt planned to kill them. There was something about her shifter that instilled a sense of faith in her though. Faith that she hadn’t felt in a long time.
The biker’s eyes raked over her. She shuddered. No, they wouldn’t kill her, at least not right away. They’d kill her shifter, and then they’d use her.
“I like ‘em feisty,” Barbed Wire said. “More fun to break in.” His friends were laughing with him.
Kate wanted to shrink into the woodwork, but her shifter didn’t let go of her. One massive arm slid her to his side, keeping her safely tucked against him.
“Tell you what,” Barbed Wire began. “Leave the girl here and my guys will let you leave untouched.”
“Like I said, she’s mine. But I’ll make a counteroffer, one I think you’ll like. You let us leave, and I won’t tear your arms and legs off.” Her shifter locked a hand around her wrist as he stepped into the biker’s space and towered over him. “And don’t think I can’t do it.”
That’s when she saw the proof that he was what he said he was. His bones started moving under his skin, and his muscles fluttered like lake water rippling on a rainy day. An eerie silence spread through the bar. Most humans knew shifters existed. Few had ever met one, but their reputation was enough to make the bikers clear a path to the door. All but one biker who blocked the door.
A growl erupted from her shifter. Low and subtle at first, that deep, ominous warning grew louder until the biker moved away from the door.
By then, Kate couldn’t move, even to escape the bar. That growl had scared her as much as the other humans in the dive, probably worse, given how she started shaking. Then her shifter gently squeezed her hand, driving her fear away.
With her hand still in his, Kate exited the bar. Surprisingly, no one followed. Music soon blared from inside once again. Kate’s knees felt ready to give way, but she couldn’t let her shifter see how scared she had been, not after he had been so calm and composed in there, handling the bikers without throwing a single punch.
“We need to get off the street,” he said, his eyes constantly checking every doorway, shadow, and car that passed by. “It won’t be long before the mercenaries head into that bar and learn I’m with you. As you said, I stand out. Ironic given how dark it is out, right?”
His tone snapped her out of her fog. “Don’t turn their prejudices against me. I was only pointing out the potential flaw in your plan to return to a bar full of hard-core felons and nutjobs. If something had happened to you in there, I would have been. . . Never mind. Can we not talk about it?”
She was beyond scared, and not just because of those bikers. That growl had unnerved her, and now she was unintentionally lashing out, being bitchy to the guy who had saved her—twice. Her entire body was shaking and the tension rolling off of him wasn’t helping any. She needed to get ahold of herself and fast.
He pulled her into another alley and released her hand, only to start searching through a pile of discarded crates. He wasn’t the most talkative guy, and she was starting to wonder what he was planning. He didn’t trust her, not that he should. She didn’t trust him either for that matter, now that they had made it past the bikers.
He was shifter, she was human, and they had nothing in common, other than Anna. . . if he’d told the truth and did indeed know her. Now was as good a time as any to slip away.
