Page 32 of Shifter For Hire (For Hire 2)

The same bully snatched the phone and crushed it beneath his foot. Everyone in the restaurant gasped in shock and fear.

“Get them fast before the cops arrive,” Skip ordered.

“You’re not in charge,” came the reply.

Three men surged forward, coming toward Lachelle and her family. She thought hard about what to do. Holding her own against one man was doable but three was a whole other ballgame. She raised her fists and set her feet.

“You’re not laying a hand on us,” she threatened. “Not unless you want to draw back a nub.”

The man in front snorted in amusement. She kicked him between the legs the second he came close enough for her foot to make contact. He fell like cement, and she focused on the next man.

“All we have to do is hold out, Nessa,” she told her sister. “The police are going to get here fast.”

She hardly got the words out of her mouth before a blast somewhere in the distance rattled the restaurant’s windows. Several women in the building screamed. The phones that weren’t already filming this mad scene were joined by others. Someone called out, “There’s been another explosion. Oh God, it must be a bomb.”

“Where?” someone else shouted.

“I don’t know yet.”

Skip grabbed a french fry from a stranger’s plate and ate it. He was getting off on being the big bad guy. Lachelle wanted to punch him in the mouth but kept most of her attention on the men with him.

“That’s our work,” Skip bragged. “The police aren’t coming here when they have so much to keep them busy. I think ahead.”

“Like you thought ahead at the last bomb site?”

He shrugged. “Come on, guys. Do I have to get her myself? We don’t have forever.”

The men started toward her again. Her stomach knotted. She knew she wouldn’t get another chance to take a man down.

Because Skip and his partners in crime had their backs to the door, none of them saw what Lachelle did. A few of the patrons noticed a man who dropped down from somewhere above the windows and landed on the pavement outside the restaurant. They cried out in alarm at how heavily he fell. Lachelle of course had seen it before, and when she spotted him the fear eased just a bit.

“Gerard,” she breathed in relief.

He must have put away his wings before he fell. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he thrust the glass door open too hard. It smashed against the wall, and the glass shattered. The way it wobbled, she was pretty sure he damaged the hinges as well.

“Lachelle,” Gerard barked. He stormed forward, thrusting people out of the way as he advanced. She was pretty sure he saw no one but her.

She leaned over to her sister to whisper in her ear. “That’s Gerard.”

“I can tell,” she muttered back, and Lachelle heard relief in her tone.

Several of Skip’s cronies turned toward Gerard. She thought they would raise their fists for a physical fight, but one of the men reached into his jacket.

“Gun!” Lachelle shouted. She leaped forward on instinct, but one of the other men grabbed her. The guy reaching into his jacket pulled out a gun. An explosion of screams erupted all over the restaurant. Patrons hit the floor and ducked under tables.

Janessa ran back to the table they had shared earlier and crouched beneath it, holding her baby protectively against her chest. Lachelle kicked the man holding her arm and punched him in the head. All she got for her efforts was sore fingers and a grunt from the meathead.

“Hold it right there.” The man with the gun pointed it at Gerard, but he might as well have been holding a water pistol.

Gerard’s silver eyes glazed over. His attention never wavered from Lachelle, so when he saw the man grab her arm, he must have lost it. She screamed for him to stop, terrified he was about to be killed.

“I can take care of myself, Gerard. I’m alright. He’s not hurting me.”

Gerard charged into the man holding the gun and sent him flying over several tables. Before the impact, the gun went off. Tears filled Lachelle’s eyes, blocking her vision. She blinked them away.

“Gerard, no!”

When she could see, she sucked in a sharp breath. Gerard’s entire body was covered in silvery scales, and while she waited for a stain of blood to start spreading over his body, none materialized.

---